Two Acrylic Paintings Done Three Nights Ago

29th Anniversary
5x7" acrylic

In the Dark of Night
4x5.5" acrylic

I had a busy week last week with Thanksgiving, my birthday and my 29th wedding anniversary tho I enjoyed all three and even found time to do these small paintings in acrylic.

Painted November 21st 2012 - Original Acrylic Painting "Sandhill Sunset"

"Sandhill Sunset"
5x7" acrylic

I had fun painting this original acrylic on 5"x7" Canson Watercolor Greeting Card and named this one "Sandhill Sunset". I thank my friend, Norm, for giving me permission to make a painting out of his photograph.  I like the way it turned out!

Two Original Acrylic Paintings on 5"x7" Canson Watercolor Greeting Cards

"Marie's Teapot"
5x7" acrylic

It has been a wonderfully relaxing weekend topped off tonight with a little painting in my art studio.  The first painting is "Marie's Teapot" an original acrylic painting on 5"x7" Canson Watercolor Greeting Card.

"The Plant Mister"
5x7" acrylic

The second, also an original acrylic painting on 5"x7" Canson Watercolor Greeting Card is "The Plant Mister".

Celebrated a birthday yesterday and our 29th wedding anniversary tomorrow.  I am so grateful for each and every moment I have had with my husband and pray we have many more years together, doing creative things, traveling and just enjoying life together.

Twitter Art Exhibit in Los Angeles January 2013

The Twitter Art Exhibit notified me today they received both of my submissions by mail. I'm so excited to be invited and now participating in this for the first time.  For more information please see http://tmblr.co/ZQajhuXf1bjH

A Few Hours in my Art Studio Painting Yesterday 18 November 2012

Yesterday I enjoyed a little time in my art studio doing some reworking of a couple of oil paintings and painting a small postcard sized acrylic painting, finishing it off with pen.

The first rework I did was a painting that started out in an icon workshop I decided to take.  We carved the board and talked about the significance of certain practices with traditional icon painting.  We arrived at a point in the workshop where it was mentioned to make an alter and place your icon on it around which candles should also be placed and then to worship and pray to this icon.  I had some issues with doing that part of the class and made my feelings known and withdrew.  The icon starting out was to be of Gabriel and that is what was carved onto the board there in the workshop.  As you can see my painting is of a woman so I consider this to be a "painting" of an angelic woman rather than an icon.  Also considering I used oil paints rather than traditional organic materials and painted my own version, the interpretation is strictly my own.  Even though the texture is rough I am quite happy with the result and now considered this to be "finished".

The second rework is of "San Antonio Church" an original oil painting of a church in the town of Placitas, New Mexico.  I believe I talked a little more at length about this painting in a previous posting below.

The last painting I did is on a small postcard sized piece of paper and is an original acrylic finished with black pen.  I had alot of fun just relaxing with this little painting even though not sure what I'll call it right now.

This morning I woke up feeling invigorated and decided it was time to get back on my treadmill and start getting in better shape.  I will ease back into this routine tho it feels better than I can say to feel healthy, happy and mostly recovered from the traffic accident which sidelined me awhile a little over six months ago.  Life is very very good and I'm so grateful I am here to enjoy every moment of it!

Having Fun in my Art Studio Sunday, November 12, 2012

Yesterday I started out in my art studio reworking an earlier oval floral and then just felt like goofing around and having some fun doing some drawing and painting small postcard sized acrylic paintings, finishing them up with pen.  Here are some photos of both.

It has been cold here in New Mexico, think the temperature was 15 degrees yesterday morning.  I get excited when I know these temperatures and wintery weather have returned because the sandhill cranes that migrate to and winter here in our area are usually found in the open fields along Highway 313 on Sandia Pueblo lands and also at the Albuquerque Open Space area made for the cranes off of Coors in Albuquerque.  I love the times of snuggling with my husband and drinking some hot chocolate or chai latte tea, knowing that biscochitos are not far off in celebration of Christmas.  We finally, this year, may visit El Modelo in Albuquerque for some tamales also.  I hope that wherever YOU are, you are enjoying this season and I pray that all those affected by the recent storms and horrific weather events receive all the help, hope and love in being supported by others through their struggles in recovering.

Submitted Artwork to #twitterartexhibit and Wonderful Day of Art Today

This morning on the way to enjoying a day of art at Expo New Mexico in Albuquerque we stopped by the post office to mail my submissions to the #twitterartexhibit.  One of the submissions is shown in a previous posting on this artblog below in October and the picture to the left is a postcard size acrylic I painted this morning as my second submission.

What a wonderful day of visiting artist friends and viewing such beautiful artwork.  We started out at the show for the Pastel Society at Expo New Mexico, then walked a short distance to Weems Artfest and I have to say this was the best time I've had at this show in the years we've been going. After Weems we went to the African American building toward the front of Expo New Mexico and viewed all the entries for RGAA's Encantada art show.  That wasn't even the finish of our day as we were given a tour of the theater in the same building by two very informative and wonderful gentleman who explained the different jazz artists and movie showings and venues that are presented in this beautiful theater.

On the way home I was taking pictures as it was such a beautiful day, quite crisp and fresh after a light rain the entire time we were walking around Expo New Mexico, and the shadows were just gorgeous on the Sandia Mountains just north of Albuquerque off of Interstate 25 on our way home.  You can judge for yourself with the picture I've posted here.  What a wonderful end to a glorious, fun day being motivated, encouraged, inspired and grateful to be alive and living in such a beautiful natural environment.

November Update

October was a busy month for me and November is already becoming a bit busy too.  I raffled off an original 5"x7" original acrylic painting on wood board I call "Experimental Abstract Still" toward the end of October.  Here is a picture of it to the right.

So grateful to be released by my chiropractor this past week with clean bill of health from the traffic accident I was in way back in May of this year.

The painting to the left started out in an icon workshop I was attending.  We got as far as carving the board and life got busy and I left the workshop.  About a week ago I picked it back up and decided that rather than using organic materials as was suggested in the workshop I would paint my own version using my own colors and oil paints.  This is obviously a work in progress.

I've been connecting with other artists and enjoying some interest in my artwork from some local businesses.  This is so exciting for me as it helped me to get out of my comfort zone and self promote which I am not used to doing or real comfortable with.  While reading Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" one of the things I discovered about myself is that rather than having a huge fear of failure as many people do, I tend to have a fear of success.  That has been an obstacle in many ways in the past tho I feel like in connecting with other artists and putting myself out there and acknowledging that I, like my artwork, am a work in progress, that I just get to be myself and paint what I love and enjoy the process of self discovery.  I feel very blessed and grateful to have been given these gifts and do intend to paint as my way of giving back to my creator.