SQUARE Show Sale

"Ladies in Painting"- my 7"x 7" homage to PAPNM (Plein Air Painters of New Mexico) was part of the SQUARE Show, currently hanging at the Milagros Coffee House Gallery in Alamosa. This piece sold last week, which I am happy about, but the good folks at Milagros could not tell WHO bought it. If by chance, it was purchased by a blog reader,
I would so like to know who you are.
Thanks so much.
The Square Show is a representation of work from the SLV Painting group and so far we have sold almost 10 pieces, possibly more since the ARTwalk. I am very happy to have sold 2 myself.

Crossroads of the World

The painting above was done especially for the Alamosa ARTwalk which is THIS Saturday, April 16, in downtown Alamosa, Colorado.
It is a good excuse to visit beautiful San Luis Valley and enjoy Alamosa's 2011 celebration of art, music and spoken word at 20 downtown locations, all within walking distance of Main Street.
There will be painting demos, and displays of photography, pottery, fiber arts, sculpture, and stained glass with artists on hand, 10 am - 5 pm. Programs and maps are available in downtown Alamosa stores and restaurants.
Get your program stamped at 12 or more event locations to enter the prize drawing at 5 pm at the San Luis Valley Brewing Company, 631 Main.
My work, including the painting at the top of this post "Crossroads of the World", will be on display at the San Luis Valley Brewing Company.

It's Spring - Take Cover and Hold on to Your Earflaps

Winter cold will seldom keeps us from painting out - but Spring wind will. We do all kinds of things to foil the weather, as if it were possible to sneak out under the cover of night and get a painting done before the wind finds us ; but we still try. In the last 3 weeks finding a morning when the wind wasn't already blowing the paint off of your house at dawn was rare. Over Spring Break, Dave Montgomery and I headed up the western slope of Mt. Blanca and took cover in the pinion for a view west over the San Luis Valley, as clouds blew in overhead.

A week later, we lucked out on a perfect day with no wind; Sue McCullough, Dave Montgomery and I drove in to the very mountains we had been viewing from Blanca, the week before.
Looking for snow and running water, and a good place to park, kept us heading up Alamosa River Canyon and happily, we found it all on an extremely beautiful day.

These plein air trips, with Sue, David and myself painting together in the same locations, are the basis of our 3 FRIENDS show that will open June 3rd at the Creede Repertory Theatre's UPSTAIRS Gallery with a reception at 5:30 pm.
On December 17 at 4 pm a reception will open the 3 FRIENDS show at Salida's Steamplant Gallery.
Lot's to paint between now and then and wind will be a major factor.

Class Notes: Painting Demo with David Montgomery

This last week, our Thursday morning Painting Class had a special guest, well known landscape painter David Montgomery.
David is known for his dramatic and epic scenes of the Western Landscape. It was a treat to watch a master walk us through his process. He began with an 8"x 10" linen panel, a photo cropped for this purpose and a charcoal sketch already completed. Click on photos to enlarge them.
Dave and I paint together in the landscape a lot and tho' our styles differ dramatically, our process has many similarities; the sketch being one. The sketch is where we make decisions about what to say about said photo - or the view before us. Amazingly, this is a step most ignored by beginners.

In the second photo, he has used violet to draw the general layout, based on the sketch, and begun to lay in a complementary under painting, over which he will work the varied greens of the landscape. At this point he is very conscious of allowing that under painting to peek out between brush strokes as he works it from the top down towards the bottom.


Dave is a classically and academically trained painter with a refined sense of technical expertise. His unique style though, has developed from a bent to follow his own passion and not the wind of stylishness or painting fad. My students had a lot to say about his brushes, which are mostly #1 & #2 rounds - which I do not allow in class.
. . . As long as you live under my roof missy, you'll do as I say . . . . . . .
- oops wrong lecture.
In the next photo, Dave is making a point about different edges and detail, created by varied brushwork. The final photos show how the bottom, and foreground of the painting were resolved. He did not consider the piece "done" at this point but will take it home to his famous freezer where it will rest for a day or 2 until he can look at it with fresh eyes and better judge if the piece has become what the sketch intended or if it needs some massaging. Massaging might be resolving edges to bring some foreword and make others recede, it might be added detail to bring the important points out, or it might be simply adding the signature.
Thanks Dave for sharing your work and your process with so much generosity. To read more about David Montgomery and see his work click here on his name.
As a ps. I am happy to say - I own one of Dave's plein air pieces, painted at Point Lobos in California on the Monterey Peninsula.

JAPAN - There IS something we can do.

I am a member of Artistes de Studio, an online gathering for artists doing Studio work. Jennifer Evenhus, creator of Artistes de Studio recently sent out this call- to give us a small way to help the people of Japan.
____________________________
Greetings Artistes de Studio,
The Daily PaintWorks website has offered The Help Japan Painting Challenge.
The premise is simple: create a painting, post it for auction.
When it sells, donate the full amount of the sale (minus the shipping/tax) to an agency that is helping the people of Japan.
There is a list on that site. To learn more click here: Help Japan Painting Challenge
See other's paintings and click on any to see more information.
Be sure to read carefully how it works........... it's up to the artist to donate the proceeds.
Over 5,000.00 has already been donated via sales!
So pour your heart out . . . help Japan.
Thank You! Jennifer Evenhus, Artistes de Studio creator
_________________________________________________
Can YOU help?
Click here to get all the info: Help Japan Painting Challenge, donate a piece, or buy a piece. There are some real gems and the prices are right.
At the top is my donated painting "The Plug", and you can see it on the Challenge site.
Thanks so much - Coni

Shipping that REALLY Big Piece

At some time or another, most artists will face the shipping dillema.
I ship plein air paintings to galleries and shows during the year but a large painting is a whole different animal.
I am currently preparing to ship the painting above "Whispers In the Wood" off to a buyer in Texas and thought it would be a good chance to talk about how I prepare a painting to travel the distance.
In the past, most of my large work sold out of a galleries to buyers responsible to take it away themselves.
Then ONCE, I learned a very hard lesson about trusting a gallery to prepare and ship a big painting sold to an out of state buyer.
This is not a rag on galleries but I realized then, that everyone has a different standard about what is "good enough".
Said painting arrived at the home of the excited buyer with 2 corners destroyed 6 inches into the painting. When I saw the damage, I felt literally sick, not to mention sick at heart. Damage like that could only happen if a box was THROWN off the truck.

Rule #1 - never use Fed Ex. They may be great for some things but not for my art. And by the way, that piece was insured BUT, I could only make the claim if I was willing to forgo getting back my art.
I passed on the insurance money, took back my painting and restored it;
no easy task.
Rule #2 - work over 30"gets crated in wood, no exceptions - and only ship UPS. I think at first this whole idea was so daunting I didn't even want to look at it but when I saw my hard work destroyed, I wised up quick. It was empowering.

The painting at the top of this post is 48" high by 36" wide.
I try to find, or buy a box that is at least 4 to 6 inches bigger all around. We have a U-Haul place in town and I like to buy, what they call a Mirror-Boxes designed for moving art. Two boxes can be cut at the ends and extended for longer work. The painting itself gets wrapped in several layers of bubble wrap (big bubbles not small bubbles) until it fits snuggly in the extended box. Every corner should have at least 2 inches of bubble between the painting and the box.
I then build a frame of one bys around the box so all corners are covered. It is all held together by wood screws. The drill bit shown below will be sent, via regular mail to the buyer separately, so they can use a drill to open the crate.And if you are wondering about the cost: 2 Mirror boxes were $12.50. Lumber, 1 x 4" and 1 x 6" was about $35.00 and misc wood screws and the bit brought the total to $51.57.
Once the piece is crated, I take it to UPS with the address; they weigh, measure and give a price that includes insurance that covers the price of the art. I won't ship yet though.
The UPS price together with my crating materials is then communicated to the buy who will add it to total price of the piece and hopefully, send me a check. Then I ship.
So my shipping costs for this painting were $185.00. YIKES!!
And I admit sometimes that is my response.
When I communicated the price to the buyer however, their response was both gracious and grateful, for caring enough to make sure the art got to them in good fashion.

To my mind, delivering and, personally installing a painting is the first and best option - but not always possible.

Here's a final tip straight from a UPS guy: drivers know what packages are worth the most by how much insurance has been paid. These get handled the most carefully.
Sigh. . . . . . in the end you get what you pay for.

Class Notes on the SQUARE Show

Last weekend the San Luis Valley Painters got together to celebrate the SQUARE SHOW, currently hanging in the Milagros "gallery", in Alamosa. All paintings done on the square format: landscape, abstract, portrait, and still life - in all mediums.
This started in painting class about a year ago when we spent over 3 months working compositions on the square. At first the paintings were all small, about 6"x 6" but over time painters took the square composition and really ran with it. The idea of a show highlighting some of our best work was the natural outcome.

We hung over 90 paintings (a record for the space) and last Sunday when painters, family, and art lovers got together, Gina Quintana's "Rooster" was voted Best In Show.


Milagros is a community sponsored coffee house that supports the arts, and a crossroads for almost everyone who lives in Alamosa, or passes through. I want to THANK the community for supporting us and also to tourists who have stopped in and decided to take a painting home with them. Five pieces have already SOLD. This show will hang until the end of April.
The San Luis Valley Painters group is a loose association of artists who are, or have, at some point in time painted with Coni's Adult Painting Class in Alamosa.
Congratulations to all of the San Luis Valley Painters who participated.

Spring Paint Outs

Spring is coming on very fast - the 2 pairs of Canadian geese have come back to the pond behind my house, - migration has started. Usually the geese will spend a week or two on solid ice, but not this year.
In Southern Colorado, we are in a window of calm somewhere between freezing temps and the onset of Spring. When the real warming starts - wind will tear through the valley like a roaring beast. It's something we dread. Painting out as temps rise is nice, but days with little, or NO wind, are something to really relish.
Last week Sue, Dave and myself went up to Creede to do some business and paint (see post below-Visit With Stephen Quiller). After coffee with Steve and Marta we headed up the canyon to what was the original Creede settlement and found a lot of snow and running water. My 16"x 12" piece is here to the right.

This Wednesday, Sue, Dave and I were joined by Peg Immel, fellow PAAC painter from Taos, and we met in Fort Garland to paint in the eastern end of the San Luis Valley.

Less snow in this area than we had seen in Creede but it was harder to find open water.
We each separated to areas that attracted us. Sue went after the red rocks, Dave ventured down by the river; I have no idea HOW he got there but it looked like a sweet spot.
Peg and I painted a stand of cottonwoods with a pinion - my 16"x 12" is posted below.

A Visit With Stephen Quiller

Where do I begin to talk about a great day?
Good weather, good friends, serendipitous meetings - it's all that.
Last week, Dave Montgomery, Susan McCullough and I went up to Creede to mix some business with, well business. In May, the 3 of us will hang a show at the Creede Repertory Theatre Gallery and looking it over seemed like a good idea; of course, finding a place to paint along the way was also a priority. So once our business at the Theatre was finished we looked for some caffeinated fortification before heading up the canyon to paint.
On the way we decided to try to catch Stephen's Quiller in his studio (Quiller Gallery is down the street from the Theatre).











We were rewarded by finding Steve at work on a 360 degree mural for the new Creede Repertory Theatre Building. WOW!
Steve, talked about the piece in process- generous to let us look at eveything - like our busting in on him was the highlight of the day.

I can't say enough about how much I admire Quiller, as an artist, designer and all'round good guy but I felt so fortunate to get a glimpse behind the painting at the easel, to the artist's mind during work in progress. Be still my heart!
The mural is not yet ready for public viewing, and being kept somewhat under wraps - if I show you too much - I'd have to kill you all. . .

We saw some pretty big sections of the final piece, but also his layouts and small mock-ups; the charcoal sketches, alone 'bout made me faint with creative desire and passion. Nothing fires my jets like seeing, in a tangible way, the artistic process. WOW!
And if our chance meeting could not get better,
he and Marta joined us for coffee - and picked up the tab.
Thanks Steve!

Class Notes: INTO the Mystery - Process Painting

I think our creative selves are like floating icebergs; only a small part breaks the surface of the water. The larger part is alive with color and movement but a mystery, even to ourselves. Some of us have reconciled to the admission of being "creative" but can't begin to know where it comes from (or sometimes where it goes). I believe we are all imbued with the same force that created the cosmos; it is part of God's very nature, thus part of ours. But that's part of another discussion.
We live, for the most part, strangers to our intuitive selves and barely touch the surface of the iceberg, allowing the 90% below the surface to remain a mystery. What's down there?
Good question.
Last week in my painting class, guest artist Vivia Lawson helped us begin to address it with an exercise in something called "Process Painting".
"When we are completely free from preconception or judgment, what will we paint? When we give ourselves permission to follow our own energy, we discover hidden reservoirs of talent, capacity, and visual power. This is process painting, a mighty tool to work through creative blocks, and stir up juices for your artistic passion and for your life".

That quote is right off Vivia's website, and
I could not have said it better.
So, you ask - What did you DO?
Ah. . . we plumbed the great mystery.
Vivia set out about 20 pots of lovely rich, goey tempera paint and big brushes; we each got a very big sheet of paper and JUMPED in with abandon - or tried. Looking inward is much harder than looking outward.
I see it almost as visual journalizing, trying to capture visual impulses without judgment or any art direction beyond what brings me joy and satisfaction.
And that's saying a mouthful. I don't have to plumb the depths of "Process Painting" to immediately get in touch with my critical self that judges every brushstroke and lightly disses the work as trivial or without real worth; "Will it sell?" - and if not - "What's the point?".
Ah - another good question. What IS the point?

We all long to touch on the passion and beauty that is part of our creative selves but have forgotten how to go to the magic wood.
It is where children seem to go before self awareness, judgment and fear block the joy of just creating. They embrace every mark made and do not second guess themselves.
For adults "Process Painting" is permission to make the investigative journey into the mystery of creation without self-critique.

For me, it is freeing, fun, and dare I say it, therapeutic. I recommend it highly but know not everyone will see the value. If you are interested in reading more about "Process Painting" just Google it and lots of info will come up.

ps. Vivia and I were studio-mates at Adams State, both doing graduate work. We have painted together in the landscape and I am happy to say, I own some of her work.
These are my pieces in this post.
Thanks for a great day Vivia!