Welcome Along on My Journey -- Please Enjoy & Come Back Again

Welcome and enjoy. To look at any painting or photo please double click on the picture to take a closer look and if you'd like to purchase please email me at joanne@neelygomez.com

I welcome your comments and hope that as we journey together you will find, as I do, that it's more fun making a journey along with others and with each new work or adventure there is also growth and expansion. Come back again soon.



Monday, May 30, 2016

Catching Up May 30, 2016

Since my last update the #Twitterartexhibit at the Trygve Lie Gallery in NYC took place and it was announced that next year's exhibit will be held in the UK (Stratford upon Abon, Warwickshire) in support/to benefit Olly's. I was honored to be a participant and also honored to be asked to serve on their board, however, had to decline and am happy that the open position was filled.

Just after my April posting I somehow caught an upper respiratory cold which pretty much sidelined me through April and half of May. The "Let's Paint New Mexico" group had some challenges and one (Challenge 7) I did the beginning of May is shown here to the left. It is on 10"x8" canvas an oil painting I named "Prayerful Pilgrimage to Chimayo". Honestly I didn't even want to paint this scene, however, I did make a commitment to do every single challenge painting. Soon after I painted and submitted this to them for their webpage I painted over it.

Next as I felt a little better I decided to paint the beginnings of a 10"x8"
oil study to use for a large tryptich oil painting of a beautiful sunset in Cancun my cousin and his wife had recently experienced. This continues to be a work in progress though to the right is my initial beginnings of the small study oil painting.
To the left was Challenge 6 for LPNM, an acrylic and oil painting on 10"x10" gallery wrapped canvas "Classic 58".  I really enjoyed painting this one and though it was basically leaves and green bushes in the background of the photo I was sent, I opted to do an original landscape in the background. I was also very happy to be feeling much better by this time and almost fully recovered from my cold/sinus illness.


I made plans months earlier to go with friends to the Sacramento
Mountains the weekend of May 20th which just happened to coincide with a paint out day at Essence Gallery and Boutique in Old Town Saturday, May 21st which I had to miss. To the right is a photo of the beautiful sunset from the patio outside my room that Saturday evening. It was a wonderfully restful, peaceful and relaxing weekend and very much needed. The paint out I heard was a wonderful success and I do intend to take my easel and paint in the courtyard near Essence one day coming up.


This past weekend my husband and I were invited to the Jemez Red Rocks Arts and Crafts Show being held Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (today) across from the Walatowa Visitor Center past Jemez Pueblo. We opted to go on Saturday, which turned out to be a gorgeous day. We enjoyed going from booth to booth seeing all the arts and crafts, indian tacos from their food booth, traditional dances and just before leaving finally met up with a dear friend who helped organize the event. Here are some picture we took while there so you can see the beauty of the area, we even photographed Smokey the Bear visiting. We were happy to see, as we left, the parking lot was full and food booth with lines because of the large amount of people.

Yesterday (Sunday) I was invited by artist Linda Storm to her and
fellow artist, Pablo Perea to their open studio and celebration of Pablo's U.S. citizenship at their Santa Fe Art Studio in Santa Fe.

Before getting ready to go I decided to do a little more work on my work in progress (#WIP) study, a small 10"x8" seascape in oils I blogged about above. The photo to the right is this continuing WIP progress, still a ways to go before finished and I can then move on to the larger tryptich oil painting for my cousin.

The open studio and citizenship celebration at Linda Storm and Pablo Perea's studio in Santa Fe was wonderful and the art displayed there, both their individual art and their collaborative art are quite striking and thought provoking. They had many people in attendance, provided music along with food, drink and wonderful conversation. If you have the chance and are in the area check out their work and studio, it really is quite striking! I believe Pablo mentioned to call ahead to schedule a viewing. I was quite honored to be invited by Linda and pleasantly surprised by her down to earth and genuine beauty.

While there I was able to present an acrylic painting I had done two years ago of Wes and Maura Studi to Maura who was a guest and friend of Linda. I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate and thank Linda for graciously insisting I give it to her with the explanation for my inspiration. My inspiration for the painting was seeing a photo online of this couple at a ball at Buffalo Thunder Resort (my husband and I met Wes there several years ago at their grand opening). Something in their eyes and embrace and beauty and gentleness of Maura prompted me to paint them. I am not a portrait painter by any stretch though I have the utmost respect for their contributions to both the native and local communities. I looked online for other photos and decided to paint an eagle symbolic of Wes' release of one over the Taos Gorge when it became a national historical treasure (?) and from possible meaningful and colorful items I viewed in other photos.  To the left is the painting although I was a bit disappointed that once matted and framed it seems the facial color had drastically faded.