CORRALES ADOBE WALL AND GATE IV

Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate IV

The last in the series of this gate and wall.  I have loved painting it for the past few days, daily painter that I am, so for the last painting, I am looking at this nearly straight on.  The Chamisa is in full bloom, while the background cottonwood tree is quickly turning yellow.

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Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate IV
Little Gem 6x8
oil on black gessoed board

CORRALES ADOBE WALL AND GATE II

Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate II
6x8 Little Gem
oil on canvas mounted with a black painted edge

         "Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate II"

     I guess you know I enjoy painting the walls and buildings of New Mexico.  Each wall is unique as all of them are built by hand.  Adobe bricks are made from a straw and mud mixture and then dried in the sun.  The adobe bricks are used to create freeform structures which are then covered with stucco.

    This particular house, wall and gate located in Corrales is weedy and unkempt.  I doubt that more than a couple of the plants were planned...most of the growth is from blown in seeds.

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Corrales Adobe Wall and Gate 

Here is yesterday's post of my first painting of
Corrales Adobe Wall and GateII.  You can see
I painted the same scene from a different angle.
Which one do you like best?  

Tomorrow I will post a third painting of the same location.

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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.

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-Eight: In Pink

In PInk
Little Gem
6x8 oil on museum board

Love painting...even every day.   Most of the time it is relaxing but today I really put effort into following Julie Ford Oliver's fracturing technique and painting was a struggle.  I am not sure this is finished or how successful I was with the fracturing.

I have painted many, many flowers in my career but this month of the challenge I concentrated on NM.  Hibiscus do well here too!

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Day Twenty-Seven "Sunflower Field" SOLD

Sunflower Field
Little Gem
6x8 oil on museum board

SUNFLOWER FIELD    SOLD

The sunflowers have put out a lot of seed for the geese we expect to arrive very soon from the north.  Many of the sunflowers are wild, but this is field very near the Alemada Wetland I painted earlier so I think it was probably planted for the birds and wildlife.

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Wind on the bike trail today; I am struggling.  Head down, body near prone, forearms and hands crisscrossed on handle bars.  I have seen every kind of bicyclist or runner with a protective baby or dog stroller, but I have to buck this wind on my own.  Now what is this contraption coming down the trail?  A what?  An ELF?  Yes, that is my bike parked while SHE rides free out of the wind.  And if that is too tough, SHE turns on the solar driven motor for some or all assist to pedaling.  What will I next find on this bike trail?

ELF  for Electric, Light, Fun
www.organictransit.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 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.

Sorghum Harvest

Sorghum Harvest
Little Gem
6x8 oil on canvas, mounted

DAY TWELVE of the thirty day challenge



When I arrive at this point on my almost daily bicycle journey, I see a field of yellow sorghum nearly ready for harvest.  Here in the city of Albuquerque we have open spaces, some of which are part of the state park system.  The crop in this field is rotated yearly and is feed only for birds migrating from the north who winter in New Mexico.  We have Canada Geese, Sandhills Cranes, Snow Geese and others.

The scraggly trees are Cottonwoods, native to the bosque area of the river.   The trees are old and no longer regenerate by themselves because the river is dammed and doesn't flood anymore. They are now being replanted...just stick a live twig in the sand near the river, and than twig is soon a tree.

To purchase or bid on the auction, 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.

Los Poblanos Garden

Day Nine of the Thirty Day Challenge:  This rather unkempt supposedly formal flower garden at Los Poblanos farms in Albuquerque is exquisitely beautiful.  There was so much to include in this garden, to me it just called to painted with a palette knife and no brush.  I love how it turned out, especially when I added a yellow sky.

To purchase click on the link under the photograph.

I wish you could join me tomorrow night at the New Mexico state fair.  I entered four paintings in the fine arts exhibit and got all four of them in.  What a blessing.  Then a few days ago I got a call to tell me to be at the fair at 4:30 on 9/10 as one of the paintings won an award.  I cannot wait to find out more about that.  If you cannot be there, I will share more about it on my blog.

Los Poblanos Garden
Little Gem
6x8 oil on canvas mounted

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 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

Santa Fe Adobe V, Day Four of Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge

Santa Fe Adobe V
6x8 oil on canvas, mounted

SANTA FE ADOBE V, oil on canvas, mounted on Masonite suitable for framing or display on a tabletop easel.  Day Four of the Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge



Isn't this organic natural wall interesting?  I would have liked to watch it being built.  This type of wall is very prevalent in Santa Fe, but walls are found around property throughout the state.  It may just be the style, but I was told they were built to keep out rattlesnakes.  I have lived in NM for 45 years and have never seen a rattlesnake.

The Russian Olive tree inside the wall is messy and thisrty.  It doesn't belong in the desert and is considered by some to be a nuisance.  Yet it is a very beautiful tree with an incredible fragrance in the spring.

To purchase, click on the click on the photo.

Santa Fe Adobe, Day Three of Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge

   Santa Fe Adobe II 6x8 oil on canvas, mounted on Masonite
     Day Three of Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge


Even though the elevation of Santa Fe is over 7000 feet which makes it somewhat cooler, it can get hot there as well.  It is a desert unless there is irrigation.  This painting is very typical of the architecture of the houses and walls.  On half the wall you can see the adobe blocks exposed...before the stucco fell off.

This was the second painting of this house; the first was done in plein air.  Hot, hot, hot and no shade.

To purchase, click on the link under the photograph.

Santa Fe Adobe II
6x8, oil on canvas, mounted on hardboard

SANTA FE ADOBE IV

"Santa Fe Adobe IV"
6x8 oil on canvas panel, mounted

With the encouragement of my dear artist friend, Julie Ford Oliver, I decided to push color in the adobe walls found everywhere in NM.  My favorite walls and gates are in Santa Fe.

I also signed up for the thirty paintings in thirty days challenge set up by Leslie Saeta for September.  I think I will continue with architectural elements as they are such fun to paint.

Sorry this painting is sold.  There are many more on dailypaintworks.com; click on artist Carol Hopper.

ARTIST JOURNEY...SUMMER TRAVELS

NORWAY...a trip of a lifetime.  This trip was pretty fast paced and there wasn't time to paint even with water color.  There was time for quick sketches and plenty of photographs.

Norway promotes a trip called "Norway in a Nutshell".  I wasn't on that trip, only a portion of it.  This valley is looking back toward Flam;  river and waterfalls are at their peak.

This is a Little Gem, only 6x8 oil on canvas mounted on board, framed and can be purchased through the New Mexico Cancer Center by clicking on Little Gem.

It is so much fun to take liberties with one's painting.  I pushed color and of course did my best to paint with loose strong strokes.

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