Luna's Jacal

9x12 oil on cotton canvas panel
$200 (email me if interested)

Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas consists of over one million acres of mountains, deserts and rivers edge. It is full of wild and fascinating history. This small hut called a jacal built from rock, earth,and plant fiber was built by Gilbert Luna in the late 19th century. Gilbert Luna lived in this small house with his 38 children born by six different wives. He was a hard working farmer growing melons and beans. He died at the age of 108 in 1947. I really enjoyed painting the blue tint in the shadows of the hut. I assume the desert atmosphere and shade of the mountains give off a blue haze.

Texas Homestead

8x10 oil on cotton canvas panel
$200 (email me if interested)

Before the subdivision we live in now was developed, it was a beautiful ranch along the Guadalupe River. There are huge oaks, limestone cliffs overlooking the river and stone walls still standing from the early 1900's. The original ranch home was built by Adam Becker for his family who journeyed to Texas from Germany to join Prince Carl Holms-Braunfels. Together they established Fredericksburg and other surrrounding colonies. My painting is of the back of the home. It was made of locally quarried stone and hand-hewn cypress from the banks of the Guadalupe. The original building still exists but the owners have added to it. When we first built our house back in 1994 no one had made any changes to it. It was so interesting to walk amoung the grounds and feel the history.

Sacred Grounds

16x20 oil on stretched cotton canvas
$450 (email me if interested)

Again, I pushed myself to use more than local colors. I am really happy with this painting. I believe I have made a break through with my painting. I am anxious to get started on another one. I have so many potential paintings floating around in my head. I like the simplicity and the play of shadows across the adobe walls. This is the back of the most painted church, Rancho de Taos Church. It is the curved freeform lines and shapes of the walls against the big blue sky of New Mexico that attracts so many artist and photographers.

Desktop

8x10 oil on canvas panel
$150 (email me if interested)
I finished the mural and was anxious to get back to painting with oils. I used acrylics on a poly canvas. I did not like it! It was like painting on cement. I had to scrub the paint on and the acrylics were hard to blend because they dried to fast. Although, I am pleased the way it turned out. We will be installing it this afternoon. I will take some pictures when it is installed. Meanwhile I painted this
8x10 of some old books I had. I wanted to try and capture the softness of the faded colors. I also found a cigar box of old metal toys in the attic and wanted to include them. I would like to do a series of these toys. They have such beautiful soft colors to them. I found by mixing a color's complementary to it I could achieve this soft aged color.

Another passion

For those of you that have come to my blog expecting to see something new, I apologize. I have been working on a 27" x 110" mural commission. I hope to finish in the next week. Meanwhile, I would like to share with you my love of scrapbooking. Before I started painting full time I was scrapbooking. I love old and new photos and paper products. I also love collage with mixed media. I believe sometimes scrapbooking gets a bad rap as a artistic outlet. There are some very creative artists using these techniques. I made this album about a year ago for a competition. The album had to be about yourself. For my album, I was inspired by the works of Georgia O'Keeffe.

This is the front cover. I did the red poppy in colored pencils and and made the bone closure out of Fima clay.

A Stormy Day

8x10 cotton canvas panel
$200 (email me if interested) Sold

I took this photo in Taos, New Mexico when I was there for an art workshop with Don Ward. After our painting session, I drove around taking some photos for later date paintings. A storm was about to roll in. I was fascinated by the way the atmosphere made all the colors intensified, especially the pink truck and the mountains in the background. I am not used to painting with such intense colors in my landscapes, so I was really anxious to see if I could capture the hues caused by the stormy weather. I really liked pushing myself to use these colors. This is the same truck I did in a smaller 6x8 format titled Taos Truck.

Old Chimayo Plaza

9x12 oil on canvas panel
$200 (email me if interested)

My last trip to Santa Fe I stayed at a Bed & Breakfast in Chimayo which is on the grounds of the historic Plaza del Cerro. The buildings date back to the 1700's. It included the home of the Ortega family, the post office and town merchantile til the
1950's. I am always drawn toward old adobe because of the colors and forms. In this painting I pushed myself to use more than local colors. I wanted to express what the sun and shadows can do to these beautiful earthen walls.

Herding the Cows

8x10 oil on canvas panel
$250 (email me if interested)sold

While driving through Truchas, NM on a small one lane road I came across this group of cows in the middle of the road. I could not pass so of course I had to stop. I was reaching for my camera when along the side of the car came a Dingo. He immediately knew he had a job to do. I was fascinated by the way he knew exactly what to do. There was no one around to direct him, it was his own instinct.

Afternoon Stroll

8x10 oil on canvas panel
$250 (email me if interested)

It has been awhile. I spent a week in Fredericksburg taking a workshop from Michael Albrechtsen. What a great teacher! He taught me alot about color and mood. He also talked about how to interpret a photogragh and not just copy it. This is the first painting I have done since the workshop and I am very pleased with it. I actually wrote down some of the high points I wanted to remember and stuck them on my easel where I can see them at all times. Here they are:
1.Things get lighter and more gray further away from the viewer
2.You can use opposite colors to give you distance and separation front to back
3.Pay close attention to your edges
4.You want one edge to be more important than the others
5.Use color opposites to create eye movement
6.Values are closer together as they move away from you

Tulips

6x6 oil on cotton canvas panel
$75 (email me if interested)

Again the red tulips. I wanted to paint them one more time in their glory. This time I concentrated just on the tulips. I think I still captured their graceful curve even though I cropped in very close. The 6x6 format worked out well. Next week I start a week long painting workshop in Fredericksburg, Texas with Michael Albrechtsen as the instructor. I am so excited. I will try and post work in progress and give some insight on what I learn in the workshop. See Ya!

Red Tulips

9x12 oil on cotton canvas panel
$150.00 (email me if interested)

It's Easter at HEB! (oops, for those of you that do not live in Texas and surrounding states, HEB is our main grocery store) The flowers are out. You have tulips in every color, lilies, also in every color, roses, sunflowers and of course chocolate. I have always felt tulips were the only flowers that can look so graceful even when they are slumped over. I could visualize the painting in my head before I began. I wanted to show a slight angle and curve to the tulips in the vase. I have used this same green drape in another flower painting. I feel as though this green gives the paintings a quiet, calm to the flowers.

Saltshaker and Sunflowers

6x8 oil on cotton canvas panel
$75 (email me if interested)

These sunflowers have lasted a lot longer than I thought they would. I had planned on working on my second painting of sunflowers Friday, but life got in the way, and I wasn't able to work till last night. I had fretted all day the flowers were going to be past their prime before I got to them. I bought them on Tuesday night and it is Sunday morning, I may even get to paint them again today. Yea! I added my little green glass saltshaker to this one. I have painted it before. I love painting the green glass with the rusted patinaed top. Painting these giant sunflowers on a small canvas seemed to humble them.

3 Sunflowers

9x12 oil on cotton canvas panel
$200.00 (email me if interested)

I finished this painting at about 12:30 this morning. I wanted to make sure I got the flowers down. I was afraid if I waited till today they would have changed over night especially with my spotlight directly on them. Actually they still look pretty good, I will try and get some more paintings out of them today. Sometimes it helps to see a photo of the the painting, you see it with a different eye. I have read somewhere to hold your painting towards a mirror and look at the mirror image. After seeing the photo I took, I see some twinking I may go back and do, nothing major.

Lady & Sons

6x6 oil on cotton canvas panel
$75 (email me if interested)NFS

If you are a Food Network fan you know who Paula Deen is. This painting is of her restaurant, Lady & Sons, in Savannah, Georgia. My Mom and I ate lunch there when we were visiting my son at Charleston Air Force Base. I am a huge fan of her show and cookbooks. They start taking reservations for lunch onsight at 9:00am. Her restaurant takes up all three floors of the building. The food was absolutely delicious. I am proud of my reflections in the windows. I haven't attempted something so complex before. I really enjoyed painting this one.

Mail Delivery

6x8 oil on cotton canvas panel
$75 (email me if interested)

The colors in New Mexico are the best. I just can't get enough of painting with the sage greens, shades of violets and the golden hues of adobe. This particular scene with the leaning mailboxes was found on Canyon Road, probably the most expensive real estate found in Santa Fe. Go figure. I really like the rabbitbrush with its sage green leaves and bright golden yellow flowers that bloom in the fall. I went on a website of native plants from New Mexico and they said this plant was heat tolerant, can grow in poor soil and most importantly deer resistant. Here in the Texas hill country we are constantly fighting the deer eating every plant in our yard. I may order some seeds and give them a try.