3rd Annual Canyon Road Paint Out

Saturday, October 16, 2010, was our Third Annual Canyon Road Paint Out. This event continues to grow and this year was the best thus far. Throngs of people strolled up and down Canyon Road, Santa Fe's major art district, to view artists executing colorful paintings along the lane. Additionally, there were several galleries with live music. These events coupled with a gorgeous autumn day, made for a lively event.

Since I wasn't working in my gallery this year, I had the opportunity to stroll with my family. Here are some pictures from our walk.

My business partner, Barbara Meikle, enjoying interacting with viewers of her painting.

My daughter and her family, Roger to the left, Farleigh, Melissa (daughter), Zoe and my husband, Corky.

In front of Gallery 822 - Sandy Keller, a Santa Fe artist, with her

husband Jerry. To the right of Sandy is a sculpture by Joshua Tobey.

In front of Waxlander Gallery.


Gorgeous Sunflowers in front of Patricia Carlisle's gallery.

In front of River Trading Post.

The next Paint Out will be October 15, 2011. Plan to attend.

Finding Your Voice

I received a bi-weekly newsletter from artist, Robert Genn. (See my Blog List - Painters Key to sign up for this free newsletter.) The following newsletter was triggered by an artist request about Robert's thoughts for artists finding their "voice." I related to this and thought you would also.

by Robert Genn, Painters Key

Recently, Judith Meeks of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, wrote, "I'll soon be chairing a panel discussion called 'Finding Your Voice.' In your understanding, how do we translate our life experiences into our paintings and express who we really are? We may have good work habits, but how do we become clear about what we want to say? And how much can be done with a conscious plan?"

Thanks, Judith. This is one of those sticky head-scratchers that can cause the loss of sleep. First off, and contrary to what I've said before, plans can actually derail the voice-finding process. Further, you have to know what you mean by "voice." Voice in style is different than voice in cause. Ideally, style develops over time. Cause is based on attitude and issue. With growth and development, causes change. A predetermined voice shackles creativity. To find your very own voice, I think you need to have a few things going for you:

You need to make stuff. Artists who put in regular working hours find their voice. Work itself generates clarity and direction. It's like invention--one thing leads to another. One must only lurk for voice. Unfortunately, along the way, most drop the ball. Like the dilettante inventor of the soft drink "6-up," they just don't stick around long enough.

You need hunger. It can be the hunger for knowledge or for self-knowledge. It can be the desire to find an antidote for some injustice or human miscalculation. Perhaps you need some inexplicable, deep-seated compulsion to keep moving forward.

You need curiosity. Wondering how things will turn out is more powerful than having a pretty good idea beforehand. Wondering if you can do it gives you reason to try. Curiosity is the main juice of "ego-force" that keeps you keeping on.

You need joy. You need to feel joy in yourself and you need to feel you're giving it to others. As Winston Churchill said, "You may do as you like, but you also have to like what you do." A disliked job is soon abandoned.

I'm writing you from a remote anchorage off Grenville Channel on the West Coast of British Columbia. I'm thinking human nature is a mighty puzzle. Every time I go onto one of these islands looking for something to paint, I ask myself the old "What's my voice?" question. One thing for sure, if I go ashore knowing what my voice is, it will be a weak squawk when I get to the spot.

Letter to the Student of Painting

The following letter was written by painter Charles Philip Brooks who runs a teaching studio in North Carolina. I read it in The Painter's Keys, a free newsletter written by Robert Genn (his link is on my Favorite Blogs list) and found it so filled with wisdom that I contacted Charles for permission to reprint here.

"Letter to the Student of Painting"

"Your day contains a great measure of freedom. Your responsibility as a painter is here within the walls of the studio and in the setting of the landscape. You have the opportunity to exercise genuine mastery at every step, and it is in this spirit of grand possibility that I hope you will reflect on the advice made plain here.

Do not grieve too long for the troubles of the outside world. There is important work to be done here. We can best express our care for all others by attending to our work well.

Allow yourself the peace of purpose and the knowledge that to make another attempt with the brush is a noble thing. If you accept the discipline of the truest principles of art, then yours is the reward of an unbroken line of tradition.

Therefore, you may earnestly free your mind of all heartaches, sadness, and transitory despairs. Creation is above these things.

Your vocation is as real and as true as any other. Those who denounce the artist as idle manifest a deep ignorance of the nature of art. Have faith that the civilized will somewhere, at some time, value your well-wrought works. It is a miracle that the world keeps its havens for art and yet it does. Know that to create art is to do a necessary piece of work. The most noble pleasures and measureless joys result from such endeavors. True art is undeniable and it is a gift for all humanity.

The threefold responsibility of the artist is: to creation, to individual talent, and to humanity. For creation - the whole of nature - we must cultivate prayerful awe. This is our source of work and our refuge as well. We should seek harmony with nature. For the individual talent - long hours and years of steady industry hope to find our abilities fulfilled, our minds, hearts, and hands put to valuable service. In this way, we maintain the sanctity of art. Lastly, we make to humanity a willing gift of all we do. Our control over the material world lasts only a lingering moment and it takes a generous soul to build the ambition of a lifetime and then to hand it over in trust to the future.

Painting requires the bravery of solitude. Painting requires disciplined labor. To be a painter is to search the world with a benevolent eye for every subtle beauty that the infinite world offers.

Here is the opportunity to give your honest effort and to add in any small way to the legacy of art. Cultivate patience in your heart and you will improve. Learn to see well and your hand will become sure.

No pain or doubt can invade the honest soul engaged in the communion of creation. We artists must love the world with our deepest selves and forgive it at every turn.

To paint even a little passage with a measure of quality is to achieve a life's triumph.

Spend your days wisely with the best thoughts and works of those who have walked the road before you. Search their paths, their timeless inspirations, and the lineage of their genius. Learn your craft well and your talent will mature into its full possibility. Keep an obedient heart before nature. She is the master above all other masters. Nature is the concrete manifestation of all that remains true and sublime. Let us always be thankful for her abundance and hopeful that we might approach her in our art. Nature will renew every generation of painters, ready to illuminate the minds of those who practice the art with what is calm, rational, beautiful, sublime, and eternal.

Such is the purity of your vocation. Treat every moment before the easel as a quick and tender opportunity. Invest your most noble self. Give your most noble self. To be a painter is to enjoy a precious state of life." Charles Philip Brooks

Charles Philip Brooks painting - Heart of the Sea

Opening at Adagio Galleries March 20, 2010

The Art of Color - an apt title for the second annual group show of Barbara Meikle, Martha Kennedy and my work. This year we had the opportunity to enjoy the fabulous Palm Desert area in March. With an average 80 degree daytime temperature, I was able to walk El Paseo, an upscale shopping area, and actually enjoy being outdoors! Having grown up in that area, I love the opportunity to return and see all of the changes that have taken place and believe me - there are many!

Here are images of several paintings from the show.

Light on the Mesa #2, oil on canvas, 30x60 inches

The Painted Desert, mixed media: patina, oil on comp. gold leaf on canvas, 30x30 inches

Return to the Bat Cave, mixed media: acrylic, resin on panel, 30x30x2 inches

Heaven's Delight, oil on linen, 24x60 inches