Art During Covid-19?

Rose Moon Rising
20 x 30 watercolor on Artists Canvas $1350
Completed March 25, 2020

 If an artist is locked up in her studio does she still paint? Yes. But probably not with the necessity of when you are preparing for a show or exhibit or tour. Which gives you space for self-expression; painting what is in your heart and troubling your soul.

A friend reminded me today of where I was last year with my painting and photography as represented by my Angel Fire Studio Tour page. I was getting a lot of attention and sales for my photography. Painting was taking a back stage in my life. But beginning March 11, 2020 and the Covid lock down painting moved forward. I had the time. And I quickly bought up on line any materials I thought I might need in the coming months. Yes, consciously I thought it would be months. But in my subconscious I saw it as an end of things. Something which my mind had been projecting forward with my On the Edge Series which began with the painting below.

On the Edge
30 x 18 Watercolor on Artists Canvas $1350
Completed April 3, 2016

In spite of the bright colors my art for some has always had a dark side. And they will point out the crows or ravens which are in all most all day time paintings. When I was in Alaska decades ago I was told it was illegal to kill ravens because a lot of the Inuits believed they were carriers for the souls of the dead so they could rest before returning to an earth bound existence. On the Edge above was noteworthy because it had no flight of ravens.

End of Day
18 x 26 Watercolor on Artists Canvas $1050
Completed June 4, 2020

When you are not turning out just another view of another mission art goes slower. It spends more easel time while I wait for the spirits to give me direction. Glorious Dawn below began as one of those redo's of a much smaller painting which was just a study. The study sold and I was going to do the full sized one soon. Never seemed to be the time. Too busy out taking photographs but winter as well as Covid keeps me in. And there were rumors of covid in February and it was a dull winter with no photo challenges to I pulled out the drawing for that study of Mesa Arch in Canyonlands and it took over. It may have a positive title but I see it as an earth after the end of time.

Glorious Dawn
16 x 30 Mixed Media on Artists Canvas $1090
Completed February 3, 2020

Artists do not often put in completion dates these days. Photographers do, but some article in an artists' publication said not to do that. It has never been on front. Usually on the back right corner where once framed it was never noticed. I have dates for these works because my camera records the date I took their official portrait. And for this time or end of time it seems important so I have noted it here.

I have a wandering mind and as I was working on the sketch for the painting below I thought maybe all the old dwellings of the ancient ones were not vacated due to rampaging hoards or drought but a pandemic. The western United States has a few like Hantavirus and Bubonic plague. The working title for the painting below was Home of the Lost People. A friend told me that was too dark if I ever wanted it to sell.

Cliff Pueblo: Home of the Lost People
28 x 14 Mixed Media on Artists Canvas $875
Completed April 5, 2020

Sell? Now that is a lost art in this pandemic. And as I prepared to write this blog I came across so much else lost in the time of this pandemic. Like my inventory sheet. And this blog. Last post was in December 2019. Was I waiting and holding my breath for it to go away. No. But I was trying to figure out what the new post covid world would look like.

And I have been working on a new painting. It has been sitting patiently on my easel while I try to ignore it. Working title is Return of the Yei which were spiritual guides for the Dine'. I promise to be better at posting my wanderings here.

My picks of 365 days in pictures

2013 was the second year that I joined in with a couple other photography friends to post a picture a day on my Fanpage Binford-Bell Studio on Facebook. At the end of this year it will be 365 pictures. And here 52 blogs (one per week). I have some obvious favorites but I began to wonder which were the best 12 (one best for each month). I am leaving that up to my fans.

I will write a blog with the favorites of all my followers after the new year. If you want to participate just review the 52 blogs and leave a comment on this blog as to your six favorites. List the week number of the blog and the day number of the photograph.

I thought I would lead off with a few of my favorites picked rather randomly this morning. BTW I had a hard time with January, February and March. And there were too many in May, June, July and August. November did not resonate with me either. September and October are oddly lacking in stand out photos too given it was fall.

Burn by J. Binford-Bell / Day 159
Currently being exhibited in the ANMPAS show in Albuquerque

July and August yielded entirely too many favorites. It is perhaps also the months I took the most photographs if my photo files are to be believed. And went to the most places. Raton, Trinidad, Jackalope in Santa Fe, and various National parks are featured as well as my old time local favorite haunts. Bandelier is featured but not my favorite. I think it deserves a do over this year.

Day 213 - Bandelier Cliff

Day 305

 Both the photo above and the one below were taken in November. What a difference a a week can make and outside versus inside a green house.

Day 312 

 I finally stopped on one of my numerous trips to Raton this year and took the picture below of a truck at a junkyard outside of Cimarron. Lots of old trucks caught my attention  in 2013. And a lot of Jackalope pictures like the one below the truck. What a mint of photographic opportunities is the Santa Fe import store. They were all taken in July but every time I ran short of a photo to post I would go back to that folder in My Pictures and dust off another.

Day 226 posted in August

Day 228 - posted in August

 The umbrella below I have set under before and since but on that particular day in July the light and shadows were just right.

Day 195 posted in July

Trinidad, Colorado also figures high in the total of photos for 2013. I made four trips to Trinidad and am dying to go again. I have not gotten anywhere close to recording all the interesting visual images in the historic Colorado Mining town. As the picture below of the opera house announces it was in its heyday in the late 1800's.

Day 156

What was the Day number one for 2013? The photograph below. For the last photo of the years stay tuned. BTW I took way more than 365 photos. I have way more photo blogs than 52 and way more facebook albums on my Fanpage than 12.

First photo of 2013

Week 31 - 365 Day Challenge 213

Day 211 - My Yellow Chevrolet

Been an interesting week. Entirely too busy to get out with the camera so I have revisited photographs I took in a past couple of weeks. Once the also rans in the post processing race they really shocked me. I am questioning some of my first decisions.

Day 212 - Moon Flower

I focused my attention on the full moon flowers and had taken this photo just because of the lines in the trumpet shape. I love its shy presentation.

Day 213

Nothing shy about this cliff face. But the natural tuff of its construction is rather dull. So I tried to spice it up with a sepia treatment. Subtle didn't work. Pushed the intensity of the sepia and came up with orange cliffs and sky.

Day 214

But on the more subtle side is this one of a dry creek bed. Lots of those around in this drought. There have been wetter times because the basalt rocks are worn smooth and some fairly large rocks got washed into the cracks with the sand which provides a foothold for tough native grasses.

Day 215

Another look at the girders on the old bridge across the Rio Grande. And another trip. Love the shapes it divides the sky and canyons into.

Day 216

Another look at the Bandeleir Canyon walls. The colors were a surprise when I pushed the saturation on this image.

Day 217

This is what the walls look like in shadow of the morning. But nature does its own painting with the lacquer running down with the rain from the mesa tops.