Top of the Trail

If you climb the entire trail at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument you will get this view looking down on the hoo-doos and over at the Sandia Mountains.  This is another of the 12 x 12 paintings for the series.  

●Top of the Trail
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Red Mill

●Red Mill
60  x 40 Oil on Canvas 

Winter work for a cold day

●Winter Dunes at Big Talbot
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks

I have a show in October as the artist of the month at the Island Art Association gallery.  The space is not large so I am working on a series of 12 x 12 canvases for that show (12 to the 3rd power).  Right now it is looking kind of bi-polar with half landscapes and half abstractions of the mills/bridges/ports.  

This is from my hike at Tent Rocks in New Mexico last fall.  And yes, the sky was really that blue!  This site is now a national monument so a lot more hikers than we remember before that designation, but still a breathtaking place (not just because of the climb...)

●Tent Rocks (Kasha-Katuwe)
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Hot Off the Press

Hand printed and tinted drypoint intaglio print, edition of 15, ready for shipping.  This is going to a print exchange at 9 in Hand Press.  

Queen of Needles
5" x 7" Drypoint print with hand coloring

More Studying...

Study for Bridge and Port
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Small Study for the NE Florida Industrial Series

Study for Red Mill
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas

Rio Grande Gorge Revisited

I have attempted to paint the gorge bridge several times and have never been quite satisfied until now.  I think I am getting closer to what I want with this one.

The Gorge
12 x 24 Oil on Canvas

More New Landscape Work

Following on the experimental works from my last post, I retained some of the concepts and process I used but moved into my preferred medium of Oils on canvas.  I also used oil crayon and oil sticks on the work and kept to the landscape format.

Hiking Near Los Alamos
24 x 20 Oil and Oil Crayon on Canvas Panel

Million Dollar Highway to Ouray
22 x 28  Oil and Oil Crayon on Canvas 

Experiments with Landscape

The Artist group I have been involved with for the past few years has embarked on a new endeavor for this year involving a set of art cards containing "instructions" in 3 distinct categories.  We blind pick a card from each category deck and must use at least two of the cards to produce a piece.   The basics of my 3 cards were:

• Do a painting using only Cadmium Orange and a tube black
• Do a Blind Contour drawing of a photograph you like or a live subject (person, place or thing). Don't look down at the paper while you are drawing.  If you come up with something abstract. GOOD
• Use drafting tape as a design tool.  Start with a wet-into-wet underpainting (this layer will be your lightest light).  After this dries, apply random shapes to your paper using drafting tape.  Draw your subject and paint it. If you wish, add more tape as you go, or move the tape around to add layers.  

I couldn't see myself using only orange and black so chose to incorporate the other two cards and see where it went.  I ended up doing two works for this project.  Million Dollar Highway is from a drawing of the road from Durango to Ouray in Colorado from this past fall just as the leaves were beginning to change color.   Bonavista Visions is from photos and drawings I have of trips to the Cape Bonavista Lighthouse in Newfoundland.  

Million Dollar Highway
18 x 24 Mixed Media on Fabriano Watercolor Paper

Bonavista Visions
24 x 18 Mixed Media on Fabriano Watercolor Paper 

Artist Book finished!

I have been experimenting with drypoint etching on a little press I bought to play with a few months ago.  I have finished a limited edition of six hand printed books of Florida threatened and endangered wildlife.  The covers are also made with hand painted papers and hand stitched.  Four books are available at the Island Art Association Gallery. 

Hand painted paper covers 

Drypoint Etching Prints in the book. (cover page with text is not etching)

Sailing by Jaxport

Sailing by Jaxport
60 x 40 oil on canvas