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

my paintings from the portraiture show

Girl in Black Hat - oil on canvas - 16x12" - SOLD

Heidi - oil on canvas - 14x11" - SOLD

Frank Morgan - oil on canvas - 14x11" - $475

Girl in Blue Hat - oil on canvas - 16x12" - $575

The many faces of portraiture

From the 28th to the 30th of September, The Taos Society of Portrait Artists (TSoPA) of which I am a member, put on a show at the Stables Gallery in Taos featuring its 6 members and many local artists who paint portraits. Our aim was to promote portraiture and to showcase how many great and diverse portrait artists there are in the area. It was a wonderful show with big names like Ray Vinella, Walt Gonske, David Leffel and Ron Barsano lending pieces.




We held portrait painting sessions throughout the long weekend open to anyone who wanted to paint or draw or just to watch.Larry Torres is a well known local figure in town, a historian and a teacher. He was encouraging to the Society when it was just starting up some years ago and has posed for us a number of times in a variety of costumes.
Larry Torres - oil on canvas - 16x12" - $375



Heidi is a very popular model here amongst the various groups. We posed her standing next to the window to put strong light down one side of her face.
Heidi - oil on canvas - 20x16" - $495







Ray Vinella is a much loved local artist, well known for his marvellous painting and his nurturing style of teaching. He kept us laughing as we were painting him.
Ray Vinella - oil on canvas - 20x16" - $495

My first one woman show!

Once the results of Originals 2007 were announced, Chris and Victor Martinez from Taos Homegrown Gallery on Taos Plaza offered me a one woman show and I was delighted. This photo shows me at the opening standing in front of part of the display of 12 paintings. Here are some of the paintings in the show.


Charnele is a very talented young woman who graduated from High School this year and has left Taos now to study theatre in New York. She was a wonderful model and very popular with the various painting, sculpting and drawing groups and individual artists. I painted this nude of her at the Wednesday group over 2 weeks.
Charnele - oil on Canvas - 20x16" - contact Taos Homegrown Gallery for prices.


My friend Jane Grover and I were impatient to paint fall colours a couple of weeks ago and drove around looking for turning leaves until we settled on this spot in Taos Ski Valley. We liked the drama of the rocky mountainside by the river and the stately looking trees.
"Taos Ski Valley" - oil on canvas - 16x12" -


I was spending a long weekend in Aspen and had brought my paints with me. I was excited that the fall colours were further along than they were in Taos and was looking forward to splashing out the yellows and oranges. On the day that I had free to paint it was raining and the skies were flat and grey. I waited around until noon, hoping that the sun would come out and when it didn't I set out to paint anyway, sure that it would stop by the time I reached the spot I had picked out in Castle Creek. I set up in the rain and was feeling quite miserable for an hour, the rain dripping from my umbrella onto my shoulder. Then the sun came out and the skies cleared enough for me to see further peaks with thick snow on them. The rest of the afternoon was beautiful and magical!
Aspen Fall - oil on canvas - 16x12"

Friday 28th September - Originals 2007

The New Mexico Women in the Arts annual show had it's private opening on Friday. Way back in April, when I sent in the form with the slides of my work, I had no idea how prestigious and hard to get into it is. Then my piece was accepted and the lists were announced and the congratulations started coming in.



It is a truly diverse show, I look forward to spending some time there and having a good look which was pretty impossible at the opening event. It will hang in the Harwood and the Millicent Rogers' Museums until January.

"Gorge" - oil on canvas - 12x16" - $295

Wednesdays with Melissa

On Wednesdays I go to a nude, long-pose group - the model is nude, not the artists! It is run by a fine figurative sculptor, Melissa Moe. We painters and sketchers set up away from the model leaving a big space around the podium for the sculptors to roll their stands around, sculpting from every angle.

This painting of the lovely Shannon was completed over 2 sessions, the 19th and 26th of September. I was trying to capture some of her otherworldly, ethereal beauty.

Shannon Nude - oil on canvas - 30x22" - $1,750

A day out painting at the Rio Grande Gorge

With my painting buddies, Rebekah Powers and Shari Kestenbaum, we set off for a morning's painting to the Gorge, hoping that the clouds would part and the sun would come out. By the time we were half an hour into the painting we were taking off our jackets and slathering on the sunscreen.

A few days later I got the photo of me painting that day from Rebekah - I particularly like the way the actual skyline is so close to the skyline in the painting and the canvas completely hides this massive fault in the earth's surface!

'Clouds Parting over the Rio Grande Gorge' - oil on canvas - 20 x 20" - $1,200

Quick Draw

The Quick draw at the TCA is a fun annual event where local artists have only a couple of hours to create a piece of art while spectators are milling around them and asking them questions. The pieces of art are then auctioned off to raise funds for the TCA, the Taos Community Auditorium, which is a non-profit organisation.

I ran into Huberto Maestas the night before the event and thought he'd make a great subject. I asked him if he'd mind me painting him while he was sculpting at the event and he said he would be delighted... as long as he didn't have to stay still. He did move around a lot while I was painting him but I worked around that.

At one point a local news station was filming my friend Sam Richardson while he was sketching me, painting Huberto while he was sculpting away.

A local woman was watching my progress as I painted and bought the painting to hang next to the sculpture that Huberto had done at the event the year before.

'L'Escuturo' - oil on canvas - 20x16" - SOLD

Taos Open

Friday 21st September was probably the biggest night of the year for the Art Community here in Taos. The opening night for the Taos Open and Taos Invites Taos, this year featuring the new "Living Masters" section, was packed and buzzing.

As you walk around and see so many wonderful artists' work, it is awe inspiring that they all live here in this little county, up in the mountains.

I had 2 pieces in the Taos Open. 'The Gorge' I painted only a couple of weeks ago. My good friend and great painter, Michelle Chrisman called me up at lunchtime and said, do you want to paint the gorge at sunset? I had had a day of paying bills and going to the bank and jumped at the opportunity. I usually paint in the morning and had never attempted a sunset landscape before.


We love this overlook of the Gorge, south of town, beyond the Country Club. More and more of this land is being developed and built on, so we are making the most of it while we artists can still paint there. It was a hot afternoon and Michelle and I managed to get some shade from a large bush. Smothered in bug repellant and the light moving every second, we painted fast!

'Ladies in a garden' was set in Walt Gonske's garden when it was in full bloom this summer. Paula, the young woman with dark hair, is from Brazil and lives here in Taos and models for us regularly. Her mother was visiting from Brazil and enjoyed being painted with her daughter. I made a good start on the painting and then took a photo of the scene, printed it out on my computer and continued working on it at the Habitat for Humanity fundraiser event that same afternoon, where the photo of me working on it was taken.

'The Gorge' - oil on canvas - 20 x 20" - $875
'Ladies in a Garden' - oil on canvas - 20 x 28" - $880