"Red Rocks at Abiquiu"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord











"Red Rocks at Abiquiu II"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord








"Perdinal III"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord








Day two at Abquiu.

If you come here, don't stay at the Abiquiu Inn. Had a pretty wretched night for $80

And the other annoying thing about here is the blank, blank, blank noseeums/gnats.

I don't remember O'Keeffe ever bitching about the bugs, but boy howdy, they're out and armed for bear.

Deet doesn't do anything but make them giggle.

But dozens of them drowned my my Gamsol.

Bwhahahahaha.

The painting was pretty good out at what I'm calling 'The Red Place'.

Saw 'The White Place' yesterday but didn't get a chance to paint out there. They've blocked off the road leading down to the wash so it would be a several hundred yard hike over rough terrain carrying my painting gear.

Not this trip, thanks.

Even though David offered to lug my gear.

He's such a nice guy.

David also offered to drive me out to 'The Black Place' but I declined and pointed out it was 180 miles due West of here.

He agreed that would have to be another trip.

Down to Santa Fe and then Albuquerque to see David off to Austin again.

Sigh.

"Christie"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













"Christie II"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













Today for the Portrait group, we had Christie, a lovely dark haired, light eyed girl with an odd wistfulness about her.

I enjoyed painting her and hope to paint her again.

"Under the MOPAC Bridge I"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord










"Under the MOPAC Bridge II"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord














"Under the MOPAC Bridge III"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord






Sorry I haven't posted in a while.

We had some technical difficulties (we're learning that electricity and internet service are kinda spotty in Taos) and then had to head back to Austin, Texas for my brother-in-law's wedding.

I'm finally getting some painting in, although I'd managed to forget how insanely hot it is here.

If you're not done painting by 11am, you're gonna bake.

So, I've been doing a series my friend Whitt Knox refers to as 'The Bridges of Travis County".

Troll that I am, I've been painting under bridges for two days.

Here's the first three paintings, with more to follow either tonight or tomorrow.

And tomorrow, I head back to Taos! Whoo-hoo!

"Arroyo Seco Truck"
3" X 4"
Oil on Gessobord













Today David and I went out to Arroyo Seco so I could add another truck to my collection of Northern New Mexico Trucks.

This old beauty is out in front of the Arroyo Seco Mercantile.

It was a great day for painting, even if I was on the main drag with all the cars whizzing by and all the tourists asking 'are you painting?'

"Laurie"
9" by 12"
Oil on Gessobord













I'm ahead for the week on my minatures, so I decided to paint slightly bigger today.

Today's model was Laurie and she stood in this slightly awkward looking pose for *three* hours.

She did get breaks every hour or so, but my gods, I couldn't have *sat* in one position for three hours even with breaks.

Anyway, it was great working larger. I think I'm going to paint larger for the rest of the week and go back to minatures either this weekend or early next week.

I'm seriously considering doing a larger version of one of my St. Francis Church paintings.

And I really should paint that snake from Rio Pueblo.

Stay tuned!

"Rio Pueblo Outlook"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













"St. Francis Church V"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord










"St. Francis Church VI"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord










Another great day of painting!

We started out at the Rio Pueblo Overlook, which is out past the Taos Country Club on Hwy 110 to the South and West of town.

It was glorious!

And we found a gorgeous bull snake, which my wonderful husband took pictures of. I hope to paint something from those pictures when I get all recovered from this week.

Everything was going swimmingly with the painting until the wind came up much earlier than ususal and I decided to pack it up at 11am and break for an early lunch.

After lunch, I painted one of my favorite subjects, the St. Francis Church at Ranchos De Taos.

I could paint that church every day and never be bored.

Tomorrow is the last day of the paintout, and I'll probably end up missing most of it because I'm planning on going to the the Long Pose Session out in Arroyo Seco.

If I'm lucky, I'll catch up with the plein air painters after lunch.

What a week!

"Black Rock at the Taos Junction Bridge"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord












Day three with Plein Air Painters of New Mexico and Plein Air Colorado.

We drove down into the Rio Grande Gorge at Pilar and had a great time painting the rocks, water and greenery.

I only got one painting today and feel like a slacker.

The sky clouded up after lunch and I just felt like taking it easy.

Instead, David took me to the Taos Spa and I walked on a treadmill for an hour. :(

I think I'll paint most of tomorrow. . .

"Dane"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













"Mommy To Be"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord

















"El Prado Truck"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord







Sorry I've been gone a couple of days.

David just got back from Austin and we got really busy doing house stuff.

But now, the week-long paint-a-thon is on!

This morning I had my session with the Taos Portrait Painters. Their model today was a lovely lady named Dane who was eight months pregnant.

I did one portrait and one semi-abstract piece. Everyone kept raving about how fun her belly was to paint, so that's what I was doing in the abstract piece; having fun.

Then I grabbed a Blakes' Lotta Burger (an Itza Burger actually, the Lotta Burgers are too big) and drove like mad out to join the plein air painters out back of The Sheepskin Company in El Prado where I joined a huge group painting 'The Truck'.

There are two trucks in the Taos area that everyone paints. This is one; the other is out in Arroyo Seco and I'll probably be painting it later in the week.

Anyhoo, had a great time with the plein air painters. Tonight's the social and tomorrow's more painting!

I should also mention that I got a mention as a 'Taos Artist' in the Taos News, Tempo section this week (thanks Patrice!).

I'm so psyched! I'm a recognized Taos Artist! I've finally made it!

"Yellow Bell Pepper"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord














"Red Jalapeno"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord









"Magpie Portrait"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord











Well, the family situation is finally settling down and my nerves are much improved.

I got three paintings done today.

I promise to get back into a better work groove this week.

Next week I'm taking part in a week-long plein air festival. I'll be painting out all week.

Should be most interesting!

"Loud Pepper 1"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord














"Loud Pepper 2"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord















"Loud Pepper 3"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord











Had another little cold snap here in Taos, so instead of the Plein Air (Ouside) painting I'd planned, I stayed inside and painted peppers.

I need to paint more peppers. I love painting peppers.

"Shannon"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord









"Shannon II"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord







Today I went to the 'Long Pose' session of a sculpture group that meets here in the Taos area.

On Wednesdays, they have an 'open' session and allow other media artists to share their model (for a fee, of course).

It was wonderful.

A really, really great studio, an amazing model, and great artists all around.

It was really, really quiet though, so I might have to start taking my iPod. . .

They won't be meeting next week and there's no Portrait painting this Saturday.

I think I'd better start painting more landscapes this next week. . .

"Taos Mountain IV"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord







Sorry I've been slacking off.

Got some unhappy family news and I've been a bit bummed.

Got some good painting done today and I'll hopefully post those pictures tonight.

Yes, I'm caught up. :)

"Edilma"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













"Lillith"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord












Today's model for the Taos Portrait Painters was a gorgeous, exotic lady from Brazil named Edilma.

I painted the first picture, her portrait, and then started another.

But I started messing with it almost immediately, and it became someone else entirely.

So, I got one portrait of Edilma, and one of Lillith.

Well, no snow pictures today.

The snow had mostly melted by 10am and was gone by noon. :(

So, as today is my 100th painting, I decided it was past time for me to paint a self portrait.



"Self Portrait"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord

"Red Willows to the South"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord







"More Snow to the East"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord






Yep, more snow today.

And to a Southern girl like me, It's A Big Deal.

It switched back and forth from rain to snow to rain all day.

And now it's gonna snow all night.

I hope. :)

Tomorrow might feature very white pictures.

Today was the short pose painting session.

Our model was an elfin model named Angie.


"Angie"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord















"Angie II"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord












Angie did about six twenty minute poses and then one 45 minute pose.

I used to paint short poses at the Dougherty Arts Center.

I'm way out of practice. :(

I only got two useable canvases and that was after several hours of repair work at home.

I need to learn how to work faster.

However, Angie will be posing for the Portrait crew this Saturday, so I get another shot at capturing her.

I'm still one painting behind.