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!