Sunday, July 28, 2013

Joe and White Place

I recently spent a day in Abiquiu with artist pal Joe Hall. The village of Abiquiu, 45 minutes northwest of Santa Fe, is best known as the home of artist Georgia O’Keeffe.

We hiked through the White Place, a unique canyon of white rock formations. It also is the location used for the scene of the final battle with aliens in the supremely weird but entertaining movie Cowboys and Aliens. It is best known as the subject of one (or more?) of Georgia O’Keeffe paintings.

After lunch (green chile cheeseburger) at Bode’s General Store we drove to the top of a mesa for another view of the White Place, where I shot an iPhone photo of Joe. Later I used the photo as reference for a charcoal sketch on gray Canson paper. A bit later I scanned the drawing, colorized and antiqued it in Photoshop.


Joe and the White Place
28" x 36"



Saturday, July 27, 2013

Tea Pot Study

The tea pot image started as a color crayon sketch on paper. I scanned the crayon sketch, then digitally repainted it with Corel Painter software oil brushes.




Tea Pot Study
Digital Print on Canvas
30 x 30 inches




Thursday, July 25, 2013

Bishop’s Lodge

Today I rendezvoused with the Thursday group of Plein Air painters at Bishop’s Lodge, a historic resort just a few minutes north of Santa Fe. Kinda sketchy, but hey, it’s “en plein air.”


Bishop’s Lodge Waterfall
Acrylic on watercolor paper

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Model Bill

Bill, a semi-frequent Tuesday night model, has a way of making me feel really flabby and out of shape.  


Last pose of the night.


Bill: Not a perfect likeness, but maybe good enough for a police sketch.


Digital print
Bill & White Pillows




Thursday, July 18, 2013

Back to Drawing

After missing two straight weeks of Tuesday night drawing it was good to get back in drawing mode. As is often the case, the short-pose drawings had a lot more going for them than the longer-pose drawings. I’m OK as long as I get at least one drawing that’s worth saving out of a three-hour session.

Between poses the baklava and donut holes were a nice gourmet treat combination not to be found at most drawing groups.


Leaning Loma


Loma pose

Golf & Watercolor

A morning of practice golf with pal Willie for his birthday at the Marty Sanchez Links de Santa Fe provided me with an iPhone photo that I used as reference for a practice watercolor.





Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Acrylic Study

Acrylic study, from memory, of my favorite author.


Robin P. Williams
Acrylic on canvas



Friday, July 12, 2013

Empty Water Bottle

It has been a very long time since I opened a tube of acrylic paint, so I decided I should experiment with acrylic painting. I bought a set of 8 basic colors, Robin donated a bunch of tubes from her dusty collection, then I painted this study based on a photo I took of our table at an Italian cafe in New York City a week ago.



Empty Water Bottle
Acrylic on canvas
8 x 10 inches


Empty Water Bottle
Digital print version
20 x 26 inches



Saturday, July 6, 2013

Plein Night Air

A couple of days ago we made a two-day trip to New York City, walked to Times Square around midnight, and ran across this sidewalk artist. 

I assume this qualifies as “plein air” painting. Or “plein Times Square” painting. Maybe “plein midnight sidewalk” painting. In any case, it’s good to know that New Yorkers have a place to draw.

I assume you probably have to get a permit to set up like this at Times Square, but if not, I’ll see if some of the regulars from our Tuesday night drawing group would like to hop on over there for a midnight drawing session.


I thought this guy was better than the average sidewalk artist.

We cruised around Times Square for a few minutes, then came back to see how the drawing was going.

I didn’t have time to draw during our two-day NYC adventure, but I did manage to do one drawing of a sleeping passenger on the flight back to New Mexico.


More NYC photos:

Friends from Chicago planned a party for 20 at their favorite New York restaurant, La Grenouille (on East 52nd Street, between Madison Ave. and 5th Avenue). We’re at the upstairs bar partying while our table below is prepared.

Madison Avenue, where Don Draper and other Mad Men work. 

Rain in Rockefeller Plaza.
Speaking of Plazas, I’d like to replace the obelisk in the Santa Fe Plaza with at least one of these.  

Massive stone man art.

Rockefeller Plaza from the NBC cafe window. 

Times Square at midnight panorama.





Friday, July 5, 2013

Los Poblanos Painting

This is the most recent revision of the plein air painting I started last Thursday in Albuquerque at the Los Poblanos lavender farm.



Morning Light at Los Poblanos
Oil on canvas




Monday, July 1, 2013

Paper Face

A friend dropped by with his iPad and showed me the Paper app he had installed, resulting in this quick sketch as we experimented with the app’s tools and interface. More texture and highlights were added in Photoshop. I think it would look good output at about 40 inches by 30 inches. Or larger.



Paper Face
Digital watercolor