Wednesday 17th September 2008 - Nina

Nina is such a lovely model!

The day before I was on duty, manning the gallery, and I brought along a book by Richard Schmidt and his painting techniques for the figure. It was very interesting and he gets some very unusual effects. I let what I had read influence me in this painting and started with a darker and looser under-painting for texture and depth to make the skin tones glow against the background.

I was pleased with the way this one came out and will experiment with these new ideas some more.

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

Monday 19th May 2008 - Arroyo Hondo

This is a favourite spot of mine. I also sold a painting I did here during the bank show in March, so maybe a lucky spot too - are artist's superstitious? Shari and I had a great morning's painting before the wind kicked in - typical for this time of year. I would rather paint in the cold or the rain than in the wind.



I was focussing on being more directional with my colour; not just reproducing what I'm seeing but pushing it a little. The mauve in the shadows of and branches of the sagebrush for example and heightening the oranges in the rock. I was enjoying painting a little more thickly, with fat juicy brushstrokes.

Arroyo Hndo - 20 x 20" - oil on canvas - $1,200

Wednesday 14th May 2008 - Laurie

I decided to try a completely different approach this time. I've been feeling that my paintings could have more contrast in them, that I don't take them as dark as maybe I could, so I primed the canvas with dark chocolate brown and came up from there. it was an interesting experiment.

It was also a very difficult painting to photograph as the light reflected off the shiny surface no matter what i did - if anyone has any advice on how to do that I would be very grateful!

Laurie II - oil on canvas - 30 x 15" - $1,350

Thursday 31st January - Radio Show

My good friend and fellow painter, Rich Nichols, invited me to be the guest artist on his regular weekly radio show "In the Artist's Studio" on KVOT, Voice of Taos AM 1340.
Rich and I paint together and often have great conversations about the nature and process of creating art, so being on his radio show is just like that but with a microphone in front of me. This was my 3rd time on the radio show, this time with a new station presenter/engineer, Jean Scott Benson, also an artist.
They asked me to bring in a couple of paintings to discuss on the air, so I swung by the gallery on the way there to pick 2 out from the latest show. We laughed about "showing my paintings on the radio"!

We had a lively discussion and the hour passed very quickly. After the show was over and the microphones turned off, we had a great conversation about making TV shows for the internet, following painters on their plein aire adventures and watching the development of paintings as they happen - that sounds like a lot of fun! It would be a way of promoting Taos as an artists' colony, attracting visitors and promoting the artists who live and work here.