Scavenger Sketches

I'm trying to get back in the swing of sketching on a more regular basis. You know that I would rather just paint, but sketching is so important. This is like doing my chores.

This morning I sketched for the Scavenger Hunt as a warm up for painting, but have yet to paint. At least I did the sketches for Scavenger Hunt 48. As usual the ellipses are a little shaky, but they are freehand an the first time goes! The wine glass top ellipse looked better before I added the glass, ha. These were done in my NY sketchbook with a Micron 05 pen. About 10 minutes each.



Number 6, finger ring. This is a silver ring with a turquoise stone made in Alamo by a relative of our nephew, I think uncle. The corn stalk looks like brass. Number 7, ice cube. No ice cubes in this house so I did some crushed ice in a wine glass.



Number 8, tape. A roll of scotch tape. Number 9, cord. My cell phone cord.

Certificate of Authenticity and Yapa

Here is another blog that I read regularly. Paul Dorrell's Blog. He is a gallery owner and art consultant in Kansas City. He has worked his way up, down and up again and gives great advice about the business side of art. Today his blog is about giving a certificate of authenticity.

I have been doing this for years. At first I felt I was being pretentious, only "real" artists did that, but I started doing it anyway. I have tried to be as professional as I can with the business side of my art. I do think the certificate is a validation of my work and appreciated by the people that buy and enjoy my work.

In Bastrop, when we started the gallery, I made the gallery receipts to read like a certificate of authenticity. It was the best way to have a certificate available for so many different artists and volunteer workers. I still always sent a personal thank you and a certificate to purchasers of my paintings.

Achocalla, Landscape in Bolivia
16 x 20 inches, Oil on canvas
More Bolivian paintings

In Bolivia, when we were there, whenever I would buy something in a market or store, I was usually given a "yapa", a little bonus or incentive to buy. I may have been a tomato when I bought lettuce, or a little doll if I bought a sweater. So, I always send a yapa - note cards, a print, etc. - with my thank you and certificate of authenticity Can't hurt, can it?

Couch Potato

Nope, no painting of a couch potato, but I have been one today. I have a bum heel and my knee was hurting last night and I think it is from trying to protect the heel while playing at golf. Anyway, I lay and sat around with my foot up all day. I am reading a James D. Doss book, The Witch's Tongue. He writes about the Utes like Tony Hillerman writes about the Navajos. I just love these books and feel so at home when reading them. We grew up near the Alamo Reservation here in New Mexico, that must be the reason. I do like the high desert country.

I also watched the British Open Golf Tournament to root for Tiger. You can read about it on the Golf Channel. Can you imagine winning three in a row? He has his work cut out for him though, I think he ended the day about 7 strokes back.

I was on wetcanvas.com commenting on the Scavenger Hunt and just looking around the site. I ran across a watercolorist that is interesting, Robin Purcell. She does bold landscapes that are somewhat abstract. I like them because they are such bright colors. She posted about Robert Bateman, a wildlife realist painter. His work is amazing. You need to check his site out and read his philosophy on painting and his hints. Wow. I could never be that patient or work that long on paintings but I certainly admire his work. What do you think?

Hopefully I will be sketching and painting over the weekend.

Plein air, finally.

It is so much easier to use Airport codes for cities. Saves typing. Albuquerque is ABQ, Silver City is SVC, Austin is AUS, etc. I worked for Continental Airlines years ago and learned the codes. A few don't make sense, at least not at first glance. MSY is New Orleans, something about Moissant Field, the old name, now it is Louis Armstrong. Louisville, Kentucky, is SDF. ICT is Wichita, Kansas. La Paz, Mexico, is LAP and La Paz, Bolivia, is LPB. Well, we could go on and on. Your lesson for the day.

Yesterday we finally completed the plan to go near the City of Rocks and I would paint and Gene would bike. I dropped him off in Bayard and went to the highway turnoff and painted there. Gene came by and I picked him up at the rest area about four more miles down the road. He rode about 25 miles. No problems except I cracked the viewer on my digital Casio camera. Darn. It still works, but I cannot see anything in the upper left side. Not quite 1/4 of the screen is black and marked. I don't know if that will spread, we shall see. It would cost $39 to $119 for Casio to look at it, plus cost of repair. It only cost $200 so probably not worth sending it off. If it deteriorates further and quits working, I will have to buy another. I was using the tailgate of the pickup for my painting as it was very warm out. I sat on that and used the window of the camper shell for shade. I had the camera on the pickup bed and failed to put it away. It slid into the space between the gate and the bed and when I opened the tailgate looking for it, the screen was cracked. Ah, me.

Back to the rest of the story. I painted for about one and a half hours. The flats are so interesting. You can see a slag pile from the mining , or whatever they call it, in the back left, lighter color. I chose the direction to paint because of my shade problem. This is to the north. I liked the view to the east, but I can do that another day. :) I forgot a palette also, so I used the lid to my water bucket with paper towels and water to put out the paint and mixed on a plastic bag. Worked OK, but the air is so dry that I had to really rush each color. I didn't have much time to paint so this helped me to work quickly. :) I used a limited palette of 5 colors and white. Ultramarine blue, Cadmium yellow light, Naples yellow, Alizarin crimson and burnt siena.

Acrylic, Plein Air,

11 x 14 inches.

This painting is similar to my 2 - 4 - 1 painting, called Doubled Up here, that is at Peppers. That one is a pastel, 5 x 7 inches, done in the studio from a photo and memory. I may add a fence to this one to make it a little different. What do you think?




This morning I was putting away my chair from the deck and saw this bug on the screen door. It looks like a stick and one of the items from the Scavenger Hunt #48 is a bug. This is in my small Strathmore sketchbook with the regular Pilot ball point pin. The bug is about life size on my screen. About 5 minutes.

Katherine is at it Again... (Sketch, too)

First here is my sketch for the day. #3, bird feeder, I actually sketched the bird feeder and the hummingbird feeders. #4 is a feather I found at the golf course today, convenient that it is on the list for the Scavenger Hunt. About 25 minutes total in the NY sketchbook with a Micron 05 pen, burnt umber. I also did a plein air, will post about that in the morning.

Now, Katherine Tyrrell has a YouTube page along with her sketching, colored pencil and pastel blogs. Don't know how she does so much. She has a great blog up today about Enrique Flores and his sketchbooks. You can check it out here and see sketching on YouTube. I'm also linking to her page in my links, don't know why it wasn't there. She is my art encyclopedia. She has researched so many things, pastels, artists, blogging,etc. Wow. Thank you, Katherine!

Disaster Day .. Well, not quite

On the Rocks, pastel, 9 x 12 inches

"This area between Silver City and Deming, New Mexico, is very unusual and beautiful. Huge boulders were flung into the air by a volcano near Albuquerque and landed in a clump approximately a mile in diameter. You can explore, like a maze, just winding your way between the rocks. It is pleasant for picnicing or hiking as you can find cool shaded areas in which to excape the heat of the sun.

This was painted early morning to capture the light. Painted the summer of 2006 with wild flowers and green in the usually dry New Mexico desert. This is one of Jo's favorite paintings for the year." (Quoted from my web page from last year)

Our excursion this morning ran into difficulties. We drove about 35 miles to the City of Rocks. Gene was going to bike back toward Silver City and I was going to paint for a couple of hours and pick him up. When he went to unload his bike the front tire was flat. No problem, just change tubes, air it up and go. He got the old tube out and went to put in his spare and it had the wrong valve. The good thing was that he found out the tube was wrong now and not when he is a million miles from nowhere with no cell phone signal. There are lots of those locations in the mountains. He has been riding about a year with that spare tube! False security! We then load up and go back to Silver City with a stop in Bayard for gasoline as it was $3.09.9 a gallon and has been about $3.29.9 in Silver City. Back in town and the gas had gone down here, too. But only at the Chevron and Exxon stations. Interesting. Anyhow, buy a new tube and to the house to change and go try golfing. Arrived at the golf course that we like so much and there was a tournament in progress. Back to the house to fix the tire, do some e-mail, snack and back to golf. It looked like rain with thunderstorms to the west with much lightening. We decided to try nine holes. The storms went around us, about 5 different ones and we ended up playing 18 holes. Nice afternoon with clouds and beautiful cool weather.


I sketched #1 for Scavenger Hunt 48, the edge of a pond. This sketch is at hole #16. I should have taken a photo, it is a beautiful green. Another day for that. 10 minutes


I sketched #2, tree bark with a knothole of sorts, when we got home. This plum tree hangs over the deck. It is old and has many trunks. 15 minutes

These sketches are in my little Strathmore Sketch (recycled) sketchbook, 3.5 x 5 inches. It has pretty good paper. I really don't like Strathmore pastel paper, it is just awful. It has a deep grid and does not hold any pastel to speak of. I sketched with a regular Pilot ball point pen. They don't leak and are very nice every day pens.

We had dinner, left over Chinese from yesterday. Very good from a fast food place, served cafeteria style. They serve in styrofoam containers as they hope you take it out. We asked to order from the menu and they served us in hard plastic plates. Then we had to ask for a to-go box. They thought we were weird. It was very good, though. No wine there, not even Chinese tea. But, we had white wine with it tonight. Then sat on the deck with wine and coffee. The neighbor had some very eclectic music going, Irish folk songs, Enya, some big band, some Native American, Andean, soft rock and more. It was floating out their window and very enjoyable. Gene put up the bird feeders and some hummingbird feeders so we watched the hummers. One of the items on the Scavenger Hunt is a bird feeder. So I am ready.

Maybe the bike/paint excursion will work tomorrow.

Painting Accuracy

As you know, I have been absent from working on my blog. Sorry.

We are on vacation in Silver City, New Mexico. We are off today for a bike ride for Gene and a little painting for me. I am hoping to do something with my art every day, but this is the third day here and nothing yet. :)

I get a newsletter from outdoorpainting.com. Today's hint is about practice to perfect your skills and craft. It is what I keep telling myself and why I keep plodding away at sketching. Check it out, it may help you out. Interesting concept with the circle exercise in the article by Armand Cabrera.

Hopefully I will have a painting to post later! Or the start of one. Then back to practice.