"Caribe Pepper"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













"Carribe Pepper II"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













Well, I had all these plans to drive down into the Rio Grande Gorge today to paint, but my crazy dog, Dulce, jumped through a barbed wire fence and now, after an expensive trip to the vet, I'm home with her, painting peppers.

Maybe I'll get to the Gorge tomorrow.

I'm one painting behind. I hope to make it up tomorrow.

"Trying to Rain"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord








"Cottonwoods to the Northeast"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord


Two more views of my backyard.

Tomorrow I go to the Rio Grande Gorge. If I can get three paintings done, I'll be all caught up.

"Marisol"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord














"Marisol II"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord












Today was my first session with the Taos Society of Portrait Artists.

The model for today was Marisol from Ecuador.

Lovely, exotic features. Gorgeous colors. Just a joy to work with.

For portrait painting, the model stays in one pose, with breaks every 45 minutes or so.

It was great. I can't wait for next week

"Hills Near Apoaca"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord














"Hills Near Apoaca II"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord







Went out with Plein Air New Mexico this morning to paint near Dixon, which is South of Taos.

We ended up in a gorgeous canyon between Dixon and the even less wide-place-in-the-road called Apoaca.

Had a great time and met some really lovely people who I can't wait to paint with again.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to go paint with the Taos Portrait Group.

Might not be nekkid day, but might be an acceptable replacement.

Still very tired. I will catch up.

"View From My Kitchen Window"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord









"The Ravens' Aspens; Early Spring"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord












Hi all! Sorry I've been gone so long.

It's been a rough week.

I've finally got my studio all unpacked and gotten settled enough to actually *want* to paint.

The remains of this week are going to be very busy; I'm going to be out painting with Plein Air New Mexico tomorrow and hope to do some figurative stuff on Saturday.

Tonight's paintings are both from my own backyard. The first one is quite literally the view from where I'm currently sitting at my kitchen island. It's amazing.

The second one is from a stand of aspens just to the Northwest of us on a neighbor's property. For some reason, the local ravens love this stand of aspens and we hear them commenting loudly every time we go out back.

My husband and I have been referring to it as 'the Ravens' Aspens'.

I'll probably be painting this repeatedly as it leafs out.

Things are just about to start bud break here in Northern New Mexico.

I'm going to be a busy painter. And I promise to catch up with my paintings before the end of the month.

"Red Bananas"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord










"Red Banana; Peeled"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













I noticed a lot of people lately painting bananas.

So, of course, I had to go out and find the weirdest version I could.

These are Guatemalan Reds.

And they went bad too fast for me to try one, so I can't tell you how they taste. :(

Sorry about all the starts and stops; we're packing for the move to Taos.

I promise to keep up my picture count; you just might get it in twos and threes for a while.

"The Black Draped Harp"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













Years ago, I used to play the Irish harp.

St. Patrick's Day was my least favorite day of the year. I've never seen him as a Irish hero.

St. Patrick was a Welsh slave, brought to Ireland in chains.

His curses toppled the Hill of Tara, at the time, the Irish seat of power, culture and knowledge.

He drove the snakes from Ireland (read; pagans) and instituted the religion of the White Christ.

And that set off a thousand years of civil war.

Every year, on St. Patrick's Day, I would drape my harp in black and not play it.

Everyone please lift your glasses to St. Patrick.

Having a holiday dedicated to drinking, song and merriment would probably have pissed him off no end.

I will not be joining you.

"My Peeps"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord










"Love Peeps"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord







I warned y'all I might get around to painting Peeps.

It's finally come.

If you're not familiar with Peeps, go to your local grocery store and look at the Easter display.

Trust me, you'll see them.

They're horribly addictive little marshmallow candies that are the opposite end of the spectrum from circus peanuts in that they're light and fluffy and usually coated in granular sugar.

Mmmmmm.

"Weird Little Carrot"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord















"Bunch of Weird Little Carrots"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord






These are from last week's major raid on the produce section of HEB Central Market.

They're just about to go bad; they've been in my fridge since then.

I went to paint the bunch first.

I was setting up, looked away for a second and my dog, Dulce, walked by, casually snagged the entire bunch and went to her bed with them.

Thankfully, I noticed the theft before she'd done much damage.

She did manage to pull the single most interesting carrot out of the bunch, so I ended up painting that first.

The whole bunch reminds me of a rat king somehow. . .

"El Chupacabra"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













I realized I'd been so caught up in those weird new colors for my still lifes that I'd gone and neglected the weird stuff.

Here's El Chupacabra for ya.

This is directly from the *original* description from March of 1995 in Puerto Rico where the beast is described as being:

"Covered by fine grey fur with darker spots."

And the famous spikes down the the back:

"Phosphorescent bright colored spine- like appendages that run over the body from head to the end of the back. The spines colors change constantly from red to blue to yellow, to green to orange to violet."

If something like this is sucking your goats dry; you need to be watching your goats a little closer.

"Blushing Pear"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













I've been packing and cleaning all day and I can't get the colors on this to come out right in this scan.

Trust me, it's got a lot more red and the darks are a lot less dark.

I hate my camera set up right now.

"Six Nekkid Jelly Babies"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord






Still smarting over the loss of the Dougherty Arts Center and nekkid day.

So, here are my very own six, count 'em, six, nekkid models.

And I ate them all up afterward. :)

"Asparagus Spears"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













More odd colors from HEB Central Market.

I just love that salmon pink against the yellow-green.

Can't stand to eat asparagus though.

My Mom, Dad and Husband had this for dinner last week after I brought it home.

I got the leftovers to paint.

When I was a kid I used to catch fish for my parents and siblings to eat.

I'd eat hot dogs.

I loved catching fish. Just couldn't stand the taste.

Guess this is more of the same.

Enjoy!

"Spike II"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













Well, it's been a very unhappy 48 hours here without Spike.

My Husband and I put up fliers, notified vets and shelters and pissed off most of our neighbors with our almost constant calling.

I just couldn't settle down to paint.

Finally I said 'what the hell' and decided to paint Spike. The whole time I was praying that my cat would come home.

Call it sympathetic magic. Call it wishful thinking. Call it divine intervention.

My Husband came home from making a midnight order at his shop and told me he thought he'd heard Spike outside. We walked the block calling for her. Nothing.

When we got back to the house (both of us near tears) she galloped up to meet us.

"Pepino Melon"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













This started out as a fairly straightforward study of a weird Ecuadorian pepino melon I found at Central Market, on a collection of some of the new color drapes my Mother helped me pick out.

Then it got all dark and angsty.

You see, my cat, Spike, has gone missing.

And my heart is all yellow and purple and feels like it wants to burst (in a bad way).

Tomorrow I have to put up missing posters.

I might have to paint Spike a few more times to get me through this. . .

"Three Tangelos"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord







David's been at the fruit section again.

These tangeloes were such an amazing shade of orange and they looked so good against the blue. . . And then he ate them.

I'm afraid it's been a very good week in the produce section, so there's more fruit and veg to come.

The good news is that my Mother has been color sorting for me (she's a professional color consultant) and there's some very interesting color combinations in store.

She pointed out some combos I would never have dreamed of.

You'll have to tell me what you think.

"Black Calla Lilies"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













Wouldn't Georgia O'Keeffe have just loved 'black' calla lilies?

Back when she was painting her lilies (and she was known as 'the lady of the lilies'), the white ones were the only ones available and then for only part of the year. She would spend a week sequestered with them when they finally arrived, waiting for the perfect moment to capture their beauty.

We're spoiled now, and can now get them all year round in an amazing range of colors.

The dark purple of these 'black' ones has been pestering me for some time. I'm glad I finally got around to painting some.

It won't be the last time.

"Raspberry"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord








I needed to paint this before it totally ripened into mush, but it's kinda how I feel after yesterday's debacle with what passes for 'the voting process' in this country.

Rpppththhhhpppppp.

I think I'm going to swear off news until January '09.

And I'm definitely swearing off politics.

"The Lovers"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













Well, the first nekkid day with no nekkid day.

I'm still pretty bummed.

So I painted some weird, taupe colored pears.

Two more weeks before the move.

I have a vague idea what to try next week. . .

Might be even weirder than usual, so stay tuned!

"Jersey Devil"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord













I haven't done anything monster-wise for a few days and decided to go ahead and take a stab at another of my faves, the Jersey Devil.

This beastie first roamed through Eastern Pensylvania and Southern New Jersey around the turn of the last century.

It was described by several people as a 'Jabberwock' with long, thin wings, short legs; the fronts shorter than the hinds, and either cloven hooved or shod like a horse. It left bewildering trails of tracks in the snow that went through fences and went on for miles and miles.

Several people describe it's dog-like head and it barked at one woman.

It emitted a squalking whistle at another couple.

Whatever it was, it wasn't like anything else.

And it certainly wasn't any half-nekkid Neanderthal like they claimed on the X-Files.

Hmmmphp. Mulder would know better than that.

"The Hat"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord








The first official movie trailer for the new 'Indiana Jones' movie hit the internet today.

All Harrison Ford has to do is pick up that hat and people lose their minds.

This trailer's no exception, it's got a shot of the hat on the ground and it's Indy who picks it up and puts it on.

So here's the hat.

Just waiting.

"Yellow Plums"
3" by 4"
Oil on Gessobord







I saw these at Whole Foods yesterday and had a WTF moment.

I had to have them. They're the weirdest looking things.

Yellow gold hearts.

Then to make things even weirder; tonight David and I were watching Babylon 5, an episode called 'Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi', and the mad Emperor Cartagia had one in his hand.

If coincidences are just coincidences, then why do they seem so contrived?