Art Santa Fe and Rauschenberg Show

This weekend my husband and I went to Santa Fe to see the art at Art Santa Fe, and a Robert Rauschenberg exhibit at the William Shearburn Gallery. I must say that while the Rauschenberg exhibit was quite wonderful, we found Art Santa Fe to be a little lacking. There seemed to be fewer galleries representing, as one could imagine with the economy, than there were two years ago. There were some great paintings, and there was even an Andy Warhol, and a Roy Lichtenstein for sale, to mention a few. A lot of abstract work, and not much realism. Landfill Press was showing how a lithograph is made, and that was very interesting!
As far as the Rauschenberg exhibit goes, I was surprised, and delighted, to see some of his large works made on stainless steel. They lose some of the reflective quality when seen reproduced in books. It was exciting to see Rauschenberg's work....and I always try to touch someones work that I revere...just to feel that much closer to them...and mission accomplished! (When you go to museums you're usually not so lucky.)

Portraits

While I love to paint figures and still life, I especially enjoy painting portraits. After seeing Malcolm Liepke's show (online) at the Arcadia Gallery in New York City, I have decided I need to paint a few more portraits.

I started painting my daughter, Leah, and my neighbor's little girl Anna Beth Lane, and like Liepke says about what attracted people to his work:

"It was the emotionality of the work, the connection to the people who were
painted and the faces. So, I decided to simplify the background and just
get rid of all that other stuff behind it. My work is about the connection
with the people I paint."

Unlike Liepke, I started with the portraits, and have recently taken on a more narrative quality in my figurative work.

Watercolor Paintings.

Watercolor Paintings

When I started painting, I started in watercolor, mostly because of two artists: Steve and Monatana Naegel. They were both watercolorists in Casper, WY, and I thought their work was incredible! I started taking classes at the local college, and even brought a stack of paintings over to Montana's house, uninvited, to show her my watercolors. She took them to her kitchen sink, and turned on the spray, and proceeded to take off most of the paint. Looking back on that now, it seems a little shocking, but she made her point that I had used too much pigment, and it freed me to start fresh.
Later when I taught a class in Berkeley, and the day was almost over, I noticed that many of the artists had done the same thing...used too much pigment. I remember telling them that just because they had one hour left, be careful not to "overpaint" the painting. I guess that is the tricky part of painting, in oil or watercolor...when to know, or decide you are finished.
I've just had my website linked to the National Watercolor Society's website, and thought I should post a few watercolors. I am looking forward to painting in wc again soon!

Casper, WY

Just returned from Casper, WY, the town where I grew up. The winters there are really cold and windy, and seem to last forever, but it is a beautiful place in it's own way. ( We never missed a weekend of skiing in the winter, no matter what the weather.) A great place to grow up, and raise kids. I moved to Sandy, Utah when I was around 30, then to Fairfield, CA two years later, and finally after 7 years in CA, I moved to Albuquerque, NM.

The summers in Wyoming are really wonderful! This trip was to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday, and all my brothers and sister were there, with their children. (except David's kids) I was especially happy because my son and daughter were both there, along with my grandson.

On the way home from Casper we were lucky enough to stop in Loveland, CO to see the" Wayne Thiebaud /70 Years of Painting" show. It was an incredible show, although I would have liked a few more cake and pie paintings, and maybe some more figurative paintings.

I saw another of his shows in Sacramento, CA when I lived out there, and I love his work! His use of color and paint is amazing, not to mention his subject matter. Wayne Thiebaud seems like a very humble, hard working man, and I hope I will get a chance to meet him in my life. He is almost 89 years old, and still paints nearly every day. What an amazing painter!