NO POSTS FROM FRANCE.....oh dear

LOVED THE FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE

so why no promised posts on my blog?

For the most part my Internet connection was very sporadic and attempts to post blogs failed mid-stream.  Additionally I was immersed totally in the area, the activities, and painting. I will share much more once I am no longer jet lagged and blogging now in the middle of the night.

TRAVEL NIGHTMARE

so stressful I arrived a wreck with no luggage and a full day late due to missing my international flight.  The upper midwest had thunderstorms and hail so no flights were coming in or going out of the Chicago Airport after I arrived there for my first plane change.  Seven hours of sitting in that airport gave me more than adequate time for my online travel agency to cancel completely my flights and rebook them.  (Thank goodness for travel insurance!)  Once I arrived in Toulouse it took four days for my suitcase with painting supplies to arrive and five days for the suitcase with clothes to make it.

FINDING JOY ANYWAY

DreamaTollePerry and her husband are wonderfully positive people and immediately the group began to see the French countryside and I began to do a bit of watercolor journaling. This I could do since those supplies were provided for workshop participants. I found watercolor journaling to be fun and light hearted.  

MUCH MORE SHARING AND BLOGGING TO COME

BONJOUR....oui France

BONJOUR dear friends

STAY IN TOUCH with me

I will be creating cards and postcards of France

with GIVEAWAYS 

to those who sign up for my blog (including those already signed up) 

with extra opportunities to win every time you comment on my blog. 

 Providing the Internet works well in the French countryside I

 will post on my blog 

everyday

 the last two weeks of June.

Passport, panel carrier, sketch book, easel hats and

DREAMA TOLLE PERRY (workshop instructor)

calendar for June

My latest painting below

Monmouth Plantation Gardens
Natchez, Mississippi
16x16 oil on one inch canvas covered cradled board
Click here to purchase

ViILLA ACEQUIA GARDEN WALL plein air painting

Villa Acequia Garden Wall

Villa Acequia Garden Wall
6x8 FRAMED oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase

Painting outdoors cooperation with the Corrales Garden Tour, this plein air painting shows a newly created garden wall including a doorway, arch and bell....a magical touch for a villa built in the 1860s.  Corrales is a rural quaint farming community on the outskirts of Albuquerque.  

VILLA ACEQUIA en plein air

VILLA ACEQUIA

Villa Acequia
painted outdoors on location
FRAMED 6x6 oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase

For my beloved non spanish speaking friends
Villa Acequia
simply means house on the irrigation ditch

This Villa was constructed in the 1860s and has been used as a winery, courthouse, private residence, dance hall, art gallery and as the social hub of the village of Corrales.  The Corrales Village is unique in its traditions, way of life, history and agricultural roots.

On June 8, plein air artists were invited to paint at eight different garden locations in conjunction with the garden tour.  The entire event was very successful.  It is such a joy to paint outdoors in beautiful weather and on this day, it was only in the eighties while the previous few days had been hotter.  I was so grateful!

I will post a second plein air painting from this event soon.

SAILBOARDS ASHORE

SAILBOARDS ASHORE

Sailboards Ashore
Oil on canvas covered cradled board, FRAMED
Click here to purchase

Many years ago I had a time of my life windsurfing off Kihei, Maui, Hawaii.
I was a pro.

Just a few years later I went windsurfing off the coast of
Cozumel, Mexico and for the life of me couldn't catch the wind
without
dumping myself in the water.

What happened?

It is just as well these sailboards are parked
on the white sand beach
in Perdido Key, Florida

A younger sister lives in Florida
Maybe she will help me relearn this skill?????

VENTURA HARBOR IV

VENTURA HARBOR IV

VENTURA HARBOR IV
12x12 oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase

Besides painting en plein air in Ventura I also took many photographs so that once I returned home to New Mexico I could continue to paint the boats, water, harbor, and buildings.  I got a very good sense of the setting, could smell the salt water and feel the humidity so missing here at home.

I love the color the paddle and surf boards, flags and canvas sail covers add to the scene.  Adjacent to the building, there are many umbrellas under which to enjoy a fish sandwich or a spicy Mexican meal.

If you haven't been to Ventura you would be missing something.  There are quaint shops, hotels, restaurants and even a weekly flea market.  Ventura is fairly quiet with not a lot of traffic, my kind of place.

AT REST

AT REST

At Rest
6x8 FRAMED oil on canvas
Click here to purchase

Framed with black frame outside measurement 11x13", charming boat painting of two dinghies at rest in a harbor.

I continue to be on a roll with water, boats, harbors, and seascapes.  My heart is on the coast where I will soon spend two weeks plein air painting in Andrew Wyeth country in Maine.  I want to smell the salt water, to study boats more in depth, to understand coastal industries and to eat fresh fish daily.

Harbor Sunrise

HARBOR SUNRISE

HARBOR SUNRISE
10x10 unframed oil on museum quality board
Click here to purchase

Painting boats, ships, harbors, ocean, and water is a favorite genre of mine. A few years ago I was in Ogunquit, Maine at Perkins Cove. Ogunquit has a sandy beach, and more than a mile of picturesque rocky shore. It is a popular place for artists. I recommend the Barn Gallery there.

Downtown Dining

DOWNTOWN DINING

DOWNTOWN DINING
14x11 unframed oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase

 Downtown Natchez, MS is a fun place to shop, dine, have coffee and visit with the locals.  You can find unique merchandise....and this very quaint restaurant hidden (hardly since it is painted bright red) in a deep alley.  This looks so European to me.

Natchez Poppies

"NATCHEZ POPPIES"

"Natchez Poppies"
6x6 unframed, oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase


This rich, happy painting is suitable for framing or displaying on a tabletop easel.  The poppies growing along the Mississippi River were planted by a resident who loves this flowers and tending them.

NATCHEZ AZALEAS

NATCHEZ AZALEAS

Natchez Azaleas
6x8 unframed oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase

No matter where I go in the world I will find flowers.
I search them out and take hundreds of photographs
or
set up a still life in my studio
In winter, flower shops and cut flowers are available
Summer flowers are endless

Spring is probably my favorite time of year for flowers
Summer heat sometimes can be very hard on them
especially in NM

Last weekend I planted eight hanging baskets
I cannot wait for them to totally fill out and spill over

READING ROOM

READING ROOM

Reading Room
8x6 unframed oil on museum board
Click here to purchase

I am a homebody, probably a closet introvert.  Since Fourth Grade I have loved reading.  Other than PBS and documentaries on television, I don't watch it. Reading takes me places, informs me, and entertains me.  BOOKS, books and books.  In fact just yesterday I went to a book exchange and came home with twenty new books to read.  

Pears in the Cupboard

PEARS IN THE CUPBOARD

6x8, unframed, oil on museum quality board
Click here to purchase

I have a cupboard with glass doors JUST FOR SHOW.  Though everything in here can be used, nothing is.  I just love it the way it is!   I painted this nearly two months ago, as well as "Color in the Cupboard".  It is time to tell you about it!

Don't you love the color transparency and reflections of the red glasses?

Color in the Cupboard

COLOR IN THE CUPBOARD

8x6, oil on canvas covered board, museum quality
unframed
Click here to purchase

I see this colorful painting as both still life and an interior scene.  This is my cupboard, the doors are glass, the pieces are all colorful!   When I remodeled part of my kitchen, this particular cupboard was designed to remind me of the one my grandmother had on a farm in Minnesota.  This painting is suitable for framing or for displaying on a tabletop easel.

IN THE HARBOR

IN THE HARBOR

IN THE HARBOR
8x8 oil, unframed, palette knife
Click here to purchase

I am thinking boats, harbors, lobstermen, fishermen, fish markets, waves
and
my summer trip to Maine

This painting is textural with thick paint layered on with a palette knife.
It is suitable for framing and looks best in a floater frame
but you can also display this on a beautiful tabletop easel

ON MY WAY...motoring out

ON MY WAY

On My Way
12x12 oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase

There are definitely many sides of me in many areas
palette knife and brush
 desert, Europe, flowers, street scenes, buildings, architecture
still life, landscape, seascape, interiors
impresionistic, alla prima
studio artist and plein air artist


I cannot be put in a box in terms of subject matter
The world is too full of magnificent beauty

So paint I must
and
travel I must


Two more trip in 2014
two weeks each
Maine and France

MOTIF NO. 1 ROCKPORT, MA

MOTIF NO. 1  ROCKPORT, MA

8X8 oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase

You may wonder about the title but if you are an art aficionado, you need read no further.  Starting in the 19th century, Cape Ann, which includes Rockport, Gloucester and other quaint towns, has been host to many of the very best, most celebrated artists in America.  A few of those include the great Winslow Homer; impressionists Childe Hassam and John H. Twachtman; and modernists Edward Hopper and Marsden Hartley.

Perhaps the best symbol of the legacy created by the migration of artists might be the small red lobstermen's shack located at the end of a wharf in Rockport, built around the time of the Civil War.  I painted the "shack" as it looks today, but in the 19th century only the right end comprised the building.

In the early 1930's, while critiquing a group of students' paintings, several of which featured the little red shack, Lester Hornby, using a term often employed by French students to describe frequently painted sites,  exclaimed, "What---Motif No.1  again!"  His fateful words stuck and since then the little red shack has been referred to as "Motif No. 1"

Seascapes are very appealing to me and recently I have painted several.  I will soon post them here. Many more will come as I count down the months until I can spend two weeks in coastal Maine, Andrew Wyeth country.

I am proud of this painting: VENTURA HARBOR I

VENTURA HARBOR I

12x12 oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase

I love coastal living but here I am in
the beautiful desert of
New Mexico

Within one month I have attended two workshops: one with Leslie Saeta and the other with Dreama Tolle Perry.  Their style of painting couldn't be much different, yet I love them both, style and subject matter.

I painted "VENTURA HARBOR I" with Leslie, en plein air, palette knife only.  We were set up so that the sun was not a bother.  Leslie uses a limited palette of five colors plus white:  Cad Yellow Med, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Green and Sap Green.  On the day we painted the ocean color didn't demand use of Phthalo Green though I have seen it used in many paintings, especially in the ocean paintings of Sorolla I recently saw in Dallas.  The colors I used to get the above ocean color were Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue (for a bit of purple), Sap Green and Cad Yellow Medium.

Yes, I am in love with harbor scenes and boats.  My Pinterest website has a board of gorgeous ship, harbor and ocean paintings.  You really should see it here.  My plan is to continue this thread of painting and I have already scheduled two weeks of painting in Maine, in Andrew Wyeth country near Rockland.

A photo of what I was seeing in Ventura Harbor
You can see I zoomed in and greatly simplified my painting.

My Mostly True Driving Solo Story....

NEW PAINTINGS THIS WEEK

GARDEN ARBOR
oil on gessobord  12x9
click here to purchase

SUNFLOWER IN WINDOW
oil on gessobord 12x12
click here to purchase

LAVENDER HARVEST
oil on gessobord 12x12

These paintings were done in a wonderful workshop
with Dreama Tolle Perry

BRINGING HOME MISSISSIPPI AND LOUISIANA

MS, LA, AND TX moved to NM

Trip miles: 9999
Number of Lost Times: 444
Hit by rubber from 18 wheeler blow-out: 1
Number of new friends: 27
Favorite towns visited: Vicksburg and Natchez
Number of New Hoppers accidentally met: 1

DRIVING TRIP...Going solo...yikes

Being brave

Trusting 

Well armed with

 AAA

Technology and 

Curiosity

Before the temperatures get too high in the southeast I am going for a "look see". About three weeks ago I put this sign in my studio.

I was stressed by the "musts" of a blog, website, Facebook, Daily Paintworks, keeping records and more. Just to sell? To find success? Was it recognition I was chasing?

That was just nuts and I realized it was time to rearrange my priorities to ensure contentment, joy.  It was time to be more in harmony with my spiritual essence, to trust.  What I know for sure is that I love painting, taking art workshops, and seeing our country. I also know for sure that I am divinely protected and can safely go where my heart leads.

On my way to the southeast I'll stop at an occasional flea market, a view pull out, farm market stand, or have a conversation with an interesting character. I will stop and "that will make all the difference" on my "road less traveled" (Robert Frost).  Many of my roads will be two lane. My easel and paint will be easily accessible for a quick study. Camera at the ready. In Shreveport I will stop for three days for my second

DREAMA TOLLE PERRY WORKSHOP

In Vicksburg, I will visit the Civil War Military Museum. My husband's great-grandfather was a POW here in the Civil War.  I'll follow the Natchez Trace to Natchez.  And in Natchez there are antebellum mansions I won't miss. No ropes in front of the china cabinet or canopy bed will keep me out.  I will return through Dallas so that I can see the Joaquin Sollora exhibit.

Listening to my intuition

 this solo driving trip may take me further on. Where to next? 

I have the most supportive husband telling me to go where my heart leads while he mans the home front and listens for all my phone calls and text messages all the while taking care of his "honey-do" list.

I hope you will follow me on this journey, leaving very soon, which is much more than a drive.  Comment below with your suggestions for my driving trip in the southeast.
  PLEASE