Beautiful JUNE

Usually, by this time of the year,  I have lots of plein air paintings to show for the previous 7 months; pieces that document the cold Colorado winter right into raging spring.  Instead - this year I dedicated months to preparing for the WILDLAND-WILDLIFE show in Colorado Springs which meant a specific focus on large work- ALL studio. For years I have complained about not getting enough studio time - Ha! Be careful what you wish for.  In the end, I managed to complete 8 new oversize paintings- and learned a lot; that's the upside. I got in touch with my cranky side as well.
Going OUT - is my tonic, my meditation, my inspiration - even if the work is crap - I gotta go out.
So, here it is already June; I feel like the fist half of the year has passed me by - but there is no better time to step out into the Colorado landscape, than summer - it is what we live for.
So this week, Sue McCullough and I went out to Zapata, an amazingly diverse area on the western slope of Mt. Blanca where aspens are in the first flush of green. We painted in a grove of Aspens surrounded by Cottonwoods and Spruce.

Later in the week, we met up at Sue's ranch along the Rio Grande river.  This is one of my favorite places to paint at any time of year because of the huge cottonwood trees, views of the river and mountain ranges off to the east - and the west. I took this photo looking west toward the San Juan Mountains at noon when big storm clouds were forming, but when we arrived several hours earlier the skies were clear and I chose to paint looking eastward into the sun toward the Sangre de Christos.  I love it in the morning when the mountain shapes are very flat - like they have been cut out of colored paper and placed on top of the sky. This piece still needs some edge work and a signature.

WILD Times in Colorado Springs

I am very excited about this show that just went up at the Phantom Canyon Brewing Company, one of Colorado Springs' most distinctive event spaces/ brewery.
Myself and Tracy Miller, of the TracyMiller Gallery in Manitou have put together 24 over size pieces specifically for this show that will hang all of JUNE & JULY.
Colorado Springs is a new art market for me and having a chance to show so much work, and BIG work, is a great opportunity. 
So, if you are in the area check it out; good art, good food, good brew - at a first rate venue.
And a huge 'Thank You' to Tracy Miller, who lassoed me for this gig and to Abby Kreuser, of the Kreuser Gallery who curated the show.
Phantom Canyon Brewing Company is located at 2 E.Pikes Peak Ave., in Colorado Springs.

June 21st, I will also be in town to promote this show at the Manitou 3rd Friday ARTWalk:
Friday night, June 21, from 5 pm to 9pm - I will be painting a demo and hosting at the TracyMiller Gallery located at 16 Ruxton Ave., in Manitou Springs - just a short drive from downtown Colorado Springs.

Saturday morning, June 22, from 10 am to 3 pm, I will be back up at the Gallery to conduct a one day Painting Workshop. Look to the right,  under WORKSHOP for more info about that.

WorkShop in Colorado Springs

Join me for a ONE DAY workshop:
Saturday, June 22 from 10 am to 3 pm, in Manitou Springs, at the Fare Bella Gallery, 14 Ruxton, in Manitou, just a short drive from downtown Colorado Springs.

The workshop will focus on design and color interpretation, and how to organize visual info to create better paintings.
This is a workshop to benefit students at all levels and is open to all mediums.
Workshop price is $75. for the day, and class size is limited to 8.
To reserve a spot - contact me through my website at  Coni Grant.com or call Tracy Miller at the TracyMiller Gallery - 719-650-0827.

Manitou is one of the oldest small town destinations in Colorado; known for art and home to the Manitou & Pikes Peak Cog Railway that takes passengers to the top of Pikes Peak at 14, 115 feet.  Downtown Manitou is packed with charm, and just a short drive from Colorado Springs.
FareBella Gallery is right next to the TracyMiller Gallery where I show my work, and where I will be featured at the Manitou ARTwalk on Friday night, June 21st from 5 to 9 pm.

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.

Class Notes: Clear as Glass

 We spent several painting sessions in class last month looking at glass; one of my
favorite still life subjects. With these 2 little water glass demos,  I took a minimalist approach, with a focus on the distortion - behind the glass.
This is the route I encourage students to take:  say as little as possible in paint and allow the eye to fill in the blanks. More explanation can be beautiful - or just redundant.  Clarity is key when interpreting clear glass.
"Duh"- you say,
but beginners always try to describe too much "glass"- which, when you think about it - if it is clear, should hardly be seen at all.
I use hard highlights and hard accents (the darkest marks) to communicate the hardness of the glass.

The lower photo is a quick study in colored glass.
So, how do you make glass look clear and still show the color? Think CLARITY.
If the glass is clear/transparent or colored/transparent, you have to be able to see through it.
Well, I got a little carried away with this colored glass - probably a result of too much time, alas.

A Tribute, and Sad Goodbye

This April the LaVeta Fine Art Gallery closed its doors and wrapped up a wonderful chapter in the life of the scenic town of LaVeta in Southern Colorado. This gallery ran strong for about 8 years- amazingly as a co-op of artists - with a far reaching reputation for excellence. I remember, years ago, peering into its window, after hours - amazed at the very high level of artists represented there.
In 2009 I was asked to join the stable of represented artists and was impressed by the integrity and professionalism of the group; artists like Robert Buckner, Joan Hanley, Tim Deibler, Janey Waldrep, Annie Enke, Claude Appel, and Paul Foster.
In the end, neither a lack of sales (I can attest to that) or interest, forced the closing but attrition and the wearing work of running a gallery, as artists - not strictly gallery owners.
Thank You, especially to Bob Buckner, friend, and fabulous painter/sculptor - I am your biggest fan. Thank you for inviting me to be a part of something really special, and for all of your support and encouragement.
Finally, all the Best, to every artist that was a part of this fine gallery. 

San Luis Valley Painters Present OUR TOWN

This show of work highlighting the San Luis Valley will hang all of March at Milagros Coffee House and Gallery in Alamosa.
The San Luis Valley Painters is a group loosely associated with my Painting classes and we hold a show every Spring in the Milagros Coffee House Gallery in downtown Alamosa. This year 12 Painters participated with 40 pieces, all in sizes less than 80 square inches and all very affordable.
At the reception, Judith Greenwood's piece "VFW Post 899, Alamosa" was voted Best in Show.  Bravo!
Judith's piece and much of the work in this show was painted en plein air, over the course of this last year in and around "our town".

Thank You to Milagros, not-for-profit coffee house;  a place where friends meet for conversation and coffee, musicians and writers gather, and tourists stop to shop.  It is Alamosa's living room and a natural place to share our work with the community.
20% of all proceeds from sales go to LaPuente which serves Alamosa in so many ways.
Thank You to the everyone who came out to support us, to view and buy work, and to all the painters who participated - Thank You!
This show will hang until March 29th, 2013.

Class Notes: More Drawing Challenges

It's another one of those.

I can't resist them - bikes, trikes, bowls;
here is more of what we have been painting in class.
I am over the fruit phase and am moving into a
things-on-wheels phase.
Thanks to Perla for bringing this sweet little rusty trike into class.
And the Pyrex bowls used to belong to my husband's grandmother; the apple - is history.

Class Notes: Drawing Ellipses

We draw quite a few elliptical things in class and recently a blog reader asked about giving some instruction on how to draw ellipses correctly.  I saw this set-up idea in a painting done by Tracy Wall and thought that stacking two cups would serve the purpose well.
An ellipse is just a circle in perspective but when they go in different directions, drawing them can stymie the beginner, and even stump a pro. 

Most people can spot drawing errors but the ability to make them right, is something worth knowing.
Start by looking, looking, looking - at wheels, cups, jar lids, soup cans.
An ellipse is a circle (that's 2 dimensional) in perspective, and even if you don't know a thing about perspective, observation and simple rules will guide you.
NO matter what direction a circle is facing, turning, or leaning, - its ellipse will have a directional axis on which it is based. Find the direction and draw the axis lines which will look like a set of cross hairs. Axis lines MUST be perpendicular to each other.
In the example below, see the lines that show the directionality of the shape and the lines that cross it to create the axis of the ellipse.

With these lines in place, draw half of the ellipse on the upper side of the cross hairs and the other half below. It helps to compare the width of your ellipse, top to bottom, to what ever it is you are looking at. Is yours too deep, or too shallow?
The great thing is - a correctly drawn ellipse will be exactly the same in each quadrant.  So, if you have drawn one quarter correctly each of the other 3 quarters should be exactly like it, no matter what direction the ellipse is going.  Hmmm . . . .
I had a drawing teacher argue with me on this point, saying that because of the foreshortening and perspective most ellipses could never be the same in all 4 quadrants.
We pulled out perspective books, engineering books, and tho' we never read it written anywhere quite this way - in the end he was convinced.  NO matter what direction your circular item is facing, turning, or leaning - when drawing ANY ellipse, each quarter will be exactly like the others - just like a circle.
In the example above, drawing the ellipses involved cups going in different directions. The directionality of the each cup is established with one line of the axis that goes in that direction; the line bisecting it is drawn perpendicular to it. From there I drew the ellipses, one quarter at a time.
A final reminder:
An ellipse is made up of arcs and has NO flat edges, or points - just like a circle.

Big Art - Small Town

Susan painting near Creede.

Alamosa, Colorado may be small on size but very big on art.
Right now we have an exceptional opportunity to view the work of 2 major valley artists - in beautiful venues.

The Susan McCullough "Landscapes & Dreams" show is at the SLVRegional Medical Center Artrium gallery.  The reception this Thursday the 21st from 4:30 - 7:30pm, is the chance to see the show before it closes at the the end of February, and to meet the artist.  I also happen to know there will be great food.  Susan has lived in the San Luis Valley most of her life but paints all over the west, including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming. One of the most well known, and loved artists in this area, her work shows a sensitivity to the landscape that only comes from years of observation and out door painting.
The 2nd Floor Artrium gallery at our medical center is the perfect place to see this great show of Colorado landscapes, and specifically our valley.
Stephen Quiller Retrospective; Steve is one of the foremost water media painters working in the world today. Painter as well as writer of 6 books on Color and Water Media, we are so lucky have him near us in Creede.  Adams State University is hosting this retrospective show of Steve's work in both the Hatfield and the Cloyde Snook galleries on campus.  There are works from his high school and early years as a painter - and also work from his travels, books and color studies.  At the Opening Steve packed out the art dept. lecture hall for a talk about his life and work.
The show hangs through March and is a must see.
These two Alamosa art venues are only about a block away from each other. It is possible to take in both of the shows in an afternoon - and consider it a day well spent.