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