...and now for something completely different...

This photo is one of many I took on a trip to New Mexico a few years back, before I went digital. You'll no doubt recognize it as the back of the church at Ranchos de Taos, as it's been painted by many artists, including Georgia O'Keeffe (and me, too). The dirt pile is there because the church community was getting ready to put on -by hand, literally- the annual coat of adobe. I liked this view because the church is usually surrounded by vehicles; they were cleared out for the work.

Critters Coming

My friend Judy and I are getting ready to do a show of works on paper in November. She'll have mostly etchings; I'll have mostly woodcuts. All the art will be of, about, or even by (!!) animals of various sorts. It's been fun getting ready for this! I'll give you a sneak peek of a little print I did last year for an exchange with other printmakers, called "Mouse" (original title, huh?). The background is part of an unfinished watercolor. Both the outline and the texture of the mouse were done with linoleum cuts. I burnished the filler just with my fingers to get that texture, which came from the rough paper. The outline was done with my ancient wooden tool I call a spoonula because it's halfway between a spoon and a spatula. I can press much harder with it, so the outline is flatter black. It's only the beginning....

A Dose of Reality

Most of the time, I'm trying to get more simplified and abstract in my painting and printmaking, but sometimes it's fun to simply paint what's there. Plus, it's easier, not so much thinking and agonizing about what to leave out. This little (about 5" x 8") watercolor was one of those times. It was painted from a photo I took near Salmon River in Nova Scotia. It made a pretty good greeting card; printed on to rough paper, it looked close to a "real" watercolor.

Early Morning, Cowdrey's Country Store

Yesterday, I was out painting with about 15 other New Hampshire painters as part of the International Plein Air Painters annual "paintout." I'll post my one painting as soon as it's either dry enough to scan or the weather cooperates for a photo op. We've had a lot of much-needed rain in the last 24 hours. In the meantime, here's the woodcut print in the title. It's 6" x 8," oil-based inks on mulberry paper, and was done as part of an exchange with other printmakers. The theme was "hometown structure," but I stretched the idea a bit, as the store is just across the town line. I used my artistic license to move Mount Kearsarge a little to the right so that it could be seen beyond the buildings. To get the reference photo, I went down the road one day at 4:30 a.m. in order to capture the shadows as the sun rose. Yaaaawn.....

Sunflower

This is that little sunflower that disappeared yesterday! It's oil on Raymar canvas panel, 8" x 6", painted at Canterbury Shaker Village. Our NH Plein Air group painted at the village many times last year and had a very successful show there at the end of the summer.

A Little One

Here's a little oil-on-panel painting, 8" x 6", painted from life. I got the pepper from the fridge. (Yes, I edited this post; I'll put the other painting up tomorrow in a new post.)

Sailors' Delight

This is the last of the three woodcuts that were in the Land on Paper show. This one was actually done first, then it inspired the Fair Warning print. Just in case you've never heard it, the old-time sailors' weather report is this little rhyme: "Red sky in the morning is a sailor's fair warning; red sky at night is a sailor's delight."