Winter In New Mexico - Southern Part

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This February has been more like Tucson than Silver City. We are so very much higher, and cooler. So it is with surprise that we experienced 72 degree days this month!
Perfect for plein air painting! And no snakes yet!

My friend Gay and I went 'sploring on down the road in the Mimbres Valley, just East of Silver City. What we found was an area whose accessibility was determined by the rate of flow of the Mimbres River. Many people live on the far side of that river and rely on four wheel drive, lifted vehicles. Some leave a car on the city side to get out and do routine things like shop or get gas. We didn't have one of the aforementioned vehicles, so we stayed on the tame side. But we still had views that were varied and just downright gorgeous.

The motif

I started my piece by rubbing a tone of a violet all over the board. (I have been watching Shana Kuntz" new video). Its great for making you think and start a little different from your normal starting point and method. Its that thinking differently gives you different results thing. I love the friendship of violet and greens, not to mention the love of yellows for violets, resulting in some of the most rich offsprings possible. We were at riverside and the water was so noisy that we couldn't hear each other talk unless we yelled. Somehow that just was gauche.

The block in

Locals drove their monster tired trucks by ever so slowly so as not to dust us. Who says locals are indifferent to their surroundings? Its so nice to have such a kind and thoughtful welcome.
We painted until we got the sense that we were both starting to dink around with it. For me that is the moment that I think " I can make it better if I just do this", and then the last stroke kills all sense of immediacy - it kills the " I am there" moment. I wish I had a guardian angel who could break my arm before I do that.

In The Shadow Of Cooke's Peak

This was what resulted from one of the nicest days in the sun, with a lovely breeze and friendly people. Mimbres Valley is rapidly becoming one of my favorite places to paint.

New Painting, New Title

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Sometimes the titles of my paintings elude me, like a tiny flower under leaves along a forest path. Would that they were more forthcoming.


Take this painting of a Pinos Altos house allowed to go to ruin. I do not know if anyone owns It. Clearly nobody is currently tending it. It looks as though someone once took pains building a rock wall that is now with overgrown weeds and grasses. The rock wall looks like it will outlast the wooden building. But the house had windows that were nice and large at a time when transporting them was costly and probably pretty precarious. It was probably fairly snug for a house of its time. 
I hesitated to get into those tall grasses as I really do not like snaky surprises. So I painted her from the road.

Not too many people were about in Pinos Altos that morning. There was a honey truck, one person walking her dog and someone who must have been late for work. Most everyone took long looks at the weird painter under the blue umbrella. But nobody interrupted.


I called this painting Pinos Altos Dowager, mostly because she seemed to have seen better days. I can relate. But upon reflection, she might have been better named "Keeping Secrets", the way the entrance was so overgrown, with fallen down tree branches. Is she hiding something, or simply keeping close a time that was happier and more promising?

Keeping Secrets, or, Pinos Altos Dowager?

Changes Are Coming - And Not Just The Weather

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Those of you who do follow this blog may have noticed a change in its format. You are correct. The format HAS changed. I did this in response to my blog having issues with the interactivity disappearing and re-appearing at will.  Nothing I did caused it and it was intermittent.  I was frustrated. So I can only imagine what it was like on the reader side. Now people should find it easier to comment and otherwise send me an electronic raspberry if you don’t like what I posted, either verbal or visual.

As anyone who has troubleshot a computer or a program knows, an intermittent problem is the worse kind to find and fix. So I opted to not try and to throw in the towel. I have other things on the burner that are for me more important. I have actually traded in a car rather than try and find a computer/electrical problem in an otherwise just fine car. Life is too short to be frustrated. (And I paint???)

On the painting side, I find I am that way about my problem paintings en plein air too. I will take them in the house, especially if something is hiding about the edges of my consciousness, telling me something needs fixed. Especially if I do not know what the heck that thing is that needs fixing. I live with them a while until the goblin pops out at me. And I do know that goblins were for last month, but they hang around here some times, way beyond their welcome date.

Hillsboro Arroyo
6x5 oil linen on board
Available

That was the case with this little painting. I did it a few weeks ago and something really bothered me about it. So it sat in the living room, a 6x6 itch I couldn’t figure out how to scratch. Every time I turned on the TV, sat down with a cup of coffee, tried to catch up on my phone missives, there it sat, staring back at me.

When I read something said by Harley Brown, in a recent interview, the light went on. Harley said (not quoting here) that you should never put the same amount of detail in the background as in the foreground. Imagine that simple a solution! I had gotten to the point where I knew that it was the background that haunted me. I had painted this tiny thing with smaller brushes. I should have kept the bigger ones handy. Once I simplified the background, a few judicious lights were added and suddenly it bordered on the acceptable. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still in the living room. Is it a still plein air? You betcha. I figure it only needed about 5-10% modifications, so according to my criteria, it’s still a plein air. But those pesky goblins are gone for a bit. They were probably afraid I’d mistake them for the turkey. 

Right.

Favorite quote:

·“The painting is finished before the artist knows it is.”

Harley Brown

To learn about a plein air competition for the benefit of the Wounded Warrior Project, and to win cash prizes and a chance for a two person show,  click here and go to Downloads. 

The Concept and the Passion

David Leffel, my all time painting hero, says painting is all about the concept. He says the concept is the vision that defines the entire painting. That pretty much equates with what other artists say about a painting starting with passion. It is all about the passion of the vision, even Cezanne said so.
Some days there is no passion. Doing the laundry takes it all out of me. At other times its also very hard to make my husband stop the motorcycle so that I can take a shot.  I can tell that his passion is being fed by the exhilaration of barreling through that huge flat curve in the road. (No, we don't ride Harleys). He really doesn't want to stop so that I can record this lovely bend in the road. My sense of balance requires that I try to balance both our passions, recognizing that his is very important to him also. So I find other ways to feed my passion.                       
How?  I go back to that place I saw and loved. I take my camera, but more importantly, I take my painting box and paints. I do paint as often as I can. And when I am not painting, I am watching painting  DVDs and reading books about it. Trying to learn what other artists think, how they feed that same passion and how they go about their work. All this as I try to figure out a way to take paints along on the bike. Have I mentioned priorities before?

http://thomaskegler.com/video/

This week a Plein Air DVD by Thomas Kegler came in the mail.  Its brand new. He paints the Northeast, specifically New York. I know the area, having been brought up in New England. If ever there were a place that requires a singular vision and a strong concept, it is that part of the country. The very abundant green of the forests can overwhelm much of your ability to compose .  You don't get a singular red cliff pointing skyward. Very seldom do you ever see a picture that just presents itself for painting. You have to identify and distill to capture the essence of the overriding player on the stage of a painting. Thomas does a great job of that and his procedure is wonderful to watch. I highly recommend this DVD as a great way to keep the passion alive when you cannot go out and paint. The only wish I had was that it would have gone on longer and taught me more. Kudos to you, Thomas.
                                                                                                                                                   Because I read a lot I have become familiar with Kevin McPherson's pond series. Kevin has painted an entire year's daily studies of the pond on his property. Its a wondrous series. So I thought that living in Wind Canyon is a unique opportunity for me, with four distinct, gentle seasons. So now I am putting myself on the spot, because I am proposing to do a series of Wind Canyon. It won't be every day,(how the devil did Kevin ever get anything else done?) perhaps just one painting of it a month, but one when I notice a change in the landscape. They are subtle changes here, not as marked as in say, Colorado. But it does change. So here today, is Study 1.

Wind Canyon Oak - Study1
Available

 Its all about the distillation of the concept, and the passionate painting of it.