Tracy Miller Guest Artist

We had a treat in class this week - Tracy Miller, artist and owner of the Tracy Miller gallery in Manitou, gave a demo and talked about her exuberant style animals - painted in acrylic.
I have painted with Tracy in different events around Colorado and am represented in her gallery in Manitou, - but I have never been able to sit and just watch how she puts it all together.  Her colorful animals are finding their way to posters, bags, and accessories in venues like TJ Max and U Gallery, an on-line source for original artwork.
The film festival poster above is testament to the kind of attention her work is getting and she is a generous and active member of the art scene in Colorado Springs.

Using a small piece of reference, Tracy painted the little Cardinal shown above;
then using a simple compositional idea of OUR choice, she created the bison. Tracy has been drawing and painting animals for so many years that she can pull almost any animal out of her head and paint it in a way that communicates.
What a fun morning! I love to see artists work in styles so different from my own, pushing boundaries and inspiring ideas about WHAT is possible.
It is like a breath of fresh air. 
Thanks so much to Tracy for sharing with us.

Taste of Creede Quick Draw

Memorial Day Sunday can only mean "The Taste of Creede"  that kicks off the summer season in one of Colorado's most colorful and classic high country mining towns. Tucked away in the San Juan Mountains, Creede loves tourists and artists.
Known for holiday partying, Creede also hosts the National Small Prints Show currently hanging at the Creede Repertory Theatre, but "Taste of Creede" is the big Memorial weekend party dedicated to Food, Culinary Arts, and Fine Art.  Sunday's 1 hour Artist's Quick Draw attracts some of the best artists from several states including Stephen Quiller,  and buyers come from all over the country.  This is my 4th year attending and it is one of the most fun events I do all year. Artists gather on Main Street in front of the Stephen Quiller gallery  and paint from models, sketches, memory or the view. This year a "mountain man" with burro and trusty dog companion came out of the canyon in the morning and stood as a model in the afternoon.  We reimbursed him for gas - I guess that went to the burro.

Some of the artists attending:
Steve Quiller, Kris Gosar, David Montgomery,  Frank Francese, Peggy Stenmark Morgan, Charles Ewing, Jan Thompson, Frankie Will, Gail Frasier, Sam Keith, Tracy Miller,  and myself - to name a few.
This year, Tracy Miller was my partner in crime, shown here with her 1 hour Raven. Tracy is known for her wild and wonderful acrylic animals paintings. She runs the TracyMiller Gallery in Manitou and represents my work there. 
We had a great time and our buyers did pretty well too.

To the right is my 1 hour painting - the view up the street and into the dramatic Willow Creek canyon that Creede is so famous for.
It is only an 10"x 8" which is my standard quick draw size, but the elements were challenging. This summer I am going to try to do more street views.

Thank You to Stephen & Marta Quiller and the Creede Chamber of Commerce for putting together a great event.