Friday 29th August 2008 - Hollyhocks at the Blumenschein

I met up with Michelle and a painter friend of hers from Santa Fe and we painted the flowers at the Blumenschein Home and Museum.

I did one like this a few weeks ago and it sold very quickly - the hollyhocks and adobe theme is quite popular.

Hollyhocks at the Blumenschein - 9 x 12" - oil on canvas panel - $475

Thursday 28th August 2008 - Ray's Class

I liked this portrait of Ruben that I did a couple of weeks ago but I felt it could be better, so I took it to Ray's class to see what his feedback would be. He told me the background colour was too close to the colour of the face, so I changed it to the dark blue grey and I think it works very well. I had noticed that the forearm wasn't quite long enough to be in proportion so I changed that too. A couple more little details and i think the painting is much better for it.


Portrait of Ruben Machado - 20 x 16" - oil on canvas - $1,175

Wednesday 27th August 2008 - Christina

I started this one at Melissa's group on Wednesday this week. We have another session of the same pose next week. In the meantime I hope to have some ideas about the overall painting. I think she looks a bit like a flapper from the 1920's, taking a break from a wild party, so maybe I'll push that angle or do something completely different with it. Do feel free to post any suggestions!


Christina/ Flapper - oil on canvas - 30 x 24" - unfinished.

Sunday 24th August 2008 - Conversations with Sheep

I went to paint these sheep about a year ago, only to find that they move all the time. I took photos and mostly painted the mountains that day, but hung onto the photos. I was looking for something to paint on Sunday morning before manning the gallery all day and found this one of the little girl painting away while the sheep moved around her - she seemed completely unconcerned.

I got most of this done in between customers on Sunday and finished it off at Ray's class on Thursday.

Conversations With Sheep - oil on canvas - 12 x 12" - $575

Wednesday 20th August 2008

I have joined Sage Fine Art Gallery which is a co-op. This means that the artists run the gallery and we all take it in turns to man the shop. I was on duty this day and brought in my easel and paints and some rather lovely roses that I had been given.

The picture of the roses came out quite well but I was sure I could improve it so I took it to Ray's painting class the next day to see if he could advise me on how to make it better, only I left it on the roof of my car instead of packing it properly and it fell off en route and was lost. Oh well.

Saturday 16th August 2008 - Rosa

Rosa is the 12 year old daughter of a good friend of mine. I painted her a year ago which you can see further back in this blog. It was a rainy morning so we painted back in the Chrysalis school again instead of in the Fechin Garden - at least the light doesn't move so much inside, but I have enjoyed painting outside.



Rosa - oil on canvas-board - 16 x 12" - sold

Friday 15th August 2008 - Ruben

A new painting group, held in an empty gallery on the main street in Taos. Our painting session was open to the public and we had quite a few people coming in to watch the painters at work. It was fun.

Ruben Machado - 20 x 16" - oil on canvas - $975

Thursday 14th August 2008 - Ray's class

They say it takes 2 people to paint a picture - one to paint and another to say when it is finished. I finally finished my large painting of Maroon Bells in Colorado and Ray was the one to say "step away from the canvas". I may leave it a while before I attempt another landscape on this scale!

Maroon Bells - 30 x 40" - oil on canvas - $3,600

Wednesday 13th August 2008 -

This week we had Monica posing for us. She is a yoga instructor and has very long limbs and a swan neck all in wonderful posture.

Monica - 20 x 20" - oil on canvas - sold

Saturday 9th August 2008 - Isobel

We've been painting in the Fechin Garden on Saturdays for a few weeks now and it's so nice and cool in the shade of the trees. As usual the light changed many times during the course of the painting session. Isobel was a great model.

Isobel - 16 x 12" - oil on canvas-board - sold

Thursday 7th August 2008 - Ray's Class

I was all ready to work on my big painting of Maroon Bells only to find that Ray had booked a model and we were having a session on portraiture. He gave us lots of tips on the process of portraiture including interacting with your subject and told us stories of the many portrait commissions he's done over the years.



Mary Beth - 12 x 12" - oil on gesso-board - $575

4 - 6th August - Dorothy Lampl's Workshop

I attended Dorothy's Still Life Workshop last Summer and learned a lot, so I was excited about doing it again this year. As well as being one of my favourite painters, Dorothy is one of my favourite people too!



We started off with a single piece of fruit or vegetable and worked up to arrangements of objects.



Practising still life painting is a wonderful way of improving painting technique for all other kinds of painting.



I really wanted to improve my flower painting and brought these white lilies with me to paint. Dorothy said I had picked about the hardest flower to paint! I really enjoyed catching the different colours in the white of the petals.



onion - 5 x 7" - oil on board - sold
grapefruit - 5 x 7" - oil on board - sold
Still Life with a Plum - 12 x 12" -oil on gesso-board - $575
White Lily on Dark - 12 x 16" - oil on canvas-board - $750
White Lily on Mid-tone - 12 x 12" - oil on gesso-board - $750

Saturday 2nd August 2008 - Sage and Dianna

I started the day by hanging my first show at Sage Gallery which I am very excited about. Here I am with all the paintings hung and I'm ready to go paint in the Fechin Garden.

We painted Dianna who was a lovely model. My friend George insisted I take a photo of him so I did and I told him I would post it in the blog and here it is!


Dianna - 16 x 12" - oil on canvas board - sold

Thursday 31st July 2008 - Ray's class

Still working on this big old painting! I took it to Ray Vinella's class and he made some helpful suggestions. I painted out the clouds to emphasise the shape of the mountains, added more colour to the water in the lake and painted in the elk, which was great fun. I think one or maybe two more sessions will get this one finished.

Maroon Bells - 30 x 40" - oil on canvas - unfinished

Wednesday 30th July 2008 - Julie

I quite wore myself out on Saturday with the portrait group in the morning and painting all afternoon at the fund-raiser - maybe going out dancing that night didn't help, but I ended up taking a few days off from painting and paid my bills, did some gardening and housework etc.



By Wednesday I was itching to paint again and went to Melissa's group with Julie as our model. I tried something a little different this time, getting closer up and focussing on a smaller part of the body and the black background forced me to push my values a little more than usual.

Julie - 16 x 20" - oil on canvas - $1,175

In the evening I went to my first Sage Gallery Co-op meeting as I am to hang my work on Saturday. I used to be in a housing co-op when I lived in London and they voted me in as membership secretary and to my surprise, at my first meeting with this co-op, they voted me in as membership secretary - how strange is that? They are a friendly, helpful bunch - quite co-operative (ha ha) and I have a feeling i will do well.