CORRALES ADOBE WALL AND GATE

Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate
Little Gem
6x8 oil on canvas mounted

"Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate"

    Just like Santa Fe and the Albuquerque Old Town area, Corrales, New Mexico has quaint old stucco structures.  I am painting a series of this particular gate and house.  For the first in the series, I chose afternoon sun.

    This painting is also featured in the dailypaintworks.com contest.  To bid on this painting, click here.  If you prefer to BUY IT NOW rather than participate in the auction, that option is now available.

    My Little Gems have a black painted edge so they look great in a floater frame or mounted on tabletop easel.  All my paintings are suitable for framing.

Spring Garden, South Carolina SOLD

Spring Garden, South Carolina
Little Gem
6x8 oil on canvas, mounted

SPRING GARDEN, SOUTH CAROLINA  SOLD

    Here is my favorite landscape subject: a flower garden.  When I visit South Carolina in the spring, I find it very difficult to leave.  Charleston is a town of beauty and history.

    I had trouble painting the grass as there are so many greens.  Initially my green was too cool which caused the entire painting to be almost completely cool.  I think I am happy with it now, but if you have suggestions for improvement, I would love to hear them.

   Because this Little Gem has a black painted edge, it looks great in a mahogany frame, a floater frame, or displayed on a tabletop easel.

Click here to purchase on dailypaintworks.com.

Flam Valley, Norway II

Flam Valley, Norway II
Little Gem
oil on canvas mounted on board

FLAM VALLEY, NORWAY II"


Landscapes are my favorite genre.  Norway is my favorite European country.  If you haven't been there, you surely must go.  The walls of the fjords are very steep and beautiful.  Water flows from melting snow creating thundering powerful falls.  The smart Norwegians channel the falls into huge tubes which are part of their power plants (hidden in the mountains) used to generate electricity.

Peace is the essence of this painting.  Peace and beauty.

Click here to purchase on dailypaintworks.com.

Magnolia Gardens

Magnolia Gardens

It is wonderful to be painting flowers and gardens again since I was faithful during the thirty day challenge to paint only New Mexico.  But I travel whenever I can for the purposes of enjoyment and my art.   Spring at Magnolia Gardens finds azaleas everywhere.  Being there to walk the gardens, sketch the scene and the colors and smell the fragrances is truly wonderful.  This is a lovely little painting, suitable for framing or for displaying on a tabletop easel. 

Click here to purchase on dailypaintworks.com

Magnolia Gardens
6x8 Little Gem
oil on canvas mounted

Day Thirty: Corrales Church

In thanksgiving to all of you, I have posted a church today.  I am thankful for your support.    The Corrales Church is solid adobe, the walls probably are two feet thick.  It is cool in the summer and warms up in the winter.  I love the light and shadow on the church.

STAYED TUNED as tomorrow is the drawing for the free Little Gem...the winner chooses!

Please stay tuned to my blog as I am a daily painter and will continue to post a couple times a week.  You will definitely want to hear and see Norway at Christmas time...coming to you from the Arctic Region, the Russian and Swedish borders.  

THANK YOU Leslie Saeta for setting up the challenge!

Click here to purchase on dailypaintworks.com

Corrales Church
Little Gem 6x8
oil on museum board

Day Twenty Six: Warm Light on the Mountains SOLD

Warm Light on the Mountains
Little Gem
6x8 oil on museum board

Not today, but I stood in this area and painted plein air a few Septembers ago.  Painting this scene outdoors was very difficult because the desert seemed forbidding and harsh.  In reality it is, because plants must survive drought, wind, and heat.  The beauty was in the mountains.

So back in the studio, I let the painting rest...yes, for two years.  Today I painted the Little Gem, working from the larger plein air painting and a photograph but just for a while.  Then I turned to my imagination and just painted.

Click here to buy on dailypaintworks.com.

Day Twenty Four: Desert Monsoon Season

"Desert Monsoon Season"
Little Gem
6x8 oil on canvas mounted

Six to go dear fans...did you hear...only six to go!

Obviously lots of prayers and wishes got answered this year as the rains came and came.  We are caught up for this year, but remain way down when adding in the previous years of drought.  So our water table remains too low.

It isn't very often I see storm clouds like this and it also isn't very often that it takes three weeks for a painting to dry.

This is our bosque area looking east to the Sandia mountains, part of the Rocky Mountain System.  Albuquerque's average elevation is 5000 feet.

Click here to buy on dailypaintworks.com

Day Twenty-Two: "Clouds Lifting"

Lifting Clouds
Little Gem
6x8 oil on canvas mounted

Can you believe I am within eight days of finishing the challenge.  I know I can do it now!

The state fair ends today here in Albuquerque and I am curious how the attendance has been.  We've had some rain during the fair, and desert people stay away from the fair when it rains.

But as you can see in my painting the clouds lift, and often the sun is out during the day.  The sorghum field is no longer bright yellow.

Sometimes I struggle with a painting; not this one.  There is more brushwork in this painting than palette knife, but both were used.

Click here to buy on dailypaintworks.com

Day Twenty One of Thirty Day Challenge: "Abandoned Arbor" SOLD

Abandoned Arbor
Little Gem
8x6 oil on mounted canvas

Oh, the neglect I found here...I wonder what the story is behind letting this go.  But I can't ask because I have been like Wee Willie Winkle running through neighborhood, peeping over walls, through gate slats, and fallen fence rails.  I keep my bike by my side for a handy get away.

Truly this setting was perfect for a painting.  It reminds me of a book I loved in my childhood about a secret garden.  Don't you agree this is mysterious?

Click here to purchase on dailypaintworks.com

Day Nineteen: The Fairest of them All SOLD

FUNNY STORY TODAY ABOUT THIS GRANDMOTHER'S BIKE DRIVING!

   The rain has let up and I am back on the bike worrying whether or not the rain has destroyed these tiny white and rose flowers.  I saw them several days back, but where.  My bike ride is ten miles in length,  five miles each way.  I feel as though I must find these little flowers today.  It is my last chance.  I have finished with about two-thirds of my ride and I haven't seen them...until...suddenly there they are!  I applied my bike brakes so hard, I left an eight foot skid mark on the black top of the bike trail.  I scrambled down this wet muddy bank...and now you see the result.

Click here to buy this painting on Daily Paintworks.com.

The Fairest of Them All
Little Gem
6x8 oil on canvas mounted

Day Seventeen: Hollyhocks and Blue Gate SOLD

Hollyhocks and Blue Gate
Little Gem
6x8 canvas on board mounted

Prowling in my little neighborhood subdivision...riding my bike instead of walking....snapping photographs of people's plants, gates, walls, and doors.  I have found plenty of painting material on my street alone.  As usual there is inventing....this gate was a different color, the stucco was a very light PINK and the hollyhocks were roses.
Well, at least today I didn't move any trees!

I had a struggle with this painting initially because I originally did paint the stucco light pink.  It took me a while to figure out the painting needed to be warmer!

To purchase or bid on this painting, click here.

Day Fifteen: Alemada Wetland II SOLD

Alemeda Wetland II
Little Gem
6x8 oil on canvas mounted

To see into this wetland, one must go into a "duck blind" so no wildlife is disturbed.  Besides ducks, geese, and cranes that winter in Albuquerque, there are mammals in this wetland.  There are two Canada Geese enjoying the wetland on this day, though no other geese have yet arrived from the north (September).

I really loved painting the two wetland scenes and sharing them as I know most people have no idea the desert southwest has this...and right in my city of Albuquerque.

It has been raining cats and dogs in Albuquerque for several days now.  I am so grateful I got photos of the flowering desert plants as I expect, when I can next get on my bike, that the blossoms have all been knocked off.  Maybe not; desert plants are a hardy lot!

To purchase or bid on this painting, click here.

Day Fourteen: Alemada Wetland I SOLD

Alemada Wetland I
Little Gem
6x8 oil on canvas, mounted 

Because the flight path for migrating birds follows the Rio Grande Valley, there are several wetlands in New Mexico.  Alemada Wetland I is painted facing the sun, therefore the trees and in cool green.  On Day fifteen of the challenge, Alemada Wetland II is facing away from the sun, therefore I the trees have sunlight on them. These painting side by side are really terrific.

Today is Day Fourteen of the thirty day challenge...a challenge it is.  Can I take a break soon?  Yes, in sixteen days!

To bid on or purchase this painting, click here.

Desert Plants in Bloom VI SOLD

Desert Plants in Bloom VI
Little Gem 6x8
oil on canvas mounted

DAY 13 of the thirty day challenge...closing in on the halfway mark...

Purple and green...desert colors?  Well, they must be as I am off to the side of the bike trail taking a photo.  Some riders don't understand what I am doing and most days somebody asks me if I am all right.  There are walkers on the trail with cameras.  They understand the beauty of the desert.

I would love to know the names of these desert plants so I could tell you.  When I did a google search, I got names, scientific and otherwise, but no photos.   Now how is that supposed to help me?

I find myself rarely using a brush anymore.  Almost all of my thirty paintings are palette knife paintings.

To bid on or purchase this painting, click here.

Desert Plants in Bloom V SOLD

Day Eleven of the Thirty Day challenge, 9/11 and Happy Birthday to my only child!

Out on the Paseo del Bosque bike trail again, riding hard, trying to build up leg muscles in anticipation of a Christmas ski trip to Norway with my soon to be 16 year old grandson.  There was a bit of coyote scat on the trail today; must have been a coyote party in the night.  Not long ago I saw the coyote parents heading into the heavy brush adjacent to the river.  The cubs were left alone sunning in the open.

Today I had more stops than normal for photos.  I love the wide openness of these wild flowers.  Orange, really orange.

To purchase, click here.

ACEQUIA MADRE II

Day Ten of the thirty day painting challenge: Acequia Madre II, 6x8

For Acequia Madre I, I stood in this dry arroyo painting en plein air in the hot sun surrounded by desert plants and a vista extending sixty miles.   Painting outdoors is difficult as the earth spins, colors and shadows shift requiring touch ups at home.  Purists say my original cannot then be considered "en plein air".  Humbug.

  I loved the sold original so much, I decided to paint the scene again in the comfort of my studio changing it somewhat.  This is a favorite NM painting of mine.  

To bid or purchase this painting, click here.

Desert Plants in Bloom IV

Desert Plants in Bloom IV
Little Gem
oil on canvas, mounted

DAY EIGHT of the thirty day challenge and all is well.   My daily bike rides provide me with so much material for painting but fall is (maybe) in the air and I notice flowers on the native plants are less fresh.  This plant is called Apache Plume because the flowers look like plumes.  The Apache part I am not so sure of.  We love the plant even in our own yards.

Sunday on the bike trail is a mash-up: in-line skaters, walkers, runners, bicycles and today there was a 35 mile bike event.

To purchase, click on the link under the photograph.

Desert Plants in Bloom II

Desert Plants in Bloom II
Little Gem
Oil on canvas, mounted

Day Seven of the Thirty Day Challenge:

Out on the Paseo del Bosque bike trail again today, good thing I talked with a gorgeous gentleman (yes, I am married) because I had a battle with this painting.  I kept getting mud when the yellow paint of the flowers mixed with the purple background.  Scrape, scrape, scrape.  Finally I thinly laid in the purple back ground to quick dry; then I was successful in painting the remainder of the plant.  I love the background as well...

I don't know the names of the hundreds of native wild desert plants along the ditches and river bank of NM.  I wish I did.


By the way, the gentleman and I agreed that the best time of day was dawn.

To buy this painting, click on the link under the photograph.

DESERT PLANTS IN BLOOM III

Desert Plants in Bloom III
Little Gem
6x8, oil on canvas mounted

Day Six of the Thirty Day Challenge...


Another day on the bike trail soon after the sun was up.  There was more moisture in the air as it rained a tiny bit last night so I saw a rainbow in the sky during my ride.  Hot air balloons were up too with one silhouetted against the rainbow.  What a sight that was!

Today I rode in a different direction and found many more blooming desert plants at an inner city plant and wildlife preserve.  Living so near the Rio Grande and the bike trail is a blessing.


To purchase, click on the link under the photograph.

DESERT PLANTS IN BLOOM I, Day five of thirty day challenge

Desert Plant in Bloom I
6x8 Little Gem
Oil on canvas, mounted

I love to ride my bike as I live near the Rio Grande River along which there is a wonderful bike trail.  I leave very early in the morning to get my exercise out of the way for the day so I can paint daily for the thirty day challenge.  Being out there so early, I see morning sun on the native desert plants with beautiful shadows.  

The beautiful native plants grow along side the levee bike trail.

Available for auction at the link under the photograph.

Taking my own photo with my iPhone

Hard to tell but the trail is a levee as well