Showing posts with label plein air palette knife painter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plein air palette knife painter. Show all posts

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Abiquiu

Abiquiu
Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

Last year, I painted in Abiquiu, NM, where Georgia O'Keeffe lived. (You pronounce it "Ah-bee-kyoo" - I asked). 

It's strange to paint in a place where a famous painter lived and painted. It would be like writing in Les Deux Magots, where Hemingway sat to write, or taking photographs of Half Dome in Yosemite, as Ansel Adams did. 

There's a part of me that rejoices in it, and hopes and believes and feels that the spirit of O'Keeffe will guide my eye and heart and hand. Then there's another part of me that's hopelessly aware that people might be looking at me thinking that I think I'm Georgia O'Keeffe. And that's the last thing I'd ever want. Do you know what I'm talking about? 

At any rate, I painted a year or so ago where O'Keeffe lived, and I took a lot of photos. This river, and the orange-red brush growing on its curving banks attracted me enormously. I couldn't find a safe place to pull in to paint, but I took a lot of photos, and enjoyed making this one. 

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Dog of the Day
I saw this dog in Oklahoma, guarding these two horses,
 and doing it pretty seriously, in spite of the fact that there was 
a barbed-wire fence, and really, no one around. 


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A final thought

"The world is what we think it is. 
If we can change our thoughts, we can change the world." 

- H.M. Tomlinson



Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Pulaski Farm - and the Joys of Being Home

Pulaski Farm
Oil on canvas, 20x20

I'm home, and I'm so glad to be home! 

The Origins Painting Trip was wonderful. I made paintings that I really like, I spent great time with my dad and stepmother, and with friends in and around Tubac. And I learned a lot, painting on the Navajo reservation where I was born. It was enlightening to be on the reservation for an extended period, and it was a little depressing, as well. 

The show in Memphis had its moments, but only one sale, so that was a bit of a bleak ending to the trip. But I got home safe and sound, and am overjoyed to be with Peter again, and with the dogs, and to be sleeping in my own bed and painting in my little studio. 

The spring and summer show schedule is starting to get fleshed out, and I'm happy to have a few weeks to paint and build up some inventory before it all starts. 



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Here are a few of the paintings from my trip! 

Rocks, Fort Defiance, 10x10

Off Navajo Road, 20x20

Light and Shadow, 10x10

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Dog of the Day

It's Jojo, the dog of my heart. Was she ever happy to see me when I got home! And it was mutual.