Award!

Wow! My painting, Turnagain Arm, won the Winsor & Newton Award for Excellence at the 11th Annual MasterWorks of New Mexico Fine Art Show, which exhibited April 4-25, 2009. I'll even get a spiffy plaque to hang in my studio. What fun! I also received a fantastic Winsor & Newton watercolor paint set which will be great for traveling. It was encouraging to receive this recognition.

Right now I'm working on a painting of two Korean Buddhist nuns walking on a trail in the woods...it's spring, and the forsythias are blooming.

Inspiration for Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm 14.5 x 22"

I took a three month camping trip to Alaska last summer. I love this late time of day, with the long shadows and subtle colors. The tides are extreme in this arm or bay, and the reflections were very clear in the shallow water. I did a small plein air painting on site, painting in the shadows first to capture the moment. I also took several reference photos. In January I used these references to paint this in my studio.

Inspiration for Poinsettias

Poinsettias, 14.5 x 22"

Christmas was coming up, and I had this beautiful poinsettia plant blooming like crazy. How could I not paint it? I finished the painting on December 24.

New paintings coming up

I was pretty busy during December printing and mailing out cards. Thanks to all of you who placed orders! I have several new paintings, and will post images of them soon.

Inspiration for Hermit's Peak in Winter

Hermit's Peak in Winter, 14.5 x 22"

Hermit's Peak is the dominant landscape feature in northeastern New Mexico. It stands out by itself just east of the main Sangre de Cristo Mountain chain, the southernmost part of the Rocky Mountains. I like to paint it in all seasons. One day I was cross-country skiing on my neighbor's ranch, and was struck not only by the sculptural effect of the late afternoon shadows, but also by the yucca plants dotting the snowy meadows. The late afternoon highlights on the mountain contrast nicely with the blue-greens of the vegetaion, and the snow simplified and brightened the composition. I rearranged the yuccas in my painting to create a pattern that frames the rest of the scene and draws the viewer's eye back to Hermit's Peak.

Upon finishing the painting, I emailed an image to my rancher neighbor, who immediately emailed me back from his Blackberry to say he wanted the painting.

Inspiration for Chilies

Chilies, 7 1/4 x 10 1/2"

I painted these luscious chilies as a demonstration for some students I was tutoring in IB Art at Academia Cotopaxi in Quito, Ecuador. Their IB assignment was to paint something with local flavor (pun intended). I don't paint still lifes very often, but this one was fun. Still lifes provide a good controlled environment for teaching: the light doesn't change like in a landscape, the subject doesn't move like a human or animal subject, and you can control the composition.

Afterwards I ate the chilies.

Inspiration for Mount Everest

My husband Jim and I are very independent travelers. We wanted to backpack in to the Tibetan side of Mount Everest. The Chinese authorities want everyone to pay for an expensive permit and to hire an expensive Jeep and guide for the trip from Lhasa. But since we wanted to backpack for several days, we didn't want to be paying for a car we weren't using. So we got together with Sean, a like-minded Australian fellow, and bussed/hitchhiked from Lhasa to Tingri. No one ever asked for the supposedly required travel permit. From Tingri we backpacked several days to base camp. Much to our amazement, we were the only people there.

Mount Everest was clear and we had an awesome view. After a couple of days of hiking in the area, we walked out along the road for a day. We were finally picked up by a truck driver who spoke not a word of English, so we communicated hilariously through our phrase book.

At the top of a pass we took a rest stop, and this was the view of Mount Everest that I painted.

Inspiration for Storm over Hermit's Peak

Hermit's Peak is the outstanding landscape feature in the part of northern New Mexico where I live. You can see it for miles around as it juts up above the high plains. I'd been doing a series of paintings of the mountain, and wanted to add a summer scene. We get some great thunderstorms complete with big hailstones here, so an imminent storm seemed appropriate. I photographed lots of heavy-looking clouds before choosing these. I placed Hermit's Peak near the bottom of the painting to emphasize the heavy feeling of the approaching storm.

Inspiration for Tracks in the Snow

One day I was going for a walk on my neighbor's ranch. This scene just struck me, and I did a quick pen-and-ink sketch on the spot. I went back home and returned with my camera to take several shots. Back at home I did a quick preliminary painting, and knew I had to do a full-scale one. This was one of those pieces that practically painted itself.

I believe the tracks are coyote tracks, but the rancher who bought the work asked me to paint in a cow behind the fence. I like this version, though, because you the viewer can imagine the tracks to be anything you want.

New Year's Eve at Mt. Chimborazo

For three days my husband and I camped at the base of Mt. Chimborazo, tallest peak in Ecuador, and if you measure from the center of the earth rather than from sea level, it's also the tallest peak on earth. Not a soul in sight. Although this is a national park, the main entrance is on the other side of the mountain. This access road is unmarked and hard to find. Nevertheless, if this were in the US, there would be mobs of people here.

On New Year's Eve, shooting stars puncuated the sky all night. Who needs fireworks? The next morning a heavy layer of frost coated the grass, and the early morning sun turned the cliffs to gold. Several vicunas, wild relatives of llamas and alpacas, were grazing in the meadows. How could I resist painting this scene?