Unfortunately, the Raymond James Office where I was showing my work is closing so I have no place currently to allow personal viewing of my paintings.  Hopefully over the next several months I will find a new place to hang my work.  I am planning to begin entering shows and maybe get some exposure that way, and then begin approaching galleries for representation.  If you are inclined, I would like to get you email address into my database so I can keep you informed at I complete new work.  Just provide your address in the space provided and soon I will begin sending out a newsletter advising on events and new work. 

I have started showing my work at the Raymond James Office in Edmonds, WA.  Michelle Kaczor is the founder, and investment advisor at the office and is also an art fan and collector.  Maria Berg a great photographer and myself are both clients of Michelle's and she wanted to show our work.  So if you are interested you can visit at 313 Main Street and see our work.

I've been remodeling parts of my house and also took a trip to Santa Fe and surrounding areas so no blogging for sometime. 

The trip to Santa Fe was very informative.  There are some 300 galleries there and one can be overwhelmed by so much art.  One can see virtually all of them by walking since they are located so close to each other.  I didn't go into all the galleries because there wasn't enough time.  But I did go into as many as I could that were showing representational art--perhaps as many as 50.   And it was virtually all what I would call "good art".    With few exceptions the artists I saw were very accomplished and there were several quite famous ones showing there.  Just some of the names I knew were: Scott Burdick, David Leffel, Daniel Greene, Hal Greene,  Gay Faulkenberry, Kenn Backhaus and more.    I even saw an original drawing by Camille Pizarro.
 
I was expecially moved by Georgia O'keefe and her work.  As I moved through the museum filled with her paintings, the landscapes really got to me.  It was almost magical how her work distills the landscape into the simplest shapes but retains enough information so it is clear where she was painting.  Her use of color was the same.  Very straight forward and pure.   I'm sure that my work will be influenced by her in the future. 

Now I know why many artists choose to move there.  The surrounding area is a painters paradise and I got to see and photograph a lot of it.  I even did some sketching when I got time.  To do it justice I'm thinking of living there for several months.  I certainly won't be unique in that desire since many artists going there for the first time have returned, many permanently.   North of Santa Fe lies the Rio Grande valley and the Chuma valley and I saw a lot of both.  You could paint for a lifetime in just those two places.  We went to Ghost Ranch and saw where O'Keefe lived and painted.  It's a wonderland of interesting places to paint all by itself.  In addition to all of this the people in Santa Fe respect art and artists.  It's truly an art town.  You will see some paintings of this area on my websites soon.

I finally finished "Heading Out".  I spent a lot of time getting the rigging right since it usually the last thing to do and if it isn't right, it is hard to correct.  I put the painting on the home page so you can see it there.

I've uploaded the figurative painting I mentioned yesterday.  It is called "The Market".  This is a market in Vietnam and I really wanted to capture the colors of the place along with the womans's dress. 

I have also posted the marine painting in the "Works in Progress" section.  It is called "Heading Out".  I'm still trying to work out the background trees, etc.

I was referred to an interesting website the other day and I have been starting to follow it.  These people do a painting a day and some of them are very accomplished.  They also do verbal blogging along with showing their daily work.  It is a great way to improve but also to talk about the process and the work. 

Anyway, I'm not sure I'll ever be doing a painting a day because I am just too slow, but I thought I would try to start by just blogging and talking about my work.  It is at least therapeutic even if no one ever reads any of it.

I've finished a figurative painting that I need to photograph and get into my gallery, and I've started another one.  There is a chance that I'll be going to the Medicino area to do marine painting so I'm drawing upon a bunch of photos to do a composite painting of the Fort Bragg, CA harbor.  Tomorrow I'll post come photos of both painting and follow the progress of the latter.

Anyway,  this is the beginning.  I know myself well enough to realize this will be a spotty process but here goes anyway.  I hope this works because I've never tried the blog feature and I know it is a beta version.