Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

 I wish you a magical holiday season!
Thank you for your continued interest in and support of my work and favorite occupation.
Many of you know that I spent the last months in company with the 4 brothers. The painting was delivered yesterday and I will miss the brothers. It is my biggest painting yet (30x40", 76 x 101cm), took many hours and taught me a lot, including how much more there is to learn.

It is time to clean the studio, however, and focus on new art projects including an exhibit in Waring, TX in the spring.
Have a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous 2014!

Emily Morgan Reception

On Thursday, Dec 19th, from 6 to 8pm the TAG group has a reception in the Emily Morgan Hotel next to the Alamo in San Antonio. There will be artists' demos and a cash bar. I will be there and was thinking about going to see the Christmas lights on the Riverwalk afterwards. I haven't seen them, since I stopped working with the Italians who used to come around Christmas time. For those in the area, let me know, if you would like to come.

Dec 2013, portrait comparaison

 As some of you know, I was asked to paint the same picture twice. The first one was for Justin (yellow background), the second one for his little sister (pink background). I did not look at what I had painted the first time and started from scratch for the second portrait never comparing with the first one till, at the very end, Justin pointed out a problem and showed me photographs of the painting he had at home. My goal in not comparing them was to make two very different paintings. If I ever find myself in this situation again, I will probably start comparing earlier. Yes, Phyllis, I find (like you do) that I can see errors better in a photograph of the painting than the painting itself.
I find it interesting to compare the faces. Enjoy!

Plein air

Here are two of the watercolors I did this month. One from Mohegan's reservation on the East Coast, where the leaves were splendid!

Perdenal from Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, were it was so cold that my hands were numb and stiff and I couldn't work outside anymore.

I am doing only one art show this fall. I will be in Dripping Springs this coming Saturday with my friend, Phyllis.

Waking up in Albuquerque was painted early in the morning from the hotel.

New Mexico

We had a very nice trip (just too short) and I got to paint 3 watercolors on location. We spent a day in Albuquerque where I explored a few galleries, including Purple Sage with beautiful "plein air" (= on location) pastels and oils, and we visited old town. We spent a whole day at Ghost Ranch. I got to paint my 2 watercolors there. It was the coldest day of our trip and, coming from the heat in Texas, my hands got numb and I froze while painting when the seat I had chosen moved from sun and shadow to just shadow. I painted the second painting in the car, because I was just too cold.
We had 2 days in Santa Fe, where we met dear friends and saw the cathedral and the miraculous staircase and a little of Old Town and explored as many galleries as we could on Canyon Road. The last day we went back to Old Town Albuquerque after I painted the view from the hotel early in the morning. On the road we saw the fairyland of Sonora Caverns and stopped at the wonderful museum in Pecos.

September 2013

Busy times as usual.
We, the TAG group artists, have a reception at the Emily Morgan on Wednesday, September 18th, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the library. The Emily Morgan is downtown San Antonio next to the Alamo. Our new show will be up for 3 months. All my local friends, you are cordially invited!

Tess' World, oil

I finally got a picture of Tess' world that satisfies me.

Yesterday I finished a watercolor of an interesting house near San Antonio College. It has a lot of decorations and several of them are dragons. (You can see two of them on each side of the front door.) The weather vane on the roof of the tower is a golden dragon. I liked this view of the house best because of all the trees. I was experimenting with using more contrast, more tonal value in this particular one. Can you tell?



Captain's House, watercolor

A few new icons that will be for sale in Art on Main (www.artonmaingallery.net) in Pleasanton. They are painted on wood. The photographs are a little yellow, I still need to learn what to do to remedy that.

 

Have a great month!

 

August 2013

With James' instructions and my sons' Gabriel and Gerald's help, we succeeded in taking a photograph of the family portrait. Here it is. Tess' World still had too much glare in it and we will keep trying till we get a satisfactory picture of it.