Holiday Treasures

Looking for a fun way to start your holiday shopping -
that does not involve appliances or big screen TVs?
Head to historic Manitou Springs, Colorado on Saturday, November 29th, where  the fun begins at the Holiday Miniature Show and sale from 4 to 7 pm  at the TracyMiller Gallery,
16 Ruxton  Ave.

Holiday Miniature shows pop up everywhere at this time of year and are the best places to buy work from established, and emerging artists,  - for the best prices.
With so many great artists featured at this show, you can be sure there will be something for everyone - all very affordable.
The Christmas Season is also a wonderful time to be in Manitou Springs; located between Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak,
this fun and festive mountain town is a hotbed of galleries, unique shopping, restaurants, and family attractions- especially inviting at this time of year.
This show will continue in Manitou Springs, at the TracyMiller Gallery, through the end of December.
These pieces here are just a few of the miniatures I painted for the show. Have a great weekend.

So. . . .what did you do on your summer vacation?

Every summer my painting classes head to the great outdoors.
For the evening class this summer I chose locations with long views specifically so that we could work on sunsets.
In the Studio Class we work on "sunsets"- as an element of the landscape and I have found that practice and a little study about: cloud shapes, sky color, landscape values, and low light painting can go a long way in preparation for the actual outdoor experience.

My personal feeling is this: cloud shapes MAKE the sunset. Sky colors and a quiet landscape help to make it all work but if the cloud shapes are dynamic and an active compositional element- then the sunset will also appear active and dynamic.

Everyone in class improved their plein air sunsets and I found my self much more comfortable doing what used to be very intimidating.
The time frame for a sunset is SO short - if you only do one plein air sunset a year -  it can be like trying to catch a tiger by the tail;  the results are seldom pretty.

I did a bunch this summer as practice and most went off wet to galleries where they sold rather quickly.
These are only a few - all are plein air, and all are pretty terse.
The last is 9x12 and probably my final plein air sunset of the season.
This winter I want to make larger versions of the studies and next summer do much larger work en plein air.
Practice, practice, practice.

TAOS Fall Arts Festival

Fall color is making its way thru Colorado from the high country down to the river valleys.  I look up to the San Juan's from my house and can see golden colors spread across the mountains like a necklace. 
At this time of year, artists want to be everywhere at once and there is a lot of chatter:  about the best color,  when it will peak - where it will peak  -  will it snow before it does . . . .
It can be a little nerve wracking. 
Last weekend I was in Creede painting with Sue McCullough and we caught the beginning of what we hope will be a long Fall. To the right is my piece, 14x12 - painted along the Bachelor Loop road.

This weekend it is Taos Fall Arts Festival -  as we follow Autumn's momentum and head to one of our favorite places - TAOS.
Taos Fall Arts celebrates the season with events and shows featuring fine art, arts & crafts, music, film and street art - all free and open to the public.

Sunday, Sept 28th, from noon to 5pm I will be painting at the Wilder Nightingale Fine Art Galley on Kit Carson with Sue McCullough and many of Wilder's other artists. Kit Carson will be hopping with openings and artists everywhere.
Come and join the party.

If you are looking to take in more of Fall in Taos - head down there on Friday for the TAOS SELECT opening that kicks off the weekend,  Friday Sept 26, from 5-9pm at the Kachina Lodge Conference Center. This opening will feature only invited Taos artists and, like all of the festival events, including the Taos Art Museum and the Fechin House are free and open to the public - open daily from 10am-6pm.

Fall Painting Classes

Hi all.
2 Painting Class options for this Fall in Alamosa, Colorado:
Studio Painting on Tuesday Evenings from 6:30pm to 9:30pm, starting on September 2nd, and
Plein Air (outdoor) Painting on Thursday Mornings from 9 am to noon, starting on September 4th.
The class session is 8 weeks long and based in the Studio at the Alamosa Family Recreation Center.


On Tuesday Evenings our focus will be on the landscape as we study composition and design, color,  and technique. Beginners are always welcome, even first-time oil painters brave enough to jump in.

On Thursday Mornings we will be out painting in the landscape around Alamosa punctuated with a drive to the Conejos to paint Fall color.
The first meeting of the Thursday Plein air Class will meet the Alamosa Recreation Center for a paint-along demo. Location schedules will be passed out at that time so everyone will know where to meet in the following weeks. Students bring their own supplies to the plein air class and as always, beginners are welcome.
If you have painted with us in class before, you are welcome to drop in on either class for a drop-in fee. Call the Alamosa Family Recreation Center at 710-589-2105 for Registration or  information.

Evening Plein Air

After several weeks of dodging rain drops and lightening,
the Tuesday class was rewarded with a beautiful summer evening. 

It was blazing sun when we set up at 6:30, out north of Alamosa
but it wasn't long before the evening began to unfold.
Thankfully, most of the action was off in the distance, - a thunder storm with lots of great lightning and a long, varied, and beautiful sunset. Life is good in Colorado.
At the bottom is my take on the evening.

Class Notes: Marketing ART- or Who am I?

In my classes there are artists at all levels and stages of their journey; some are long time art business people spanning many genres and mediums, some paint for show and some paint to please only themselves. Everyone is working to improve.
In class we talk about the "Art business" and what life is like as a daily/working painter. Questions that come up are related to the "How to" of selling as much as the "how to" of painting and students ready to make a leap to the more serious side of selling want to know where to start.
Often the conversation begins like this:
     "I have been painting/creating for many years and have a ton of work in  - watercolor, oil, acrylic, some is landscape, some still life. I used to live in another state and painted at the ocean so I have a lot of seascapes plus the ones I did in college. . . . . .
Also, I went through a phase of 'art quilting'.
Where do I start to SELL all this stuff?"

Whoa!!  TOO much stuff.  
This is where I ask - WHO are you? -  and WHAT are you selling?
In a word - this is "marketing".

Deciding WHO you are, or want to be, is the hardest part.

Are you a painter, sculptor, fiber artist?
What is your medium? - subject matter? Landscape, still life, portrait, abstract?
Do you work best en plein air, or do you prefer studio work?
If you want to SELL work (beyond the occasional “one off”) - it becomes about marketing. The more specific you can be about WHO you are as artist - the easier it is to target the market for your work and be successful.
If you have a lot of work already - gather up the BEST, putting together what goes together stylistically and pulling out what does not fit. Start with only the best.  If you end up with 2 pieces - that is what you build on until you have a "BODY" of work, 10 -20 pieces.
Galleries are looking for distinctive work with a consistent style.

I market myself as a "Contemporary Plein Air Painter, working in the Western landscape". Those boundaries keep my marketing on track.
When I choose paintings for advertising and promotion I go with work that most exemplifies MY style and genre. I never want to muddy the water with other styles, other genres, or old work, - no matter how "good" it is.

When I lived in California, I sold a ton of seascapes- because I lived there. Not anymore; my galleries and collectors want work done in my region. That is not to say that I never paint seascapes or sell them but they have to fit the marketing criteria of  "contemporary plein air painter- working in the western landscape".
It is not about what I CAN DO - it is about what I want to SELL.

La Veta Art Gallery Opening, Friday, June 27th

Tomorrow -
Friday, June 27,  I will be in La Veta, Colorado at Pinon Hill Art Gallery   5 - 7 pm  to celebrate the opening of my show there.
Pinon Hill Art Gallery is a gem gallery, located in the charming town of LaVeta, in Southern Colorado.  Known for exceptional ceramic art by regional and local artisans they also feature the work of painters like Frank Lalumia, Bob Buckner and Joan Hanley.
I am honored to have Nicole Copel and Brad Atchison,  artist/owners hosting a show of my work, June and all of July.
Good food and good art in one of the most beautiful regions of Colorado; I hope you will join me  - only an hour from Alamosa at Pinon Hill Art Gallery,
210 S. Main Street in La Veta, Colorado - 5 to 7 pm.

Alamosa ArtWalk '14

Thanks to everyone who volunteered, promoted, planned and participated in Alamosa's ArtWalk last Saturday, June 21st - a celebration of art, music and spoken word. There were painting demos, and displays of photography, pottery, fiber arts, and sculpture.
Special THANKS to painters from my class who came out; and kudos to those who were first time plein air painters.
We enjoyed a perfect June morning on Main Street, chatting it up with people from the community and other artists who came out to see what we were up to. ArtWalk is about seeing and being seen- promoting Alamosa and hopefully raising interest and awareness to ART - in our community.
ArtWALK participants carried Programs that they had stamped by Alamosa stores and restaurants and at the end of the day entered a drawing for a $200 art gift-certificate to spend toward ART. Yay!
As part of my ArtWalk day I have always gotten a program stamped in hope of winning the prize - but no luck yet. However, I was very gratified that the winner chose to purchase my painting "Sage and Snow" - bottom right in the photo above.

In the afternoon I painted a quick dog portrait of Magnolia  - a dog friend of mine. All in all - a pretty good day.

What Could Be Better?

...than Colorado in June? Not much.
Even better, to be OUT with other painters, from other places who come to the valley. It is like a cultural exchange.
Louise Minks,  comes to Alamosa a couple of times a year from her home in Leverett, Massachusetts, to visit her daughter - and to teach classes at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.
We met up at the beginning of June with Sue McCullough, out at Sue's ranch and enjoyed a morning painting the sweet little Model A that Sue's dad is so proud to show off.
Louise is primarily an acrylic painter and captures the spirit of our western landscape with fabulous color and abstraction. I seldom see, really good acrylic painters, using the medium as it is meant to be used and I am a big fan. She shows her work in Taos at Wilder Nightingale Fine Art - where I am also represented.

I devoted the morning to sketching, something I am trying to devote more time to, instead of always working to a finished painting. Cars are not a big part of what I do in the landscape but the practice time drawing- especially such a fun model, is never wasted.
Click on the photos to enlarge them and see how Louise and Sue tackled the car.

Painting With Friends

Summer and good weather brings artists together and last weekend I met up with Josh Been and Sally Mather to paint in Buena Vista, CO.
Sunday brought Colorado some crazy weather, state- wide, with a couple of tornadoes and golf ball size hail, BUT Saturday was more than perfect- and I am grateful.  We met before dawn at the Collegiate Peaks Overlook for a stellar view of Mt. Princeton as the sun rose.
Sally, Josh and myself, are very different painters with contrasting vision and widely divergent outcomes  - but on a perfect morning -  being OUT there is brings us together.