Evolution of some apricots

So first, my friend Edwardine brought over some apricot laden branches from her tree.  I left for Dallas soon after so I brought the branches with me. The apricots ripened beautifully. Today I made a small painting of some of the apricots, then I made Apricot Pinot Grigio jam.  As soon as the jam cooled, my husband and I had brie on crackers with apricot jam. It was delicious!

Echo Amphitheatre Abiquiu, III

This completes the panorama moving from right to left. Can't you just see the smoke signal issuing from the top of this rock?

Echo Amphitheatre Abiquiu, II

Moving my view to the left from the first painting, this is the view just left of the actual "amphitheatre". This day wasn't so dramatic weatherwise as that of yesterday. The thing about this view is the markings towards the top that look like designs from an Navajo rug. At first, I thought that someone had artfully added these designs to resemble the rugs, but on closer inspection and introspection, I realized that these natural markings were probably inspiration for the rug designer many years ago. Yes, I know, elementary, Watson.

The Lake at Abiquiu

This is a plein air painting I did in Abiquiu last May, but just recently added a few touches that time, wind, heat, bugs, etc. prevented me from doing "in situ". The beautiful thing about this lake is that if you only look at the lake and the surrounding rocks without the vistas, it looks very Mediterranean. Another one of God's little jokes.

Experimenting with Silver

I'm working on a large painting which will involve many little silver fish so I'm trying to decide which metallic silver I want to use. This little guy was painted with silver oil paint.

Floating in Tropical Waters

There is something about a cold snowy day to make one nostalgic about tropical locales. My feet were cold the entire time I spent painting this, but it gave me a warm feeling!

Trinity River Audubon Center

This is the beginning of a plein air painting I started today at the Trinity River Audubon Center south of Dallas. What a beautiful place! And the weather was absolutely perfect today. I had some trouble getting all my gear to the site but the effort was worth it, although I'm going out right now to get a box on wheels to haul stuff tomorrow. This is the first day of a workshop that is being taught by Henry Finkelstein. I'll post this painting again when it's finished.

A New Kind of Canoe

Last Thursday I gave a demonstration painting to the Klepper Art Club here in Dallas. They were particularly interested in seeing me paint water. I limited myself to six tubes of paint: three warm primaries and three cool primaries. I did this painting in about an hour and a half, working from a photo. The canoe is a proto-type of a new design with aluminum frame and plexiglass panels. Pretty cool.

Peas in the Pod

These peas were purchased at the farmer's market in Santa Fe and they were delicious! But before I ate them, I painted a few.

Comale River

This is the last painting I'll post from my plein air week in Taos. This is my personal favorite work that I did that week. Water fascinates me and the movement also speaks to me. I was standing right on the edge of what is really a mountain stream. The colors changed as the sun moved across the sky so I had to work fast. One of the things that I like about plein air painting is that sometimes you are painting the memory of the colors which can turn out to be more interesting that the actual colors. I also want to mention that I just read the blog of someone whose husband gave to her one of my paintings for their wedding anniversary. The story is beautiful: www.dreamsofsimplelife.blogspot.com

Rock Formation Near Abiqui

This is a view of a rock formation outside of Abiqui not far from Ghost Ranch. The colors of the rocks are amazing so that is what I concentrated on. The sun moved quickly so the colors and shadows changed. I had to paint fast to capture a moment. I did two paintings that day.

Where Bambi Comes to Drink Water

This is the second painting I did in East Texas.  The water was brackish (sorry Bambi) and the most lovely brown color I've ever seen.  But I added the blue so it would be understood to be water in the painting. 

By a Quiet Pond

Last Thursday I went out to Lake Bob Sandlin  with Suzanne Clarke to do some plein air painting.  This lake is in East Texas about a 100 miles from Dallas.  We went into a wooded area where I painted two views.  I'm going to show the last of three paintings that I did in the course of four hours.  The interesting thing is that the old rule of painting fast is best held true pretty much this day.  I spent 30 minutes on this painting.  The colors turned out very vivid because I was sitting in the shade and looking at a scene in the sun.  When I make corrections on this painting, I'll make the grass in the foreground more green and adjust my darks and lights.  Over all it was a great day.

Another Embrace

This is another try at this image, which I must say, has captured me for unfathomable reasons.  I can't say what I really mean because I don't know.  My Friend, Julie Lazarus, has suggested that I dispay the two together.  I think I'm going to paint yet another, for a trio.  

Jude's Flowers

This is a tiny little bouquet of a common weed here in Texas, I think it's called pennyroyal.  My exquisite grandson, Jude, brought these to me yesterday after I had been gone for two weeks.  So this morning, I had to paint these flowers. Both the flowers and the painting are full of love.

Martini Time

This is my favorite Martini glass (amongst all those that I own).  It catches the light beautifully and painting this gave me some insight into Janet Fish's early glass and plastic paintings.  I'm a big fan of Janet Fish.

Water Over the Bridge

This is a plein air painting I did near Taos.  I loved the many shades and tints of green in the water.  

Rio Grande Retake

This is another revision of the original painting posted a little over a week ago.  Sometimes, actually, most of the time, I realize that I have to let the painting sit a while and look at it again to see the mistakes.  Especially plein air painting when I'm also dealing with the weather, insects, wolves, etc.  what looks right at the moment becomes more clear later.

Rio Grande Sun Stroke

This was another sun stroke day, even though we started painting at 8 in the morning.  It was fine until about 11:30 but I wanted to finish this painting before leaving.  That might have been a mistake because all the mistakes I now see in this painting were made after that bewitching hour.  I'll correct and touch up this painting later and repost it--maybe.  This spot, by the way, is along the Rio Grande River at a place called the gorge because it is deep in a canyon.  You can't see that because I was focusing on the river. 

Mango Madness

This is a little exercise using the complementary colors of orange and blue.  I think that even though the subject is simple the colors make it exciting and interesting.