Been a Year -- New Paintings

Lost my sister in 2021 and almost lost my house to the biggest wildfire in New Mexico history in the summer of 2022. That impacts painting but I finally got back to it for the first studio tour in four years. And kept painting. Needed updates to these pages because there are also a lot of sales.

 

Sisters
28 x 14 Mixed Media on Wrapped Canvas
$1150

Night Stampede
20 x 36 Mixed Media on Wrapped Canvas
$1620

Everyone kept asking for more horse paintings. And they kept selling. This one was a replacement if you will for Night Run. Thicke, my cat, added to the texture in the foreground by walking across wet paint. Canvas was lying on a table so I could pour the foreground. Sky is also poured. I considered painting out the paw prints but in the final decision left them in. Nothing about this painting went as planned.

Fall of Stars below was my first painting begun and completed after my return to the studio following the evacuation to Eagle Nest. A lot of time to think. The what if's should the house and studio and all my art be destroyed. No room in the Explorer after the cat and dog and orchids. Paintings were surrendered to the fates.

Fall of Stars
20 x 30 Mixed Media on Wrapped Canvas
$1650

Night seems to have prevailed in my paintings since the fire. New Maiden Moon was begun as a commission on the theme of a previous painting I sold.

New Maiden Moon
30 x 20 Mixed Media on Wrapped Canvas
$1350

After my absorption in the dark I decided to take a ride up to the top of the ridge on Forest Road 76. It had been closed during the fire because it was a line of defense. And had been widened from a one way winding dirt road road to allow fire fighting vehicles, and parked, which means thinning out the dead and dying and the highly flammable species to make 76 a permanent defense because there is much more that can burn. As a result all the smothered and hidden aspen groves were exposed. The Aspen Path is my celebration of that.

The Aspen Path 
28 x 14 Watercolor on Wrapped Canvas
$980

There are a few I have missed in this recount of new paintings. I even missed making photographs of them. I promise to do better.

Two Years and Two Months

Charley's Hideaway

Just before the Governor shut out state down and declared the arts non-essential I had been given the honor of displaying my paintings in the Angel Fire Library. Of course in the two years of the pandemic I sold nothing. But I hung some of my work in the vrbo when I finished it a year ago.

Then came the Calf Canyon and Hermit's Peak Fire. And my evacuation to Eagle Nest. And all the questions about was I taking all my art with me? I have an Explorer but there was the dog and Thicke and their necessities. Then my various electronics and their accessories. And all the various backups. I had just gotten the Mac when the Windows 10 Acer failed. Fortunately I had the backup of that hard drive.

But today as I became aware I was going to participate in the Angel Fire Studio Tour, September 24 and 25, 2022 and I needed to submit photos for brochure and website, panic set in. Seemed there was a hole in my backups of work.

Music From Angel Fire Intermission Display

Yes, I had done paintings. Yes, I had taken photographs of them. But where were they? This morning I dug into the two cases all packed up from evacuation, and still packed, but out of the Explorer. But not far out of the escape capsule. Spoke seemed appropriately named. Memory pods lined up on the desk I proceeded to learn how to upload data to MyMac. And what all those little icons at the bottom of the screen but not yet needed meant. The blue and white smiley face to the far left proved helpful.

Soon half the day had passed but I seemed to have found all my art except for the End of Day Series. But luckily they were still in my possession. Not sold. I have managed to sell a goodly number of works in the last year. And fortunately I had photos of those.

But oddly I seem most attached to my End of Days series. The last two years and two months seems very much like the end of days. So after copying my photographic record to MyMac I proceeded to take photos of the End of Days. One of them will be going to the library soon as it will be replacing Venue of Ravens which is being sold. 

Venue of Ravens

Photography and jump drives and external hard drives are the only way to save your art from fires.