Friday 28th December 2007 - Truck and Mountain in the Snow

This truck is parked behind the Sushi place just North of Taos with great views of Taos Mountain in the background. I met Shari for lunch - she loves Sushi! - and then we painted until we were too cold.



Truck and Moutain in the Snow - 15 x 30" - oil on canvas - sold

Wednesday 26th December 2007 - Marisol

I painted this at Melissa's regular Wednesday group. I was hoping to get a second session on this one although I was happy with what i got done in the first session, but we decided the pose was too painful on Marisol's arms and chose another pose for the next meeting (further along in the blog)

Marisol is a great model from Equador, she has quite unusual features.

Marisol - 24 x 20" - oil on canvas - $1,750

Saturday 22nd December 2007 - Arroyo Seco Stream

I love painting this spot! It is so pretty and there is a great cafe next to it - very useful for warm-up cups of cocoa on a cold day like this. Even with many layers of clothes and standing on cardboard to insulate the feet, my fingers just got too cold and the paint froze and was too stiff to work with. I'll let this piece go for $150.

Arroyo Seco Stream - 16 x 12" - oil on canvas - $575

Trip to England

Did you miss me?

No postings for a while because I took a trip to England to see family. Here is a photo of my nephew giving good pose and another of me with my Gran (who is 92) my mother and my sister, Roz. My sister, also a talented artist, will be coming to visit me in January and wants to come out painting with me, so maybe I'll be posting some of her stuff too!

Saturday 8th December - Trevor

This was my second time painting Trevor (see a few weeks ago in this blog) last time at the Wednesday group, this time at the Portrait Society Saturday painting session. Another busy session and with the room so full of painters we were all nearly passing out from the turpentine fumes.
Trevor - 16 x 12" - oil on canvas - $575

Wednesday 5th December 2007 - Paul

I car-pooled with my dear friend Dorothy to the Wednesday group - check out her fabulous still life paintings at www.dorothylampl.com - and had great chats about painting and the life of an artist on the way there and back. The model was Paul, a young man I had already painted earlier in the year. The group was larger than usual which I put down to the plein aire painters wanting to be painting inside now that the weather has turned colder.

Paul - 14x11" - oil on canvas - $475 unframed

Tuesday 4th December 2007 - Truck

So all the snow from Thanksgiving was melted away by an unseasonal day of rain, so no pretty snow scenes for us to paint. Since we both love painting these beaten up old trucks and also since we had both sold one of our recent truck paintings each, Shari and I revisited this spot at Arroyo Seco. I painted more loosely than usual and enjoyed the shine on the chrome particularly this time.


Truck - 12x12" - oil on canvas - $425 (unframed)

Wednesday 27th November 2007 - Truck

I met up with Shari for some lunch in the Taos Cow in Arroyo Seco and then painted this beaten up old truck. At my Open Studio the previous Sunday I sold another painting of a truck that I had done just a couple of weeks before (see blog) which I had in mind to put in a miniatures fundraising event, so I decided to paint another to take its' place.
It was a lovely sunny day and many people stopped to talk to us as we were painting. I enjoyed painting in the snow on top of Taos Mountain in the background as well as the usual fun of the truck with all the patches of coloured paint and rust.
Truck - 10x8" - oil on canvas - $295

Monday 19th November 2007 - Gorge

This sunny November morning, I met up with Jane to go paint the Gorge. This view still takes my breath away any time I approach Taos from the south.



It was a little windy as we set up to paint, we chose smaller canvasses so that they wouldn't act like sails and blow our easels over! I enjoyed laying out this composition on the widescreen style canvas board. I particularly enjoyed painting the big diagonal shapes of the clouds, the bushes in the foreground and the road that cuts across the plain and zig-zags into the gorge.

Gorge - 10 x 20" - oil on canvas - $600(unframed)

Thursday 14th November 2007 - Truck

I met up with Shari and Jane at the Overland Ranch, just north of Taos and after a sushi lunch we got to painting. These beaten up old trucks are very New Mexico looking and great fun to paint with their different colours of paint and patches of rust.

Truck - 8x10" - oil on canvas - SOLD

Tuesday 13th November 2007 - Pilar

Painting with different friends this time, Michelle Chrisman, Kemper Coley and Ken Daggett, all great artists and very different to each other. We met up in the morning and set up on the porch of an abandoned house. I particularly liked the shadows of the houses on the lane and the splash of yellow trees behind them.
Pilar - 16x12" - oil on canvas - $575

Monday 12th November 2007 - Ranchos Church

Shari and Jane and I met up at the St. Francis Church at Ranchos de Taos. This church was made famous by the paintings done of it by Georgia O'Keefe and many other atrists too. Once a year the whole community comes out to apply mud to the traditional adobe walls. Who knows if the walls were straight when they were built! Very Taos.

We decided to paint 2 smaller paintings instead of the usual one bigger one. This first spot had some nice shade for most of the painting time, so we didn't get too baked. The church gets lots of visitors and we had lots of conversations with locals and tourists alike who came over to see what we were doing.

I liked this view because of the mountains visible in the background and the statue of St. Francis in the foreground.

It was mid afternoon when we carried our eaself around to the back end of the church. This is the famous angle that has appeared in so many paintings. The sun wasn't so fierce and the light turned a pretty golden orange as the day wore on.

St. Francis - 10x8" - oil on canvas - $295
Ranchos - 8x10" - oil on canvas - $295

Saturday 10th November 2007 - Cory

The regular Saturday painting session of the Taos Society of Portrait Artists and this week the model was Cory. The weather was not as fine as it has been recently and the room was fuller than it had been for a while.
I enjoyed painting this young man, he had a serious stillness about him as he was posing that completely transformed when he smiled at break time.
Cory - 14x11" - oil on canvas - $475

Thursday 8th November 2007 - Arroyo Hondo

Another day out painting with Shari - we do make excellent painting buddies! This time we chose the Gorge view from next to the John Dunne Bridge beyond Arroyo Hondo, north of Taos.
We had a good walk around looking for the spot that most interested us. I nearly painted some fishermen who were a little south of me, they looked very interesting backlit, but I didn't fancy squinting into the sun and chose this scene instead. I really liked the reflections of the rocks in the water.
Arroyo Hondo - 16x12" - oil on canvas - sold

Wednesday 7th November 2007 - Wild River

On Tuesday night, a friend told me about the spectacular scenery at Wild River. I have been here over 2 years and had never been there. I suggested a day out to Shari and she was keen to check it out as well. We spent quite a long time hiking and exploring, looking ofr the perfect spots. The views of the Gorge here are like the ones near Taos only much bigger. We made plans to come back and paint a couple of the most spectacular views and do some of the hiking trails as well.

It was already into the afternoon when we set up to paint this view. As we were finishing and the sun went behind the cliff, it turned quite cold and it was nice to warm up with the heater on in the car. I feel very lucky to have such wonderful weather to paint in! I may come back and work on this one a little more.
Wild River - 16x12" - oil on canvas - unfinished

Monday 5th November - Gorge

A day out painting with Shari. We arrived at the Gorge, by the Gorge Bridge (north-west of Taos) and walked around for a while looking for the best spot. We chose this spot near the visitors centre, looking south. As the sun lowered in the sky the shadows crept up the Gorge and the colours intensified.

Gorge - 12x12" - oil on canvas - SOLD

Saturday 3rd November - Gina

At the Portrait Society's regular Saturday meeting, this week the model was Gina. She was an excellent model, stayed very still and managed to hold a natural smile for the whole time - which is no small accomplishment!
Gina - oil on canvas - 16 x 12" - $575

Friday 2nd November - Embudo

I met up with Jane and Shari for lunch in the Guadalahara Grill in Taos and then we all piled into one car with our paints and easels and headed South out of town. Shari had noticed there were still some brightly coloured trees along the river so we set off to find a good spot to paint. We stopped and hiked around a number of times until we found this spot, at Embudo Station. We were able to stand under the brigde and get some shade while looking downriver with everything beautifully backlit as the sun lowered in the sky. It was a lovely day out with my friends as well as a productive one!
Embudo - oil on canvas - 16 x 12" - $575

Wenesday 31st October - Trevor

You may notice there is a gap between this one and the one before. There have been some stressful things going on in my life and I have been going out to paint less and the ones I have painted in between this one and the last one were just so bad that i wiped them off.

I was not confident that this one wouldn't be a wipe off as well, so i decided to make it a little easier for myself and just use one colour and white and concetrate on light and shade - what artists call 'values'. I was relieved that this one turned out well, my bad patch seems over, hooray!
Trevor - oil on canvas - 14 x 11" - $475

Tueaday 23rd October - Morada

I met up with my good friend Michelle Chrisman for lunch and then we went off looking for a spot to paint. The cold snap over the weekend had turned all the yellow leaves brown, so many of the spots we had in mind were no longer as interesting.

We ended up at the Morada, always a good spot to paint, and caught the hills behind in the late afternoon light.

Morada - oil on canvas - 11 x 14" - SOLD

Saturday 20th October 2007 - Rosa

Rosa is the 11 year old (nearly 12) daughter of my good friend Jayne. They had come to watch the Portrait Society Saturday painting session a few times when we were out in public places, like the Fechin Museum. Rosa decided she would like to model and could definitely spend the $45 modelling fee. Nancy, who runs the group was not sure that Rosa was serious about modelling and put her off a few times but Rosa was quite determined.
She was an excellent model and stayed very still for us. After the first 20 minute session she took a break and looked at all the paintings. I asked her what colour background I should put in and she suggested the sky and mountains. I painted in an approximation of Taos Mountain with El Salto to the left and sagebrush in the mid-ground and I think it works pretty well.
Rosa - oil on canvas - 11 x 14" not for sale.

Friday 19th October 2007 - Shannon in Sagebrush

A beautiful Fall day and the Friday Alla Prima group met at the San Geronimo Inn to paint Shannon. We spotted this patch of sagebrush and chamisa with the Fall colours behind and got Shannon to walk around in this scene until she looked just right. I particularly like the colours of her clothes against the sagebrush.

Kemper reminded me that there are a number of miniature events coming up so I chose a smaller canvas than usual. it was fun for me to do a figure in a landscape for a change rather than a portrait OR a landscape.

Shannon in Sagebrush - oil on canvas - 8x10" - $295

Monday 15th October 2007 - Basalt Fall

Another day to paint in Colorado and i went up to look at Maroon Bells, a local beauty spot. It was fabulous, the red rock formations and the reflections in the lake but it was definitely winter and I wasn't really prepared for it, no hat, no gloves. Instead I drove down the valley where it was much more of a Fall scene and quite a lot warmer.

This is the view from the bridge going into Basalt. The Fall colours were wonderful and got prettier as the sun started to lower in the sky.

Basalt Fall - Oil on Canvas - 12x12" - $425

Wednesday 10th October - Harem

I was glad to have a second session on this painting. I started it last Wednesday and was happy with the face but the rest of it needed more work. Christina looked so exotic in the headdress, holding the bowl so I painted the background to look as though she were in a tent in the North African desert. A friend in the painting group suggested I put a camel in the background...
Harem - oil on canvas - 30x22" - $1,750

Monday 8th October - Embudo

On Sunday I was told that the best photographers and painters do their work at sunrise or sunset as the light is at it's most interesting. I usually paint in the morning so the painting session is coming to a close when the light is most directly overhead and flat. I wondered idly about how I would change my routine.

How strange that the very next day, Shari should change our morning meeting time to mid-afternoon when some unforseen problems had to be dealt with! At 3PM we drove south out of Taos towards Embudo. I had it in my head that I wanted to paint Fall colours next to the river and we drove around until we found a spot that inspired both of us.



Once the sun started setting, the light moved very fast and it was exciting to try to capture it and so very beautiful. I thought this was not bad for a second attempt at sunset painting (there is a gorge painting earlier in the blog that was painted late afternoon) and that I shall enjoy developing these skills further.
Embudo - oil on canvas - 20x20 - sold

Friday 5th October - Sarah

Sarah and Rodney were newlyweds on their honeymoon from Wisconsin. They found out about the painting group and Sarah volunteered to model for us and Rodney, a lapsed painter, stocked up at the local art supply store and joined us to paint his new wife.
Sarah has very fair skin and the blondest hair I have ever tried to paint. In Taos many of our models are Hispanic or Native American or at least tanned, so it made a real change to capture all the light tones in her skin.

Thursday 4th October - Morada

I go to this morada very often, it is a 40 minute walk there and back from my house. Beyond this run down old adobe building, which used to house monks of the self flagellating kind, is a strip of land given to the morada by the Indians with a big cross at the end. By the time you get to the cross you are well into Indian land and the views of the mountains are stunning. it's a great place to do a sunset walk as well.



My friend Rich Nichols was running a workshop with Don Ward and they invited me to come out and paint with them. I originally was going to work on a small square canvas but then I wanter to fit in Taos Mountain and then I wanted to squeeze in El Salto, the mountain to the left of Taos Mountain that looks like a breast and a pregnant belly. i trudged the distance back to my car where I had this long canvas ready for such an occasion.
I really enjoyed this morning's painting and felt happy with the colours I had mixed for the mountains and the sagebrush.

Morada - oil on canvas - 15x30" - $1,350

Wednesday 3rd October

Another Wednesday, another nude... This week we had Christina and she had brought this interesting headdress with her, which made her look exotic. Painting felt like a struggle and then I felt I turned it around in the last half an hour. I may go back and do a second session on this one next week.

Tuesday 2nd October - Yellow Trees

I met up with Shari at the Taos Cow Cafe in Arroyo Seco (near where Julia Roberts lives) and after coffee and one of their excellent lox and cream cheese bagels we set off to paint.
We had planned to drive up into the Ski Valley to paint Aspen trees with turning leaves but the mountains were covered in thick cloud. We had both spotted some rather lovely trees on the way into Arroyo Seco so we set up by the road to paint.
I had a great time painting this one and got a little looser with my brushstrokes than usual.
Yellow Trees - oil on canvas - 20x20" - sold