Speaking of galleries, several people have been asking when I am going to come back to the Artist’s Co-op Gallery here in Arivaca. I was a member when we lived here before, but I got too sick to stay there. I really want to be back there as I have many friends there and it’s a social thing as well as a place to hang some of my work. They have wall space, so I decided it is time to re-apply.

My health is somewhat precarious at the moment. It seems that any little stress will send me into a flare. I am eating healthier and that is a very good thing. I think it will end up helping greatly. In particular we are eating lots of fermented foods. We have a source of raw goat’s milk and we have been making kefir (I drink about a quart of this a day) and Chris has been soaking our grains in active whey and then using them in bread and also sprouting the grains as well. We now have a grain mill and have been milling the grains going into the bread. It is all sourdough from a starter that we made from the natural yeast in the air here. All of these things aid in digestion and add more nutrients to the food. We have been using spelt flour, trying to avoid wheat, so in that way we are doing much better. We are also moving to a place on the other side of town that a friend of ours owns. It is ten acres of land and there is a labyrinth on it. We will live in the motorhome there and there is also a travel trailer that will have a bedroom for Kasie and a studio for me… yay! And the best thing is that we will be caretakers of the land, so we only have to pay electric! The land has great energy and we are very happy to do this. Life is good.

Namaste,

Sara

It looks like I may have an actual job coming up as well.  There is a nature school being started for Developmentaly Disabled adults and I may be teaching a watercolor class a couple of days a week there.  Chris will be working there as well.  I have never taught a class before.  I actually had my very first teaching experience when I was in MN .  I taught the campground host how to do some washes for backgrounds.  I also taught her how to use salt with the watercolors.  I only worked with her two times, but she was very happy with the lessons.  So, I will be working on lessons starting from the beginning with the colorwheel etc.  Should be interesting.  I just hope I have the energy to do this and to also continue with my painting.  I haven’t brought out the pastels yet, but they will be coming out soon I’m sure.  It is good to be back and I hope to be posting a few times a week.

This past fall some friends of ours in Arivaca got married and they had sunflowers in their garden as the back drop. I decided I would do a painting for them for their wedding present. So, I asked Jenni (the bride) to take some pics of the sunflowers that she liked and she gave me some and I have been looking at them for months and in the end used one of my own<G>. It is the kind of sunflower that is their favorite though, so I think this will be great. All I need to do is spray some fixative on it and it will be finished. I do that outside because of the fumes and let me tell you today it is so windy that it wouldn’t be a good idea to try. I will do it in the morning. It tends to be calmer in the morning and the wind picks up as the day goes on. It is so dry here that there is a ton of dust in the air. It is one of those days that if you were a cowboy you would be wearing that bandana up over your face.

Back to the painting. I had a lot of fun with this. Canvas is so different from paper for the watercolors. It takes some getting used to. I painted the center of the sunflower with really thick paint. that isn’t a typical watercolor technique, but it was fun and I think it works for this painting. The petals have many, many glazes on them. The nice thing about this watercolor canvas is that if something isn’t working, you can wipe it off and start over. On the other hand, it is difficult to apply a glaze over existing paint. It really takes some practice and you have to have a very light touch. In the end, I think it worked. I was a little worried when I was in the middle of it, but today it all fell into place and turned out just how i wanted it too. Don’t you just love it when that happens? So, here is the painting, “Sunflowers on Canvas”

I have to say that it looks way better in person.  I’m not happy with this photo at all.  Chris really tried to get it to look like it is supposed to, but it didn’t work.  So, the center is not as crazy looking in real life.  The blue background is a little bit darker, and the petals well, they just look better, fresher.  so, use your imagination with this one!

Now, they aren’t brilliant masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination. No, one is downright ugly and one is so-so, and one is ok. hehehe

Here is the ugly one:

What in the world was I thinking with that background? I wasn’t that is the problem. A lesson was learned, never finish a painting when under the influence. So, today I did another one to rectify the situation. These are both about 4″x6″ cards. They are done on 140# watercolor paper.

Ahh, that is better…

The last one is the pastel I have been working on all week. It is done on Wallis sanded paper with a yellow ochre under painting. The size is 9×12″ I did it from a demonstration in the book “Pastel Step by Step By Marla Baggetta. I didn’t follow the directions as closely as I should have. But, here it is:

Still having trouble with cloudy skies. I have to say, it wasn’t explained very well either. I see lots of practice on clouds in the near future! Oh and that spruce blue behind the barn is actually the distant tree line, not the Sea as Chris thought. That would be interesting, “The Barn by the Sea” hehehe. But I can see why he got that impression:) I am so glad this one is done. I can move on. I have gotten tired of having it on my easel day after day. Some days I would just look at it and just couldn’t bring myself to work on it. Other days I would just put a few strokes here and there. This could easily be done in one day. But, because I wasn’t enjoying the process I made it drag on for days. I really don’t enjoy copying from the books. I know I need to learn these things, but I want to do my own paintings. So, we shall see where this all leads. Could be interesting.

Ok, at least I have been doing something in the studio. I really want to try to post something every day. Small paintings and sketches are about all I can do in one day. So, we shall see. Thankfully I am feeling better–yay! And it is warm and sunny here in Las Cruces. Windy too, but you can’t have everything!

I plan to be out in nature more this year doing some sketching as well as some full size paintings. Most likely the full size paintings will be in pastel. I did get my French easel and my “artcomber cart” The cart has a bag attached to the back that fits a French easel, and when it is set up it has a decent chair. The wheels are large, so should be able to handle just about any terrain. The one thing that is kind of a bummer is that my pastel box is too big and heavy to lay out on the easel drawer. It weighs as much as the easel just about! So, I will either need to lay the box out on the ground or get something to lay it on. The other alternative is to find something smaller that would work with fewer pastels when painting “en plein air”. In the meantime, I may try to line the easel drawer with foam and place the pastels in there with more foam on top so they don’t roll around. I should have enough foam from the boxes that the pastels came in for this to work. And it will solve the problem for now. The downside of this is that every time I want to go out to paint, I will have to put enough pastels in the drawer to do a full landscape. I guess maybe I would just end up leaving them there, instead of going back and forth from the big box to the drawer. Too much wasted time!

I’m still not feeling the best, but today was definitely better than yesterday. I just have to remember to be kind to myself.