On My Easel

4 March 2024:

The studio expansion project is done and I have a capacious new space to work and exhibit. I am pleased with it, the contractor Eric Montoya turning in some great work. New Concept Gallery has set the shows for this year and I have four weeks in July.

19 September 2023:

First cool nights of the autumn are here. Working on a piece about the chamisas in front of a Chama mesa. Will start on a new bouquet painting with a white background soon.

30 July 2023:

Still hot afternoons, in the nineties. Promise of rain on the horizon. I am liking the work on these bouquet images, picking a different background color for each one. Will try some red walls next.

15 July 2023:

Hot as blazes outside, but I stay fairly cool in my AC’d studio. Finishing up the third in a series of bouquets, updating an idea from long ago.

12 April 2023:

Spring is starting to make itself known
out in the garden. I am hoping to have
some photos/drawings of the fruit trees in bloom…. peaches and plums, and later the apples.

30 January 2022:

It seems only right on this cold winter day to start a bright garden painting. I wanted to have only whites and yellows in the blossoms, and so far, so good.

2 December 2022:

I’ve been doing a continuing series of cloud paintings in a variety of sizes. On the easel a start of a 36×36 version.

13 November 2022:

I’ve started a mountain cascade piece, with lots of greens. Maybe because the garden is turning all autumnal colors and I want some green. I sometimes like a painting the most at this unfinished stage, with some white canvas showing.

30 September 2022:

There is something fun about working on a narrow horizontal piece. The cropping of the image is severe, and it is good to spend some time thinking about it. Victor, who takes care of the garden, brought me one plum, the entire harvest from a new tree.

21 September 2022:

I’ve been working on a new garden piece, this one is 48″ by 48″. It seemed an interesting endeavor to attempt lighter and softer colors in a complex design. Nearing completion, it appears to be okay.

7 September 2022:

The exhibit at New Concept Gallery opens on Friday 9 September, and they will be showing eleven new paintings of mine. I really appreciate their continued interest in my work. On the easel now, another version of the Mesa at Navajo.

29 August 2022:

I can feel Autumn in the air and see it in the light. It was fun to start this large landscape of
Navajo, where the reds and greens live happily together, but making a visual buzzing sound.

7 August 2022:

The garden beside the studio is now at its summer zenith and I am finishing up a series of paintings. I have plans for several larger pieces, as they are both fun and a challenge to do.

10 July 2022:

The daylilies are in full bloom along the terrace garden, and it seemed a good motif to start now. Monsoon rains make all the garden happy.

27 June 2022:

Lots of recent rains make the garden come forward and bloom. This new canvas size, 60″ tall by 36″ wide makes interesting challenge to design.

29 May 2022:

Working on a larger Black Canyon piece while
the winds blow around the studio. A very blustery May.

21 April 2022:

The wind is blowing strongly today, with only one of the french doors open to the garden…..but apple trees coming into bloom as well as the Oklahoma redbud. On the easel another version of the Center Garden.

7 April 2022:

Soon the garden will be back in bloom, and awaiting new paintings. The lavender, 30 of them, have been planted in the open triangle.

20 March 2022:

This 48 x 48 size canvas if fun to work on….a garden from my first studio on Canyon Road. I will try to find a good sized horse chestnut tree or two at the nurseries this spring…a signature tree for me.

5 March 2022:

I just sowed two ounces (about 100k seeds) of Corn Poppy seeds around the garden, hoping for rain in the next few days. This painting is from a motif from the Canyon Road gardens, years ago…

4 February, 2022:
With still snow on the ground, I am thinking about summer gardens. This canvas is of Eudora Welty’s garden in Jackson, MS. A group of us went there a few years ago and toured the great writer’s house and garden. Not much in bloom, but a great sense of calm verdancy.

5 December 2021:
I’ve started on a series of vertical landscapes on the 48 inch high by 36 inch wide canvases. They seem to be going well, with two already finished and this third one under way. Vertical landscapes appear to be somehow more modern, more “today” than the horizontal ones… but I like both.

10 November 2021:
I’m working on this scene of the Rio Grande Gorge north of Taos. The garden is slowly loosing leaves for the winter sleep, but days are sunny, chilly.

26 September 2021:
There are a lot of white zinnias in the front garden right now. I thought they might make a good series of paintings. This is the first.

5 July 2021:
I’m working on some paintings of the terrace garden, which is now in full bloom. The white poppies in this canvas have already passed over.

7 June 2021:
My new garden at the Moonlight Drive house is deep into its second year, giving me many corners of garden to paint. This is from a year or so ago, when the Flanders Poppies were at their zenith. They arrange and re-arrange themselves in ever changing patterns.

3 March 2021:
Working on a vase filled with flowers against a yellow wall. Different subject for me.

17 February 2021:
Lots of snow on the ground, but working on a garden painting brings cheer.

11 January 2021:
The year is starting with little snow on the ground. I have been going through summer motifs for these clouds over Hopi.