We have our neighbors' flag here, amidst the sunset contrails of jets from Luke Air Force Base which trains those who protect us all. I wish peace and comfort to all those who have lost those in the trials of our freedom. I will be forever grateful and blessed to live in a free country, made possible by those who have given so much. God bless America!

Cowgirl Up! Visit

 These nine art friends and I visited the "Cowgirls Up!  exhibit.

We carpooled to Wickenburg, AZ for this exhibit, which left all of us "artists" both inspired and intimidated" for our work! But, we all enjoyed the integrity of the art at this Los Caballeros Museum exhibit, so we all went away happy. Then, on to Anita's, a wonderful and traditional lunch stop for our museum visit for Cowgirl's Up exhibits through the years.  We always love the camaraderie and food there after a very inspiring tour through the Cowgirl Up exhibit. Personally, I can only refer anyone visiting there to the "Chiles Rellenos" there, as they are "to die for"! Many of these women are my therapy "every-Thursday-watercolor-group" which I meet with so these are my main choice of friends with whom to visit these exhibits with whenever possible. They are the best, and the main sources of my laughter/fun/therapy and support!

Ocotilla - 2013

Every year our huge Ocotilla gets prettier and prettier. This year I am taking a photo as most of the blooms have opened up now. We had a tremendous windstorm last week which blew quite a few of the blooming spikes off, but we still have lots. Love it!

I have painted this once when it was a lot younger, may need to do that again, I just love the colors of the blooms.

A-Z Visit

 Aubrey and Zane came to visit last Thursday and we had such fun! Aubrey was in her princess dress when they arrived, and very much looked the part.

Aubrey had been given a pair of flip-flops that had blingy peace signs on them. When the shoes broke her Mom suggested they cut them off and bring them for Aubrey and Grandma to make jewelry from when they visited. The results were quite stunning, or at least Aubrey and I thought so!

We made jewelry and we painted. Zane was not so impressed with his first painting session with Grandma as his sister was at hers, but he tolerated it just fine. He was too busy running around our patio and sinking baskets with his ball.

Being a Grandma is such a hoot!

Taos Shadows

This is a painting I finished (?) yesterday at the Thursday afternoon watercolor group painting session/therapy session/comedy club. My reference was an excellent photo by Terry Dekker at Paint my Photo. I loved those shadows! I need to paint more, I lost my passion for this project because I took so long between painting sessions on it.

Colorado Barn - WIP 3

I am calling this WIP 3 since I haven't completely decided if it is finished yet, or not. I like it the way it is, but maybe I have missed something?

Colorado Barn - WIP 2

In the interest of maintaining some artistic integrity here, I am posting the WIP 2 of this painting, although I am hardly proud of this stage. It was not until I took a photo of this that I saw the wonkiness (new word) of the barn roof line and the one window. Why can we not see these things in our own paintings IRL that we see in a photo or in others'?! This is yet another example of why we should paint every day instead of just once a week. You lose your skills! While I haven't managed painting every day this week, I have taken two opportunities to work on this one, and will take it to my art group this afternoon and paint for my weekly painting that I always try to accomplish.

I have added the darkest darks and have started adding more darks to the depths of the background. I will next try to correct that roof line of the barn and window. Grrr!

Colorado Barn - WIP 1

I decided to add some more WIPs to my blog, so here goes with my current one. This is from a photo I took from the highway traveling from Pagosa Springs, CO to Chama, NM two years ago. I have been wanting to get back into more sepia paintings since I enjoy those so much; so this is a quarter-sheet study for what I hope will be a larger painting, maybe half-sheet at least. I did this totally wet-in-wet and like to set the lights and mid tones first, then go back and refine those tones once I get the darkest darks added. This barn has some very dark areas in it so I will work on those next, before doing anything else with the rest of the painting. I like the looseness of this so far.

Painting Left-Handed

I am placing this painting on the left side of the blog since I painted it left-handed. The January project for the Watercolor Workshop was to paint this photo with your non-dominant hand. I decided to try this, and was it ever a challenge! I didn't realize how right-handed I was! To add to the challenge, this was painted on stretched canvas which was treated with Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground. This has such an abstract look to it, really doesn't look much like the reference photo.

I did like the photo a lot, so I think I will try it with my RIGHT hand, on watercolor paper and a larger size.

New Year's Eve Surprise

 Our son, Ben and his longtime fiance surprised everyone with the announcement they were getting married on New Year's Eve. We found this out the Saturday night before New Year's Eve Monday! It all turned out well, the ceremony was nice and we are all happy. We welcome Deb and her two daughters into our family officially, although they have been one with us all along.

Remember Our Freedom Fighters

While checking out some of my fav blogs this morning, I found a wonderful poem on Coni Kornell's blog. It truly says a lot that we should all think of more often than we do in my opinion.

Merry Christmas

This painting from the past is for all my cyber friends and family...I send best wishes for a blessed Christmas and blessings for 2013.

Many of us have endured less than perfect health and prosperity in 2012, so please join me in prayers and positive thoughts for the best of new years.

Giverney - WIP 1

Thanks to Joan Hahn-Widman for sharing this photo of Monet's garden and allowing me to paint from it. I still have lots to do, clean up, etc. with this. I didn't have my reference photo with me last Thursday so I didn't dare go too far on my own and there is still much to do. I am painting this on Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground over regular canvas, the first attempt to use this ground. So far, it acts very much like cold press watercolor paper and I am enjoying it so far. Those odd things that look like green and blue ducks, will actually become (hope, hope) lily pads, but I needed my reference photo to get the shading and highlights correctly done. This watercolor ground allows you to lift back to almost white in most cases.

I received this e-mail joke in the mail this morning and thought it so funny that I will share it here. This may not be so much of a joke for me, though, since I have done no decorating at all and may not do any this year. Since our kids won't be coming and there won't be any little ones to miss a tree, I may skip that part of the holidays.

I hope that you and yours have the best of holidays and a safe and prosperous new year.

I finished this painting of Lin Frye's excellent photo during the watercolor session Thursday afternoon. I just love to go in, drawing-less, and splash and dab paint! I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser for lifting the sunbeams. Might have overdone this just a tad, but it worked!

Lin's Sunrise - WIP

I have chosen, with her permission, another of Lin Frye's wonderful photos. She took several sunrise photos recently and I was impressed with the rich sunbeams she captured.

I didn't draw any of this, choosing instead to just go in with my bristly brush and add layers of blobs as the first wash began to dry a bit. I love how it granulated in all the right areas.

Next, I will add the suggestions of tree trunks here and there and then start lifting to try to re-create those sunbeams.

We had such a fun time at our art session yesterday, where I started this painting. We actually do accomplish some artwork during these sessions; but more than anything we have FUN!

Cairo Rose

This is yet another attempt to develop a negative painting skills set. I think this is the closest I have come in achieving this goal I have set for myself. Having said that, I know I have so very far to go before I can make this appear as I have it in my head.

This is a Cairo Rose Hibiscus, I had two of these wonderfully colorful blossoms before the frost damaged it beyond resuscitation, so I am glad I captured the photo while I could.

Watercolor, 11 x 15, Arches 140-lb

Negative Sunflowers

Negative Sunflowers, a study of Lin Frye's inimitable negative painting techniques. I say inimitable because I can come nowhere  near her wonderful paintings. But, I am showing it here to show I am still painting, just not as much or as often as I would like.

I find it so difficult to wrap my brain around this technique; I find it time-consuming and often frustrating. I am wondering why it is so important to me to "get" this technique? Maybe I will add some negative painting techniques in a positive painting, not try to do a whole painting with this technique...yeah, that's what I'll do.

Ruth Knowles

I was saddened this morning to hear of the sudden passing of Ruth Knowles. She was a very good artist who served as President of the Arizona Artists Guild for several years recently. Ruth faithfully led the AAG through the turbulent years of struggling to get our permanent building built, and saw it through its first year of existence.

If you would like to see some of her work, click here, she painted many pears in many different media and compositions. She called herself "The Pear Lady". 

Ruth, you will be missed.

Vicki's Lotus - WIP 3

Well, I got to add the yellow blossom colors yesterday, and now will try to finish this by nitpicking it a bit here and there. I need to define the leaves a bit more as well as do some edge control here and there. But, I was very happy to see some yellow in this!