Home with a Cold

I am trying very hard to stay at home and recover from SOMETHING- I'm not sure what it is- probably just a cold. But it is so windy outside - I wouldn't be painting anyway-- Hail to Spring in the San Luis Valley!!

Well, anyway, I decided to work on my blog for awhile so you will be noticing small and hopefully positive changes as I learn how to tweak it from Blogger Buster. I didn't start out that great though- I decided to try to minimize the amount of labels I had by using the edit posts section and under label action I used the command Delete and ended up deleting quite a few of my prior blogs- Bummer. And it was my own fault- I need to read directions better. Well, I learned alot from this and will definitely not do that again. I didn't have any posts from late so I am posting a painting that I did this fall and never posted.
This painting was en plein air very close to the Rio Grande River and is close to Joe Zinn's house- an incredible photographer friend of mine.

As I look outside and see dirt blowing everywhere; I'm thinking that maybe I will be painting inside for awhile which is alright as I need to try to get some paintings done before March 9 to submit to a DIA sand Dunes show that will be exhibiting September, 2009.

Alamosa River Canyon

Coni and I decided that we really needed to get out and paint so we decided to drive up the Alamosa River Canyon since it has great shadows- even in the middle of the day since the canyon is so narrow. But as there were tracks on the road it was obvious that it was being used so I knew that parking on the road was out... We wondered around and took some great pictures but no paintings this time... We could have painted down the canyon further but it was a little windy and I just don't think we had it in us - just one of those days. This is a picture of some old barns and cabins grouped together- the snow is beautiful but I am really tiring of it. Oh well, we had fun gabbing all the way up and all the way back-- and Coni finally got to see the very small town? of Jasper.

Going to Havasu

Well, It was time to go back through the desert as my husband wanted to go to Havasu to look for property to purchase so it was a rather deja vu experience for me to traipse back across the desert again. It was a fun experience but an extremely quick trip. I got some great shots traveling along in nice weather- when you're on the road for 10 and a half hours you try to find things to do and taking pictures fits the bill better than anything else. I tried to read but I get carsick if I read too much. Consequently I did not go painting this week and so I don't have much to post at this time. Well, that's not entirely true- Coni and I tried to paint on Friday but that is another story......

Rock Creek

Here is a picture of Coni with her painting of Rock Creek- I decided to put her on my sight for Valentines Day since she is all geared out in red! Happy Valentines Day everyone!!

Rock Creek

Well, Coni and I finally made it to Rock Creek to paint together- it took some time but we made it and on a beautiful day at that. On the way up there were some of those high, white, wispy clouds- the nemeses of every plein air painter but we

had made up our minds and were going to paint! Half way through laying out my painting the high, wispy, clouds disappeared though and I was left with the decision- do I paint this as a high wispy cloudy scene or do I go with the sun........ I went with the sun even though that is totally against my plein air rules.Hey I change the rules when high wispy clouds are involved.

I painted the mountains to the west at the end of the road and I apologize for the image - I took it in the sun and it has some glare spots- shadows too. I took a picture of Coni with her painting and will have to get it in my next post.

Nomadas del Arte 2009

After searching for what seems like hours on my computer looking for certain picture files, I finally found pictures of the paintings I am submitting for the Nomadas show. I guess I just happen to keep my computer files as organized as I do my other files- pathetically messy!
The picture above was painted in May at about 6:30 in the morning and was just fun to paint.

This painting was done quickly as my sweet family was not so patiently waiting for me to finish so that we could go home. I fell down and ripped the knee on my pants trying to load up everything in a hurry as they sat there and watched..... finally, they must have felt sorry for me and came to the rescue and helped out. I guess they figured that we could get going a little faster that way.

These paintings will be in the Nomadas del Arte show at the Southwest Gallery in Dallas, Texas.

Please make plans attend the Nόmadas del Arte show opening April 3rd 2009 at the Southwest Gallery of Dallas. There will be paintings of 200 artists displayed at the show.

The four Amigos at Zapata

It was a beautiful day painting with Dave Montgomerie, Coni Grant, Patrick Myers. We headed up to the Zapata and picked out views and got to work- then took this photo when finished- it was a fun day but I wasn't all that happy with my painting so I wiped it out- sorry- this is about all you are going to get to see of it- it's the second one from the right. This was a fun group to paint with!!

Plein Air at Rock Creek

Coni and I were planning on painting at Rock Creek since there is quite a bit of snow but yet the roads are plowed since there are individuals that live there year around- but she called and cancelled because she had some deadlines to take care of. I decided to go painting by myself which all of a sudden seemed kind of strange since I hadn't been painting by myself for quite awhile. Rock Creek is beautiful- lots red rock cliffs.... I was painting this scene with my back to the red rock cliffs and a little thought went through my head-- I bet this is mountain lion territory- ooooh...

I remember hearing stories about how quiet mountain lions are and so every now and then I would look over my shoulder ---just to check- you never know. Then I thought- it might be wise to look for tracks just to see if any were in the area- well I didn't see any so I went back to painting. I never did see a mountain lion but it's funny how your mind starts playing little tricks on you and you just feel slightly uneasy. It's rather hard to concentrate on painting when you are looking over your shoulder all the time as well..