10″x8″ oil on panel.  Plein Air

The part of the picture you cannot see…

I have an artist friend named Ginny who lives in Denver/ Taos.  On lucky years our paths cross at Ghost Ranch and we have a chance to paint together.  We had a beautiful evening to paint, in addition to a fantastic lightning storm, there was an even more lively ultimate frisbee match on the lawn in front of us.  In chairs scattered around were readers reading, old friends reconnecting, and spectators enjoying the show.   If the colors seem muted, it was dusk, and…I was contented.

12″x9″ guache on paper

“Underbrush”

7″x5″ pastel on sanded paper

Below is my underpainting, I blocked in analogous colors in 3 values of pastel and I did not wash it in with alcohol.  That is called a “dry underpainting”, I feel like the warm colors added to the hot dry feeling of the day.

24″ x 18″ pastel on sanded paper

This painting started out as a “spring in Texas”, it was the last of the Queen Anne’s Lace for the year, but the painting knew that it was time for summer.  I started it about 6 weeks ago, and wasn’t happy with it.  I got it out and “saved” it.  I used denatured alcohol to wash out all the big blooms and then added some. Right yellow and red.

“How strange this fear of death is! We are never frightened at a sunset.”  -George MacDonald

20″x16″ oil panel Plein air

I am intrigued by an area of the Chama River between the small town of Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch on highway 84.  It is too complicated to work small, so I have blocked in a diptic using the paper I brought with me, in total it will be 36″x18″ split 1/3 – 2/3.  I have used soft pastel and denatured alcohol to find my way in values, and set a very hot tone to the scene.

5″x7″ pastel on sanded paper

“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.”  -Dolly Parton

It has been a rich week of painting, I am so grateful to be in Northern New Mexico.  I had amazing students this week in my pastel workshop at Ghost Ranch.  My students made me look capable by painting outstanding paintings.   I love when non-artists decide to pave a new road and do something they have always wanted to do: like become an artist.  I am grateful to be part of such journeys.

What road are you going to pave?

9″x12″

“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”  -Franklin D. Roosevelt.

I kept the palette limited for this painting, making the greens more aqua, and teal, and keeping the warms red orange rather than the range of what they really were.  

Here is my reference photo, which allows you to see how I tweaked the colors:

24″x 18″ pastel on sanded board

“Saepe creat molles aspera spina rosas” – “Often the prickly thorn produces tender roses

-Ovid