#30. Finicky L.O.V.s

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May 28th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  After all the cold weather this spring, most of the Lilies of the Valley, or L.O.V.s as I like to call them, were frozen and these were the only blooms I could find.  Finicky, because they were to dainty to make it through the freezing temps and because I felt finicky painting them.  Sometimes I just fuss too much over a painting, and this felt like one of those.  I really like the red stems in the water. 

#29. Appropriate Vertebrae

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May 27th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  I'm pretty sure this vertebrae came from an old horse skeleton.  It seemed an appropriate thing to paint today as my back has been giving me trouble the past few days.  I only allowed myself to use one of my bigger brushes on this one which helped me stay loose and all went smoothly until after I cleaned up my palette and brushes and took photos which I was in the process of editing when I totally fumbled and dropped my painting.  While trying to save it, I ran my fingernail right through the majority of it.  So, I patched it up best I could and took new photos.  No one else will probably ever be able to tell, but to me it will never be as good as it was pre-fumble. 

#28. Memorial Mustard

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May 26th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  This is some variety of wild mustard that grows around our house.  It doesn't look especially appealing for eating and the seeds are awfully small for actually collecting and making prepared mustard with but it makes some interesting shapes for painting.  I suppose most people would see it as a weed but it's just another local plant specimen to me, plus it has flowers.

#27. Quick Blooming Chokecherry

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May 23rd, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  This morning, none of these were blooming yet, but I swear that each time I looked at our chokecherry bush today, more flowers had opened.  Around here they call them capulin and, in my opinion, they have some of the best smelling blossoms.  Homemade chokecherry syrup isn't too shabby either.  It took me awhile to paint this one today, I'm not sure why.  The fact that I had to stop halfway through to make pizza dough probably didn't help.

#26. Barely Blooming Lilacs

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May 21st, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  I have been waiting for our lilacs to bloom, and waiting, and waiting.  These ones are so close to opening it's ridiculous, so I just cut some to paint anyways although they don't really smell yet and they are not quite open.  This bush happens to be almost more magenta than the typical purple.  I'm sure I'll end up painting more when they are in full bloom, but this'll have to do for now.

#25. Canine sans Canines

 SOLD!

May 20th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  I think I found this skull across the road a couple years ago, and it had been there quite a while when I found it.  I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure it came from a domestic dog unless there is some strange species around here I haven't seen yet.  It happens to be lacking the teeth that its' species is named after, but that's okay, our old dog only has one of them left himself.  Even without the teeth, it was an interesting shape to paint.

#24. Strawberries Curtailed

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May 19th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  I really wanted to paint these strawberry blossoms, but I also really want to eat the strawberries they would have made had I left them... hence the title.  I love how this little painting came out, but I am also really excited about making some strawberry jam this summer.  This is becoming a common issue for me as I'm looking for subjects to paint, would I rather have the buds, the flowers or the fruit?  Hopefully, the blossoms I left will all produce a bunch of berries and there will be jam.

#23. Orach in a Cup

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May 16th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  If you've never had orach, basically it's a wilder version of spinach, very closely related to lamb's quarters.  Apparently it really likes to reseed itself because it is growing all over my garden and I didn't plant any of it this year.  This happens to be the purple variety and it really is as vivid as I painted it.  Leave it to me to go straight from yesterday's monotone to full on color today!  I almost painted just a plain cup instead of the pressed glass, but I'm so glad I didn't. 

#22 - Monotone Quartz

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May 15th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  This quartz crystal has been hanging around our house for years, its' current home is in a potted plant but I cleaned it up and made it the star subject today.  It is always a challenge to paint something so close to the background color and still make it stand out.  I really like how simple and monotone it is, even though it's something right from nature it almost feels industrial to me in the end.

#21 - Wilted Aspen

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May 14th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  It's been really cold and snowy here the past couple days and everything's a little bit in shock (including us humans) but somehow most of us made it through.  Our aspens were looking a bit wilted and I don't think it helped that I cut this off and brought it inside.  It was a challenge to paint because the leaves kept wilting as I worked!  In the end, this painting gives me this weird nostalgic, deja vu feeling... I can't put my finger on why.

#20 - Flicker Feathers

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May 12th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  I'm pretty sure these feathers are from a Northern Flicker, of the red shafted group to get really specific.  I found one of them a couple weeks ago and Bradley found the other a few days ago for me and since it's been snowing and freezing out all day (in the middle of May!) they seemed like a good subject I wouldn't have to venture outside for.

#19 - Old Growth, New Growth

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May 10th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  These are some of the wild roses that grow around here, Champas is what the locals call them.  The hips are still hanging on from last year, the green growth is just coming out.  I only poked myself with the thorns a couple times arrange this little scene.  I felt off my game painting this one because the greens and reds started to blend with the background colors, but I just gave up and let the paint do what it wanted.  That red is some powerful stuff... it didn't want to wash off my brushes in the end either.

Because I didn't have time to paint today.

 

May 9th, 2014.  No art for you today due to errand day in town and I've been meaning to share this for a couple weeks anyways.  It's a spread from the Taos Tempo that came out a few weeks ago promoting a feature in the Taos Gallery Guide.  Yeah, that's my hand (and that's one of Bradley Sleep's beautiful rings on my finger).   Oh right, and my painting too (still need to decide how I'm finishing that one up).  I guess there was some art for you after all!

Credit where it's due: Awesome photos by Tina Larkin.

#18 - Some Sort of Flowering Plant

 SOLD!

May 8th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  I cut these from some plants that are growing around our house.  They are rather small in stature but must be very hardy because they always seem to be one of the first things blooming.  They have strange, tubular little yellow flowers with feathery, silver green foliage and they don't seem to smell like much of anything.  If anyone happens to know what plant this is, let me know.  I especially like how the little bottle came out.

 

#17 - Butterfly Leftovers

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May 7th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  This another one of those things that may or may not be recognizable.  It's the leftover cocoon from some caterpillars I accidentally brought inside, decided to continue to feed (these ones like fresh dill), named Fred and Ginger and, eventually, watched transform into black swallowtail butterflies.  They were pretty cool.  At first I wasn't too sure about my painting of it, but I think it's growing on me. 

#16 - More Chives than I Know What to Do With

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May 6th, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  For some reason there are more chives growing in my garden than I will ever use, I always overestimate these things.  It seemed sort of daunting trying to paint all these chives in a bunch when I sat down to do it, until I remembered my latest trick.  Lately, when I've been painting and the subject matter seems overwhelming and I don't know what to do I take my glasses off and view it through an appropriate amount of blurriness and I realize I can actually paint this thing in front of me and I don't need to add every single little detail because I can't see them anyways.  All I know is it's been working for me.

Prickly Pear Redo

May 5th, 2014: Ink, Acrylic and Graphite on Board, 8" x 8".  I haven't been able to do a daily painting the last couple days, not because I was taking the weekend off and doing fun stuff but, because I had an emergency painting commission I have to get done.  Basically, a painting of mine sold out of the gallery (Taos Artisan's Gallery) to a tourist who proceeded to go to Santa Fe where the painting ended up being stolen from the trunk of his car.  Said tourist loved this painting so much, he requested a second original of the same piece before he leaves the country so I complied and tried my best to replicate it.  This is not an easy task and having completed it I would like to say I will never agree to do it again.  That being said, it came out pretty well in the end.  The new original is on the right, and a giclee of the first one is on the left.  Now I just need to complete the varnishing process, let it dry and get it into town in the next couple days!

#15 - Nearly Lilacs

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May 3rd, 2014: Oil on Board, 6" x 6".  Our lilacs made it through the freezing temps of last week and are ready to seriously flower out.  These guys still have some time to go but they are nearly there.  I like the thick paint... luscious. 

It's not art, but it's something.

May 2nd, 2014: Well, I couldn't get to painting yesterday since we had to do errand day in Taos and today I got carried away with something entirely different.  I've been putting off cleaning my old Jeep up to list for sale and spent most of the day working on that, but she sure does look pretty now.

I'm hoping I may have a buyer already, but if anyone else is interested let me know and I'll get you the details. 

The Jeep was looking so good, I felt bad for my new (to me) truck so I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning her up too.  So here's Blue, she was my Dad's before he passed, now she's mine.  I'm hoping we have some good adventures ahead.

Hopefully, I can get back to the painting tomorrow!