August made it a year in Arizona. Thought you might enjoy a look back at the changing Mingus view. These are in reverse order. Some are more about the clouds, than the mountains. There is one of Granite mountain as well. Enjoy my friends!
August made it a year in Arizona. Thought you might enjoy a look back at the changing Mingus view. These are in reverse order. Some are more about the clouds, than the mountains. There is one of Granite mountain as well. Enjoy my friends!
Keep it simple sleepy. Still in recovery mode from the hectic trip, one more day ought a do it. Sleepy, sore, slow. It will soon pass, but that’s my reality today.
I did manage to finish painting before 8 pm. Yay! I will get to bed early. Which is a good thing. I did a stupid thing just now. I deleted my internet program. I thought it was the old one, and it kept popping up. But nope, it was the new one. Crapparoo. And I am too sleepy to remember if it is on a disc or what. I just called my techie brother to fix a problem with my DVD and streaming. And I’m gonna have to bug him again tomorrow. Really hoping it is not something he installed from online, because then I will be S.O.L.
Before putting brush to paper, I played with stripes in Photoshop. I varied the widths, to see how they made me feel. I meant to have more sky, and less earth. Oh well, still like it. Leaves more opportunity for practice and play.
The purpose of the road trip was to celebrate the life of my Mother’s Uncle Johnnie. He was a hard worker, he served his country, and he was a very dear man. A cowboy through and through. My Grandmother’s baby brother, and the last of his generation.
We drove six hours to Farmington New Mexico. Rushed to change and drove another hour and half north to Dolores Colorado for the viewing. Nine hours on the road. Crazy long day. And my Uncle who was chauffeuring, had been on the road since 2 am. Saturday, another three hours on the road for the service and burial. We were able to spend some time visiting with family. Had to be to bed early to hit the road Sunday morning.
Mom and her brother Rudy were up early and on the road to get a bushel of green chiles. We learned that Hatch is actually NOT the best. I have forgotten the name of this farm, but the chile was killer!!
You have to roast it to release the flavor, and we usually do that outside on the grill. Our grill here is not set up yet, so the roasting had to be done before we left. Got it all roasted, bagged and on ice!
My Uncle and Aunt treated us to the family favorite “Sunday” breakfast. Green chile with fried potatoes, fried eggs and tortillas. YUM! I loved the chile because it was not too hot to eat. I am a wimp when it comes to chile heat. Everyone else wants it to “light your fire!” It had a full, rich flavor. We eat it like a gravy over the eggs and potatoes. You tear your tortilla into pieces, and fill it with a bite of each. And it is a rare treat. Obviously not a healthy meal. Then there is green chile enchilada casserole. Chili Rellenos, and pork green chile that is eaten like a soup. Mmmm. Oh yeah, hungry now.
In New Mexico, you can get green chiles on your egg McMuffin, and most burger joints serve it as well. Even Sonic!
The drive home took all day. Made some stops along the way, took our time. Had a great dinner in Flagstaff. And visited a nearby Cracker Barrel hoping to find Bama Mini pecan pies. No luck there. But we did get some moon pies, and butterscotch candies.
Google had us turned around, but I found the 17 on my own. Thank you very much. The passengers didn’t trust me. Have to mention that because, I somehow ended up going west on the 40, instead of staying on the 17 south. There was some road construction, not sure if that was why. Or maybe because the sun was in my eyes, and we were jabbering away. But it was a blessing in disguise. A better, and seemingly shorter way to get home from Flagstaff. So now we know how to go next time!
On Navajo Nation land, the 491 between Shiprock and Gallup. Lots of flat nothing, and every once in a while…
Southwestern Colorado. On the 491 near Ute Mountain (reservation). I believe these are part of Rocky Ridge, but I am not sure. These are all the same range.
Crossing into New Mexico from Colorado, the change in scenery is almost immediate.
Notice above, that there is still plenty of evergreens on the hills. Below, is the backside of the range. The tail end. So different!
There are many legends about Ute mountain. The sleeping Ute. There is a description here, and a photo that shows the sleeping Ute.
My Mother’s family is from this area. My Father’s is from Canjilon,NM. Just north of Santa Fe and Abiquiu. Not far away. They were both raised in Colorado.
I will leave you with this, enjoy!
(All photos taken in a moving vehicle, LOL)
Opted to do two extremely long posts to reinstall missing posts from July and August. I had copies of all but the two most recent articles. Thank goodness for Google Chrome cache! I had to learn how to recover some of the missing posts from that.
I have been in crises mode for a week, since the server went down. Not sure if I would have my site back, able to post for the painting challenge. And it is not lost on me, that I was in the same mode this time last year. Remember? Just moved, and nowhere to set up the computer. Sure hope every August in Arizona won’t be so eventful!
Tally so far: 10 posts lost, Maps and Recipes gallery page lost, one draft lost, captcha lost. And I may have to reinstall all of this again. But now I have copies, and it should go more smoothly. Still need to add links to this post, but that can wait a bit.
I will post art for September first, but it may be late in the day. So excited to see the 30 in 30 gallery!! Have fun everyone!!
Paint to paper. Finally. See the original and the digital revision. My first reaction is that I went TOO dark. I mixed indigo and Shiraz Inktense watercolor pencil for the dark. What do you think?
Counting this as done. Good practice for the next in the series. Must remember the darks!
While I was painting, I was wondering why this rabbit looked so different from those I have painted before. Easy answer. Recycled painting. I was working on gessoed watercolor paper.
I will be painting this one again. I want it to fit in with the other bunny pieces I have done. They are soft and well blended. You can see them here and here.
With the gesso, it is very easy to lift color. That will make it easy for my to go back in and lighten the background, if I choose to. But it also make it difficult to add layers. You can see on the fur, lots of hard edges and just an overall “messy” look.
I enjoyed the process, even though I am not pleased with the outcome. The next one will be better!
He sat for a long time, in front of the drainage ditch. A neighbor came walking up towards him, and he did not move right away. Made me wonder if he really is missing an ear. I waited to see if I could catch him coming out, but I think he decided to take a nap. I will b e on the look out for a one eared bunny from now on.
Sharing my fascination with the view again. Started out a sweet, soft pink. Moments later, intense warmth filled the sky. The entire mountain range was capped with a gorgeous golden glow, pristine peachy, pinks, and blinding whites.
Flashback
More work from art school here. Late 80’s vintage. This piece was about 12 x 16 inches. The watercolor was on horribly inexpensive watercolor paper. I remember I painted this at least six times before I was half way happy with the result. I vaguely recall starting with more of a rainbow in the background. There was some yellow in there. The instructor suggested a more monochromatic approach. The letters were printed on a sheet of acetate.
The next few paintings were influenced by 80’s pop artist Patrick Nagel. Though I did not know his name at the time. This style was everywhere. On MTV, on album covers, posters and T-shirts.
It is clear that the paper was not easy to work with. Uneven colors, stains, and bloom edges. Lack of control, and certainly lack of knowledge on my part. All of the women had a skin tone. But the scanner was just not picking it up. The redhead has a vivid green eye shadow. The pencil marks were much stronger as well, and in multiple colors.
Teacher’s comment: The models are wonderfully painted, the background falls short however – should have been a strong solid color like the heads. (Looks like she crossed out a “B” grade.)
Don’t know why this next one wasn’t turned in. It is unfinished, the eyelashes. I bet it had to do with the drippy, uneven background. Thanks for taking a look – happy day to you!
A couple of nights ago, we had the view above in front.
And the view below, out back.
Great night!
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MAPS AND RECIPES
Twenty twelve seems to have been my year of recipes and maps. I hadn’t started blogging yet. In addition to that, I wrote over 30 articles on wellness for Examiner.com. I had hoped it would generate extra income. The site no longer exists, so you can tell how that went. I think I received a small check, once. For each article, I created artwork as well.
I am sure that the experience of writing and posting for Examiner, gave me the courage to create my site. To start writing about my art. Stepping stones.
I’ve spent the last few days cleaning my computer seems to be a theme starting. I realized that I have never posted the maps and recipes here, naturally. And if this blog is a record of my journey, it would be incomplete without them. Adding a new gallery page takes care of that. Take a peek, and visit the site links on the page to see a HUGE view. Thanks for looking!
Out of sight, out of mind. I opened my art portfolios, and what a surprise. I time warped back to college. Only a few pieces survived from then. Most of what I found was from 2010 forward. Still wonderful to see again. I would call these “early works”, ha ha. Early, from the time I decided to focus on art.
I thought I had given these away. I remember taking a stab at making a repeat design out of them. Pretty sure those files were on the laptop that died. Koinobori have a long tradition. Don’t ask me how I feel about the fact that they were originally meant to celebrate boys only. Times have changed, and now they are part of Children’s Day celebrations in Japan.
Also found some not-so-successful watercolor abstract attempts. Gorgeous colors though, and I am thinking I can use them for collage. A la Dotty, and Laly, and Bob.
Just a few weeks until the 30 in 30, hands up if you are planning to take the challenge! I am looking forward to it. I know, nuts!
Hope to see you there!