Slow Evening Drift

It’s a new year, and time to get busy painting! The name for my new body of work (since I like to name things) is Arboles y Agua (Trees and Water). I’m in love with grays lately, as this piece reflects. This one isn’t finished, but I can feel it beginning to come together. 2012 will be a year of many changes for me.   I’ll be spending more time in Texas with my family, especially with my Dad.  And I’ll be saying goodbye to Ojo Sarco this spring – I’ve really loved living here but my circumstances have changed, so I’ll be moving soon – hopefully closer to Taos.  Here is one of my favorite poems about change from William Stafford:

YES
It could happen any time, tornado,
earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen
Or sunshine, love, salvation.
It could, you know. That’s why we wake
and look out – no guarantees in this life.
But some bonuses, like morning,
like right now,
like noon,
like evening.

Bosque del Apache

Bosque del Apache from Marsh Deck

The landscape of the Bosque, a series of managed waterways and marshes designed to mimic the wetlands of the Rio Grande (which runs along the edge of the refuge) is a landscape painter’s paradise of constantly changing scenery, with magnificent cottonwoods and colorful reflections in the many pools and acequias, as well as dramatic sunrises and sunsets that delicately tint the distant mountains.

And that’s without the addition of birds! Around this time of year, they begin to arrive in large numbers and the sky is filled with elegant lines of cranes and broken white ribbons of snow geese, a calligraphy of birds.  The vastness and tranquility of this environment is like no other, and I suppose that’s why I continue to return to it in my work.   There’s a tremendous thrill at seeing so many of another species gathered together in one place, coupled with an inexplicable sense of  longing.  In late fall and winter, it draws me like a magnet – I’ll return again in December to enjoy an entirely different, yet comfortingly familiar landscape.

Above Gothic I (working title)

This piece is one of a pair I’m working on right now – I’ve got a number of new paintings underway on cradled clayboard.  The smooth clay surface is interesting to work on and yields some lovely effects that are more difficult to achieve with canvas. This is the early stage where the paint layer is very thin, more like a watercolor than an oil painting.  I’ll continue to build layers until the swirls of mist in the sky and the rugged outcropping of rocks below feel in balance visually.

Our seasonal change brings with it other changes as well. My good friends and gallery owners, Jake Willson and Kathy Riggs, have decided to take a six month travel sabbatical and are closing Ojo Sarco Pottery until May. They’re clearing the gallery until they return, so this afternoon I’ll bring home my paintings.  They’ll be available from my studio,  please email me directly if you’re interested.