It's been a little while since I had to to get back here but now that I am... Here's whats been happening.  I'm just back from a 4 day camping/painting trip at Caprock Canyon State Park.  I needed to get a few more works done to have a better selection to chose from for a couple shows coming up.  I only came back with 5 but I think at least 3 of them may work.   I find that I'm not a prolific painter.  I don't jump out of the car and start painting.  I like to take some time and look around to get a sense of the place.  After that its easy to find the obvious scenes but what I try to do is look beyond that to se how I might change it up or come at it from a different perspective.  The obvious is not always a poor choice and I do sometimes go that way but I'm the happiest when I can improve on the obvious in an original way. 

Well I'm just back from a wonderful and amazing place.  Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Canyon de Shay) is one of several (the most beautiful in my opinion) National Monuments and Parks that protect ancient sites of Anasazi and Navaho Cultures.  Today you can view the canyon from above at several overlooks or you can hire a Navaho guide and see it from a 4x4 along the canyon floor.  I was one of several painters in the 2009 Southwest Paint Out to visit the site as part of one of 4 designated sites for the show.  If you like to paint reflected light then this is the place to visit.  I made the trip from Dallas in two days stopping over night in Santa Rosa State Park for an evening of camping.  I stayed in Window Rock, AZ and drove each day (about 60 miles) to the Canyon.  There are 3 hotels in Chinle, which is right at the entrance of the canyon but I had a waited to long before making my reservations.  The first day or actually the first afternoon I got there I just did a recon of the area and visited each over of the overlooks.  The next day I hiked the one place you can go into the canyon without a guide.  The White house Ruin Trail is about 2.5 miles round trip and a pretty easy hike that takes you to the iconic ruins that most people see in photos of the park.  I got two paintings done on this day.  The next day I went with a 10 other artist via 4x4 and guide for what was suppose to be an 8 hrs day in the canyon.  I guess that is what it was but that only equated into about 3.5 hrs of painting time.  I only got 1.5 paintings done that day but I did get about 300 photos to go along with reference paintings.  I headed home the next day and spent the night and did some paintings at Caprock Canyon State Park in Texas.  It was really surprising to see that the colors in Caprock are very similar to that of Canyon de Chelly.  The reds and orange of rock and soils in Caprock mimics Canyon de Chelly but the scale of the canyons are only about 1/10th that of de Chelly so it can't compare in its vastness.  Overall it was a great trip and I'll definitely go back if I can ever arrange to actually spend a few days and nights in the canyon.

Just back from attending the show and wow, it was fantastic!  The collection of paintings was outstanding and I was very happy to have been juried into the show and to have received an award of Excellence was icing on the cake.  The folks at Howard/Mandville Gallery did an outstanding job hanging the show.  It's always good to attend a show like this so you can see first hand the quality of work being produced by others.  I'm always inspired by other artists and how they see their subject matter.  A couple favorite paintings of mine in the show were; Keith Bond's Painting Bear lake Reflections and Brent Cotton's Spring Burning.  Both really grabbed me.   

Heading out to Washington.   Sharla and I are off to the Opening Reception for the Oil Painters of America Western Regional Show in Kirkland, WA. We’re going to spend a couple days in Seattle near the Howard/Mandville Gallery and then drive up to Olympic National Park. I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the Pacific Coast I've seen in plein air works from that region. I’ve debated about taking my gear and painting but considering how short our time will be I think I use the time to “recon.” for a future trip although I know I’ll kick myself when I get there.  I'll report back how the show looked.

 

Well….. I’m back from the wonderful town of Taos and a fantastic time painting around the “Enchanted Circle”.   There were fifty artists painting in the show and we each had about 5 days to paint at the end of which each had to turn in two paintings for the show.  I spent the first couple days just getting adjusted to the colors and light of the area.  By day three I had found a couple areas that interested me.  The weather was wonderful with each morning starting around 57 degrees and warming to about 87 each day.  There was a little bit of a down side each afternoon, which is typical of this time of the year, that being afternoon storms.  But hey, that’s the way it goes for plein air painters.  I ended up with about 6 paintings of which I selected 2 for the show.  

On the day of the opening I had been asked to do a demo in the Gallery and I was more than happy to do that.  I used one of the small studies I had painted during the week as a reference and basically did a studio version.  I hope those there enjoyed the session.

The juror for the show was Ray Vinella.  Ray is one of the grand old masters of Taos, having instructed a large portion of the younger painters in the Taos area. Ray continues to paint and mentor younger painters in the area of oil painting.  I was very please and humbled that Ray select both of my paintings for awards.  Rio Hondo Headwaters received the PAPNM Artist Award and Conon del Rio Grande received Honorable Mention.

I’d like to thank the Gallery Owner Bob Nightingale for hosting the show and for all the hard work that the PAPNM volunteers and committee members put in to make this show so successful.    

 My Blog......hummmm well that's not a very exciting intro.  Overtime via this blog I intend to speak about my journey as a landscape painter and all the exciting, challenging, difficult, demanding and rewarding aspects of that trip.  I'm not going to start at the beginning but rather right where I am today.   I'll be heading out to participate in the Plein Air New Mexico Members Paint Out in Taos, NM. this Thurs.  The Paint Out starts Fri. and runs till Weds.  The show opens at the Wilder Nightingale Gallery Sat Aug. 1st.  I've been painting "en plein air" as its called for about 5 years now (on top of about 30 years indoors) and my views on painting directly from life is much like so many others that have discovered how much it can help you grow as a painter.  Outside of doing plein air events I typically don't strive for a frame ready painting.  I prefer to concentrate on capturing what ever it is that has caught my attention.  By not setting myself up with a "I've got get this right "mind set I find the whole experience much more enjoyable and I tend to take on more risks or tougher challenges.  I tend to use those as studies as reference material for studio works.  However, when it's game time, it's all business and that can be just as much fun but much more tiring.    So, time to go.... It's game time.  We'll Chat when I'm back.