Thursday 12th February 2009 - Ray's

I did most of this painting when I was on duty at the gallery last Tuesday and brought it in to Ray to see if he could help me make it a better painting. He suggested making the buildings on the right a little brighter - they were very washed out in the photo I was working from. It made a big difference. It was easier to sharpen the definition in the big tree with the paint nearly dry than it was on Tuesday.



Another sunset of the mountain, the light was just delicious and completely irresistible to me. This one is not finished.

Kit Carson Road Shade - 12 x 12" - oil on canvas panel - $575
Late Afternoon Light on Taos Mountain - 12 x 12" - oil on canvas panel - $575

Thursday 5th February 2009 - Ray Vinella, superstar!

Another Wednesday class with Ray Vinella. I've told him that I write a blog about my painting but it took a mutual friend, Jan Mellor, to tell him that I write about my Thursday lessons on the blog for him to ask me about it! Here is a photo of Ray and I at this morning's group along with a portrait I painted of him a year and a half ago.



In this week's class i finished off this evening painting of the Plaza with the pretty twinkle lights in the trees in front of Ogelvie's and painted this scene of the main road through Taos with fresh snow and Taos Mountain behind. The red sign on the building on the right is Jan Mellor's gallery - the Taos Gallery.



Late Night Shopping on the Plaza - 12 x 12" - oil on canvas panel - $575
Beautiful Downtown Taos - 12 x 12" - oil on canvas panel - $575

Thursday 11th December 2008 - Ray's

It's strange for me to not be painting, I'm so used to painting most days, but this bug knocked me out for a week. I went to the Saturday painting group but I'm not posting what I did that day, definitely one for the "paint over" pile.

Then on Thursday I went to Ray's group and painted this street scene from my California trip. Heidi and I were heading north out of San Francisco towards the Golden Gate Bridge and the morning sun was hitting the cars parked along the side of the road and I thought that that would make a great painting and took a photo.

I like paintings of city streets but I'd never attempted one before, maybe it's because I'm a city girl, all that time living in London, it's all this open countryside that is new for me. I feel quite inspired that the next time I'm back in London I'll be taking photographs with doing paintings in mind.

San Francisco Street - 8 x 10" - oil on canvas panel - $450