October 2019 to January 2020

What a beautiful summer and fall we had in New Mexico. In early October we drove up to the Valles Caldera, one of our favorite places to enjoy the pristine beauty there and catch a glimpse of the fall color just beginning, photo on the left. The photo on the right is of our beautiful Sandia Mountains that hover over Albuquerque from the Open Space area my husband and I visit here in Rio Rancho where we walk along the Rio Grande (river) enjoying the bosque area (forest of Cottonwood trees along the river).

I met a dear friend for lunch to catch up as we'd been trying to get together for probably over a year though both of our lives seem to get so busy that it never quite "took" and I was able to deliver to her the painting she'd wanted to buy. To the left is a photo of Lisa with her newly bought painting, I just love this lady!

I was asked in October to be in a Craft Fair at the Rio Rancho Methodist Church November 2nd and I'm so glad I did. It was only a one day event on a Saturday and started out a little slow though the loving, Christmas feeling of the event and the warm welcome extended to me really got me in the spirit of Christmas even before Thanksgiving (smile). 

My husband and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary in November and my 68th birthday and I was so excited about Christmas that we had the decorations down and I started decorating the day before Thanksgiving! The photo on the left is with my new Christmas tablecloth I just had to have and the floral arrangement my husband sent me for our anniversary.

The Carson National Forest and small town of Red River cut down the large Christmas tree that was displayed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC for Christmas and as it traveled around New Mexico on it's way there what a sense of pride and excitement about OUR tree being "lit up" and on display in our nation's capitol. We, in our home here in New Mexico, decided for Christmas we would not get our usual freshly cut tree but just have a simple Christmas with a little fiber optic tree we've had a few years adding some special ornaments from our family. It was a very casual and simple Christmas for us that we thoroughly enjoyed even going over the week before to my dearest friend's family home to make the traditional Christmas tamales.

Here we were with our dear friend and neighbor with the 8"x10" oil painting I gave him for Christmas. We are so blessed with the community of friends we have here and appreciate all they do for us.

As we closed out 2019 I finished my first painting from our travels during the summer, one of many to follow. This one was very special to my heart and is an original oil painting on 16"x20" canvas "Northern California Coast from Trinidad". After leaving our friends and family in Oregon we decided to drive along the coast to cool off and relax before driving into Sacramento and the heat. My husband found us a small furnished cabin in Trinidad, California which amazingly was in a redwood forest but only blocks away from the coast. It was absolutely gorgeous and felt so nurturing to be surrounded by huge trees as well as such beautiful misty coastline. This painting is now available, if interested please contact me at my email of joanne@neelygomez.com for details.

Thank you for your interest in my art and as I look forward to all the new adventures and opportunity of 2020 I wish you all peace, good health and a renewed sense of excitement about each day of your life and gathering positives! Happy New Year!

Catching Up Through September 2019

2019 was a wonderful year in the life of this artist, I started out painting this beautiful snowy 8"x10" oil painting for "Let's Paint New Mexico" which I actually sold immediately after posting it to my Facebook page and to a dear friend who lives in Texas now. I love when friends find something special or that touches their soul in my paintings.

As a late birthday surprise for another friend I painted the painting to the right and finally got to present it to her on Palm Sunday. She was thrilled with it and I loved doing something special and close to her heart for her birthday and really in celebration of our friendship.

In April I surprised my best friend with an oil painting of her trip down the Danube River for her birthday. She was very surprised and always tells me how everyone who comes into her home comments about the beauty of that painting, which, of course, really warms and makes my heart happy!

We had a wonderful spring trip over to California to visit my 91 year old mom who now lives with my brother and also had a great trip and time with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law in Palm Desert at a resort they belong to there.

We went to Sandia Resort and Casino in Albuquerque and saw our own New Mexico Chevel Shepherd winner on "The Voice" along with main attraction "Little Big Town" in June. Also in June we attended an event at The Albuquerque Museum of Art with musical performance by La Familia Vigil who do traditional New Mexican Folk music.

My husband and I have always wanted to make a cross country driving trip from our home here in New Mexico up through Utah, Idaho, and over to Oregon to see friends we've not seen in maybe 25 years and we did that in July 2019. It was such an extraordinarily amazing trip with beautiful scenery, weather, accommodations and special time spent with not only our friends but we got to see our daughter and meet a cousin of mine who worked on our family genealogy with me quite a few years ago. I got many photos that will become paintings also on this trip just too many beautiful things to see so I'll only post a photo or two here. We made another shorter trip to California in August.

I sold one of the paintings I had displayed in Dr. Brian Dennis, DDS office in Albuquerque in August to none other than Dr. Dennis and his wife Kim. I am so grateful to have had my paintings displayed there after the gallery representing me closed a couple years ago. I'm also very honored and grateful for their friendship, they are amazing people and he is the best dentist in Albuquerque!

My cousin in Oklahoma saw a birdhouse I painted in 2018 and wanted to buy it although I had already sold it to a fellow artist so I began painting another birdhouse specifically for my cousin in the spring on 2019. I appreciate her patience with waiting for me to finish it between trips and other events happening in my life. I think it turned out beautifully and I'm glad I took my time with it. Here are a few photos of the finished birdhouse.

In September my husband and I went to Sandia Resort and Casino

for the final farewell tour of Peter Frampton, what a very special concert this was.

 In October we went to the Very Large Array in Southern New Mexico and finally made a trip over to Pie-O-Neer in Pie Town, New Mexico, we had been wanting to see both for a long time. Let me tell you the pies at Pie-O-Neer are amazing we had an Apple Pie with Hatch Green Chili and Pine Nuts (and bought a whole one to bring home with us) and a Blueberry Pie. If you visit please check their website as they are only open seasonally certain hours and if you want a specific pie you need to contact them ahead of time to order it so you can be assured of getting what you want when you go, they are extremely busy and pies go fast!

Fall Update 2018

Since my last update my husband and I made a trip to California to our great nephew's wedding, taking a lot of beautiful photos of the landscape and skies, especially on the way over that I'll be using for some upcoming paintings. It's always great to see and be with family, we stopped and visited my brother and mother while there, these visits always keep me firmly grounded.  Here's a photo of my husband and I in Laughlin on our way over.

About mid month in September I took a couple of my original oil paintings into The Range Cafe in
Bernalillo. Here are photos of those two paintings, they are both on gallery wrapped canvas with the sides painted for a finished look making them attractive on any wall. The first is my 16"x20" "Amazing Abiquiu" and the second is my 8"x10" "Sacred Beauty Golden, New Mexico".

Then about a week after my husband and I met friends at The Range in Bernalillo for lunch and to get my original 8"x10" oil painting "Stained Glass Golden, New Mexico" that they bought to them. Here is a photo of them and myself with the painting after a wonderful lunch.

I've been busy this month on my original 16"x20" oil painting "Italian Honeymoon" a wedding gift to my cousin of part of their honeymoon and Venice. When I decided to paint this for her I didn't realize what a challenge it would be for me though in hindsight am very grateful I chose this particular scene as it got me out of my usual painting and helped me grow a bit. Here is the finished and framed painting in the photo to the right. This will be presented to her in the next couple of weeks.

I also had framed my original abstract oil on 16"x20" canvas "My Mind's Garden of Color" and am trying to decide which paintings I will be taking to the 5th Annual Balloon Museum Holiday Arts, Crafts & Book Fair on Sunday, November 11th from 9am to 5pm.

It has been a beautiful beginning of fall and last week

my husband and I took a drive up to Hopewell Lake in northern New Mexico coming back down through Abiquiu and the Ghost Ranch area where Georgia O'Keeffe painted many stunning works of art. It is a gorgeous area and the fall colors were actually beautiful right in the Hopewell Lake area, I think we were almost too late to see the changing colors. Also they were having two prescribed burns which clouded the air on the way there and back with quite a bit of smoke. I still got some awesome photos and will use those as future paintings also.  I did begin and finish one but have not gotten the best photo of it to post so will do that in my next update.

Thank you for visiting my art blog and I hope you'll check back soon for more updates.

Summer 2018 - July and August Update through Labor Day

It has been a fairly busy summer, just after my last update mid July I made a departure from my usual oil paintings and did an abstract 16"x20" oil painting adding quite a bit of texture, color and enjoyed playing with something different.  To the left is my finished painting "My Mind's Garden of Color" finished July 30th.

I previously primed four birdhouses I bought at Michael's and started painting the sides. When I first posted photos of my beginning birdhouses another artist I admire asked if I was going to sell them because she wanted to buy one. What a huge compliment! I began painting those and also a larger oil painting, a gift to my cousin, and was feeling a little overwhelmed with all my "Works in Progress" and needed a break. I decided to combine one of my own photos with a photo I was sent by the administrator of "Let's Paint New Mexico" and painted an oil painting on 8"x10" canvas. It is "Sunset Beauty Arroyo Seco" and my submission for Challenge 16 for "Let's Paint New Mexico" shown on the right.

I also began another "Work in Progress" since we were having some monsoonal weather here in New Mexico, this one is not finished but is posted on the left. Funny that as I finished working on that painting which came straight from my mind, we saw on the late night news a few hours after I cleaned up there was a funnel cloud spotted in Taos a little earlier in the evening.

My husband and I made a trip to the
back country of the Valles Caldera which had been closed due to high fire danger and just reopened. This place has always been special and very inspirational for me and it did not disappoint. It was wonderful to experience the feeling of being totally alone in a pristine untouched mountain area with only cattle, birds and an occasional other "visitor" driving down the
long dirt roads. It takes about an hour from the visitor center to the furthest back country so because of the monsoons we went early just in case there was a storm. We reached the end of the road and sat out our chairs and had a little lunch before we decided we'd better head back since it would take an hour and clouds were developing. We had a rain storm with some hail on the way out and totally enjoyed this outing. It also provided me with resource material for future paintings. Here are some of the photos I took.

Here are some progress shots of one of the four birdhouses I'm painting, two sides are finished thought I still have the front to finish and have not even started on one side. I'm having a lot of fun painting these scenes in acrylic paint on the sides of the birdhouse and it is especially gratifying to know that there is so much interest in these that they are selling before they are even finished. I hope to be able to schedule my painting time in between the rest of our busy schedule to finish these birdhouses before Christmas (haha).



Next is a photo of my original oil painting on 16"x20" canvas I'm painting as a
wedding gift to my cousin who lives in California of one of the photos she took on their honeymoon in Italy. It is still obviously a work in progress although this one needs to be finished before the first of October so there is a little bit of a time crunch going on and of course I want it to be beautiful and framed perfectly.

Many exciting things coming up, one of which is the 5th Annual Balloon Museum Holiday Arts, Crafts & Book Fair, Sunday November 11th from 9 a.m. to  5:00 pm at Anderson_Abruzzo International Balloon Museum, 9201 Balloon Museum Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87113. I'm really looking forward to seeing a lot of people there and it will be after our annual Balloon Fiesta, so enough time to mark it down on your calendar and come see me there.


As I type this update it is my favorite time of the year here in New Mexico ... Fall! The weather has started to cool with crisp mornings where my husband and I now have to put on our long pants and sometimes a thermal shirt to do our morning two mile walk and you can smell chiles roasting in front of stores in the huge chile roasters. The smell is something unlike any other and one I look forward to all year. This sign at The Range Cafe in Albuquerque kind of says it all.

July Summer of 2018 Update

Beginning this month we had attended a farewell dinner for our dear friend Dr. Duc Vuong who left Lovelace ending his bariatrics program and also our well loved weekly group meetings with friends who have become family to us. Usually whenever I'm experiencing some type of loss or grief I somewhat curtail my painting though I opted to push through and keep painting in changing old habits and patterns. So one of the first paintings I did in July was actually a rework of my previously painted "Wild in Carrizozo" oil on 8"x10" canvas painted as a challenge painting for "Let's Paint New Mexico" a couple years ago.

Next I revisited and "reworked" my larger oil painting "Local
Flavor Jemez Springs New Mexico" on
16"x20" canvas and continued painting on my "work in progress" original oil painting of the St. Francis de Assisi Church in Golden, New Mexico which was established in 1837. I just finished the church in Golden which I've named "Sacred Beauty of Golden New Mexico" this past Tuesday. It is on 10"x10" gallery wrapped canvas with the sides painted venetian gold. The same day I began painting another original oil of one of the stained glass windows at the church in Golden which I will post about next.

Just yesterday I finished my original oil painting
"Stained Glass Golden New Mexico" and as I was painting got a text from a friend asking if the painting was finished yet and what the purchase price was. Long story short she told me she "fell in love" with the painting the very first post I put on Facebook and bought it telling me that the Blessed Mother had deep and special meaning for her. I am so grateful and elated that my "baby" has found a new home and assured that it will be well loved and cared for as well as cherished.

Thank you for visiting my art blog and for your continued support and interest in my art. I am in the midst of cleaning my art studio in preparation for decluttering by having a sale of quite a bit of my art to make room for lots of new paintings. It has already been a beautiful, wonderful and refreshing, renewing summer and predictions are for more rains in New Mexico, hopefully getting us out of the drought we have been in. I love painting the beauty that surrounds me everywhere here and the collectors and supporters of my art as well as all the friends and fellow artists I've made. I hope you'll come back again to see other surprises and opportunities happening the rest of this summer. Life is such a gift and I never want to take that gift for granted or all the opportunities and blessings my Creator has provided for me. Enjoy your summer and hope to see you returning again soon.

Catching Up Summer 2018

Since my last update the end of May my husband and I took a trip up to Mora in Northern New Mexico to spend a day Memorial Weekend with our adopted family spending a couple of night at the El Pueblo Lodge in Taos. We ate breakfast at Michael's Kitchen which was packed with people and lots of "bikers" as the annual Red River Run for Veteran's was that weekend also. We had a wonderful, relaxing time and enjoyed visiting some galleries there saying hello to some friends and admiring the beautiful artwork as well as local scenery. Returning home and getting back into our regular routine I sold my 8"x10" oil painting of "Sacred Santuario del Chimayo" to a friend who has a special connection to this church, having a relative buried there underneath the tree in the front. I may be painting a larger painting of the church as a commission for her.

A few days later I sold my oil painting "Heavenly Hollyhock" to another friend who is buying
another painting, a mini floral oil painting that comes with it's own display easel. I had intended to take a photo of her with her painting though I forgot to do that before she left with it in hand ... darn! Anyway here's a photo of that painting. She had it beautifully framed since then and loves it, which makes me very happy, of course!

I had my original oil painting "Rio Arriba" which is on 16"x20" canvas framed and it is now wired and ready to hand and available for purchase. Contact me at joanne@neelygomez.com if interested.

We met my cousin and her husband the first part of June at El Pinto in Albuquerque for dinner while they were on a "Jazz Tour" with their RV. I'm in the midst of doing a large oil painting of some of their honeymoon visit to Italy which was supposed to be a wedding gift although they've already celebrated their one year anniversary. No worries though we agreed to meet up September or October while we're visiting in California to deliver their painting.

Next in early June I finished my oil on 16"x20" canvas "Georgia's Ghost Ranch" and my Challenge 8
submission for "Let's Paint New Mexico". I really enjoyed this painting process as the sky changed a few times and I removed and then added more to the foreground a few times also. This painting is available for purchase also.

I had been looking everywhere for my small oil painting on 5"x7" watercolor postcard so that I could make prints as requested from a few friends and still have not been able to locate it. I may end up repainting it though here is a photo of the postcard when I finished it in January this year.

I began my Challenge 9 for LPNM and was having a bit of a hard time with
it, I'm not sure exactly why except that during the beginnings of this painting I was experiencing a bit of a feeling of loss finding out that my husband's bariatric surgeon would be leaving Lovelace and that would mean the end of our group meetings we have come to love and look forward to each week. This challenge took me quite a few sittings and "redos" but here is the photo of the finished painting "Corrales Casa Perea" oil on 8"x10" canvas which is also available.

My husband and I have been enjoying walks in The Bosque near
the river here in Rio Rancho and another near Fireman's Park in Albuquerque this summer. We try to go early in the morning as it's been very hot and the monsoons which have now begun usually hit in the afternoons. This way we get to have some good exercise and also enjoy the beautiful scenery (and I get some great reference photos for my paintings too). Here are some pictures, one while we were out on our walk mid June and the other at the farewell dinner for my husband's surgeon the end of June.

Here was my finished Challenge 10 for "Let's Paint New Mexico", my oil painting "Vineyards de Milagro" on 8"x10" canvas. I'm very happy with the way this one turned out.

Ending June I heard some wonderful news from two friends which led me
to some colorful, joyful paintings. The first one was acrylic poured and splattered on a wall hanging board I painted over before and then I spray varnished it. I call this one "Joyful Splatter" and it is on 8"x10" pressed wood board. The second was doodling like I used to do in high school and after, somewhat psychedelic. It is pastels, acrylic and sharpie pen which I call "Retro Lilly" on pastel paper and then spray varnished. Lastly the same day I began my original oil painting I had not yet named but will post that photo in the month of July's update when I finished it.