Mountain Sunrise

Mountain Sunrise

Oil on canvas, 10x10

It's been great to have time to paint here - and to teach a couple workshops. 

I had three workshops scheduled, and for a while, it looked like lots of folks had signed up. But in the end, I taught, essentially, two private lessons with two lovely women who both wanted to learn to use the palette knife. And they both did great. 

I've been experimenting with color this week, and I am loving the life that these experiments are bringing to my paintings. At first glance, you might think that these Arizona landscapes are brown and brown and more brown. But when you look closely, you see there are tons of colors - in the earth, in the grasses, reflected from the sky, and in the sky itself. 

So I've been pushing myself to see more, and to let my paintings rise up with color. I like them, and hope you do, too. 

My painting in the landscape

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Here's Lois with her first palette knife painting. Lois, who lives in Green Valley, is a fan of the rodeo, especially of bull riding. She wanted to paint Bushwacker, who she says is one of the most famous bulls of all time - only successfully ridden one time. Bushwacker is retiring at the end of the year.

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This saguaro stands in the yard of the house across the street from my dad's. Birds nest in these cacti, in holes that they make - or that something makes. It takes a saguaro 15-25 years to grow its first arm. The cacti can live to be 70 years old!

Isn't this a lovely tree? I could see it from my booth in the Tubac Arts Festival, and I came to admire its shape, the lightness of its leaves, the pretty shadows at its heart. 

Here's Donna, who bought "Kathryn's Brothers." She has a great store in Tubac, and is a delightful person, with lots of energy and good spirit.

He's not the Dog of the Day, just a funny, goofy-looking dog I saw in Tubac. 

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On the final day of the show, one man brought his parrot. The bird didn't seem to mind 

the people or the art.

 

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 Kevin Ireton and I tried on hats while Cynthia Battista, 

his wife and my friend, tried on clothes. 

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Dog of the Day

Cynthia and Kevin stayed in a great place, just down the road in Tumacacari. The woman who owns the place has a gallery in town, and she makes and sells amazing mesquite furniture there and elsewhere. Apparently, there are often cracks and gaps in the grain in mesquite wood. She fills these with turquoise chips, or, if the gaps are wider, with river stones, then covers the whole piece with polyurethene. Jack lives at her place, and is about the sweetest dog you'd ever want to meet.