Spring Color!

Crimson Burlap's New Home

Here's one of my paintings, Crimson Burlap, looking wonderful in Suna's hallway. I love how the colors  in the painting are picking up the colors throughout the home. The teal wall, the chartreuse wall, and  the orange in the chair all speak really well with the painting.

To see the space around, click here.

Painting again!

I am pleased to announce that I am finally painting again! Looking forward to having a show in September and forcing me to find the time to paint routinely. Here's a look at a painting as it progressed. I just completed it today! It is 16" x 24" acrylic on canvas.

Warm Baguette with Butter 

16" x 20"

Show: Stripe, September 2nd-October 7th

Here is the inventory of the paintings that I took down from Stripe last week.

I had a successful show, and was pleased how each painting looked in the space.

If anyone is interested in any pieces, please let me know. I am negotiable on prices, as I would rather have them on people's wall than being stored in my studio.

Painting on Left:

1. Pigeon with a Sprtiz of Lime

acrylic on canvas

48”x 48

Comission, SOLD

Top Right:

2. Sorbet in the Bathtub

mixed media on canvas

16” x 20”

$280

Bottom Right:

3. Narwhal Passage

acrylic on canvas

16” x 20”

$280

Above:

4. Crimson Burlap

acrylic on canvas

36” x 48”

SOLD

Above:

5. Birds of Paradise

acrylic on canvas

24” x 30”

$360

Above:

6. In the Study with the Revolver

acrylic on canvas

18” x 24”

$325

Above:

7. Toasted Marshmallow

mixed media on canvas

36” x 24”

$400

Above:

8. Tangerine Dreams

acrylic on canvas

16” x 20”

$280

Above:

9. Momma’s Jewelry Box

acrylic on canvas

20” x 30”

SOLD

Above:

Window

mixed media on window

34” x 32”

$450

Above:

Window

mixed media on window

34” x 32”

$450

Other works in progress...

Here's a preview of a few paintings I'm currently working on.

Couldn't get the red to work....

...So, it's gone!

The Progression of Crimson Burlap

I love going back through photos of paintings to see them as they evolve into the completed pieces. Here's a look back at the painting I finished this week, Crimson Burlap.

Beginning

Completed painting!

September Art Show!

Crim son Burlap, 36″ x 48″

White Facets

Reception: September 2nd 5-9pm

It's finally happening! I will be having a show in September with all of my new paintings. Please stop by Stripe, 107 Walnut Ave, downtown Santa Cruz Friday September 2nd 5-9pm for the reception. If you are unable to make that, it will be up the whole month. Stop by to see my latest collection of work.

Statement:

I believe that outside all of our windows is the vast beauty in the world, which often ends up being my sole inspiration for many paintings. I am continually working with the transparent separation between the walls of nature, really focused on how textures (both mediums and various materials) play into the composition. I work with layers of thick and thin color, applied with brushes, palate knives, and various tools. Traces are intentionally left from layers below. Often scraping and sanding into wet paint, I reveal the past of each painting. Surfaces are wiped, dripped and splattered, all adding to an eventual sense of space and accumulation and the essence of time.

Although characterized as simple paintings, they are built with complexity. Open for judgment, I want my paintings to be appreciated for their emotion they bring to the individual. I like to create harmony within my work, yet build an underlying tension.

I think of myself as the designer and architect during the creation of my abstract compositions. I am creating a map of 3-D space on a 2-D plane. Not only do they bring pleasure to create, these highly experimental paintings focus on the formal aspects of art: color, line, paint, handling, gesture, attitude, harmony, balance, and texture. Using fields of color, textures, and lines, I am creating spaces within the piece, often testing these formal aspects, and what is expected.

Current Paintings

I will be having a show on September 2nd, so I've been trying to catch up.

I've been working on a series of paintings inspired by the subdued colors of the California coast and the rich colors of New Mexico.

I also just got home from a gorgeous 5 day rafting trip down the Salmon River in Idaho. It was new territory for me, and it was absolutely stunning.

Here's a little peek at a few works in progress:

Millicent Rogers

Millicent, photo taken in 1947 for Harper's Bazarre.

b.1902

d.1953

This gorgeous and classy lady lived a short, but sweet life ending it in Taos, New Mexico. She had with rheumatic fever as a child and was sadly in frail health throughout her life.

Millicent didn't just consume style, but created it. Mary Millicent Rogers was an American beauty and fashion icon. A passion for life's aesthetic pleasures inspired a journey that led her to the beautiful and historic land of Taos, New Mexico.

Taos, with its scenic beauty and Native American culture helped fuel her creativity. She thought that the Southwestern Indian culture was a precious part of America's heritage that had to be recognized and preserved. Being so obsessed with collecting Native American jewelry, she actually started designing and learning to make her own. She was a huge influence in popularizing this rich culture; not only through her own jewelry creations, but through her lifetime collections of indigenous art. She loved fashion.

One of her sons, Arturo, said “M.R. really was the first hippie.”

Gorgeous Milly.

Her amazing home.

Some of the beautiful pieces Millicent designed.

The best parts of the museum were her illustrations of children's stories she made up for her three sons while she was sick in bed, and her letter she wrote. Right before her death she wrote her youngest son this amazing letter that expresses how much New Mexico meant to her and her spiritual connection to the mountains, air, and earth.

It reads:

Darling Paulie,

Did l ever tell you about the feeling I had a little while ago? Suddenly passing Taos Mountain I felt that I was part of the Earth, so that I felt the Sun on my Surface and the rain. I felt the Stars and the growth of the Moon, under me, rivers ran. And against me were the tides. The waters of rain sank into me. And I thought if I stretched out my hands they would be Earth and green would grow from me. And I knew that there was no reason to be lonely that one was everything, and Death was as easy as the rising sun and as calm and natural - that to be enfolded in Earth was not an end but part of oneself, part of every day and night that we lived, so that Being part of the Earth one was never alone. And all fear went out of me - with a great, good stillness and strength.

If anything should happen to me now, ever, just remember all this. I want to be buried in Taos with the wide sky - Life has been marvelous, all the experiences good and bad I have enjoyed, even pain and illness because out of it so many things were discovered. One has so little time to be still, to lie still and look at the Earth and the changing colours and the Forest - and the voices of people and clouds and light on water, smells and sound and music and the taste of wood smoke in the air.

Life is absolutely beautiful if one will disassociate oneself from noise and talk and live it according to one's inner light. Don't fool yourself more than you can help. Do what you want - do what you want knowingly. Anger is a curtain that people pull down over life so that they only see through it dimly - missing all the savor, the instincts - the delight - they feel safe only when they can down someone. And if one does that they end by being to many, more than one person, and life is dimmed - blotted and blurred! - I've had a most lovely life to myself - I've enjoyed it as thoroughly as it could be enjoyed. And when my time comes, no one is to feel that I have lost anything of it - or be too sorry - I've been in all of you - and will go on Being. So remember it peacefully - take all the good things that your life put there in your eyes - and they, your family, children, will see through your eyes. My love to all of you.

Treasures thus far

As most people know the sole reason to travel to New Mexico besides the gorgeous landscapes, the friendly folks, and the rich culture is the extreme quanity of ethnic printed items. This is Halley and my favorite style and we couldn't wait for the treasures we would find.

Here is a peek at each one of our collections:

Halley's collection: Rug, Bed Spread, Throw Pillows, silver stud earrings (made by a street vendor in Old Town Albuquerque), thunder bird moccasins.

My collection: Rug, feather earrings (made by a street vendor in old town Albuquerque), thunder moccasins, and Milly postcard.