The Back Sides

I'm assembling my Southwestern Collection of paintings for sale, and this view of the back side of San Miguel Mission in Santa Fe is my last High Road contribution for awhile:
San Miguel Mission Santa Fe, 2010, oil 20" x 24"

The back sides of these old buildings are often as interesting as their fronts, if not more so. San Miguel is in the center of Santa Fe on the Santa Fe Trail, and there's always lots of people around. The handsome Indian woman in the painting actually was standing across the street from the church:

The back side of San Miguel is another painting that I started from only the briefest sketch, laying it out in big brush strokes instead of drawing it, concentrating on the forms, textures and colors, the way I would do if I were actually painting in plein air. I made the drawing of the church later, which helped me in finishing the painting:

Just next to the church, on De Vargas St on the east side of the Santa Fe Trail, is the oldest house in Santa Fe, c. 1646:

When I painted the back side of San Miguel I was thinking of a famous painting by Georgia O'Keefe, "St. Francis of Assisi Missionary at Ranchos de Taos, 1929," my favorite High Road painting. She painted the back side of that mission, and her stunning iconic image has always been in my head since first seeing it. It's my inspiration for my High Road paintings. Ranchos de Taos is at the other end of the High Road from Santa Fe, and with Georgia on my mind I made a drawing of the back side of that mission:

I'd love to make a large oil of this, the forms, textures and colors are truly classic. This also is a classic example of how interesting the back side of the building is compared to the front side:

I admit that my Southwestern Collection, which I'll show all of in the next blog, is way overloaded with New Mexico missions. I started these when we had plans after retirement to move to New Mexico, and I wanted to have a collection of New Mexican scenes ready for sale when we made the move. But now that we're staying where we are, I'm eager to paint lots of new classic Colorado views, which also have their own colors, forms and textures.

Thanks to rudraksh for the comment on my last blog. Yes, these paintings do provide a simple connectivity between you and me, and that's entirely what I'm seeking.

Santa Fe, Painters' Paradise

OK, I'm not actually in Santa Fe right now, but I am still making a lot of artwork from our trips there. I've just finished an oil painting of Mission San Miguel near downtown Santa Fe, one of the oldest structures in the U.S., dating to c. 1601:
Mission San Miguel, Santa Fe 2010, oil 20" x 24"

This is another painting I began a year or so ago, underpainting in very thick oils that took a long time to dry, a technique I don't plan on using any more. But those thick oils are sure fun to paint on.

I have several sketches of this iconic building, which has at least four good views, one from every direction. It's a very recognizable landmark. I'm attracted to the character of older buildings, and this one's as old as they get here abouts. I'm getting a collection of these landmark buildings, not only for what I learn as I work on them but because I know that they're attractive to lots of people.


I started with this traditional classic view from the north, but it was clear as I sketched it that I had to have someone in the picture. The place was very busy, and three guys came by, laughing, on their way to the Indian Market. The view of the three of them together seemed quite appealing.



I prefer to put people in my pictures, but I'd like them to be people who were there when I was. I like these guys a lot just by themselves, and I've resolved to draw more people. People are like buildings, in that they have critical proportions and details that are so important in the final view.



I finally settled on this view, because of the light and colors as well as the couple who were there.

I liked their quiet demeanor in comparison to the building, not so attention-drawing as those first three guys. Her tatoos got my attention, I didn't show them to their beauty. Now there's an idea for portraits. I'm going to stay in Santa Fe for awhile longer, I have a lot of pictures of people from several Indian Markets.

My next post is my oil of the fourth view of San Miguel, from the back. I was thinking of Georgia O'Keefe when I started it, but it's very removed from her painting.

Great Places to Paint: Dixon, NM

I'm still on the High Road between Taos and Santa Fe, where I'm getting a collection of pictures. My latest oil painting is of Dixon, where three incarnations of St. Anthony's Church are on proud display:
The 3 Incarnations of St. Anthony's, Dixon NM, 2010 oil, 20" x 30"

That's John Prescott with Judy Ekstrom in the picture. I originally underpainted it very thickly with oils, which took such a long time to dry I set it aside and forgot about it, but as I was compiling these High Road pictures I found it and finished it in a few weeks.

The painting was started after only the briefest sketch. This drawing of St. Anthony's at Dixon wasn't done til a few weeks ago, which helped me greatly get the painting finished. I also made several other drawings of Dixon and views along the High Road. I'm using the High Road as my current school, my training ground as I play with all my oils and my new large set of Derwent watercolor pencils. I view all my drawings as potential paintings, I won't make a painting that I haven't sketched first on the spot.

Now I'm trying to put these classical iconic images into more of a scenic context like my new view of San Jose de Garcia Church at Las Trampas, instead of continuing to make the bold, in-your face thick oils that have been my mode.

I love the colors, textures, patterns and light all along the High Road. No wonder those early Taos artists painted the way they did, the sunlight is incredible and comes in through my basement studio windows every afternoon.

The oil of St. Anthony's was lots of fun. I started by just boldly laying those shapes out, not trying to draw details at all. The underpainting of the biggest church was bright red. I found myself actually rubbing in some of my new oils with a rag, to bring out the underlying textures and colors.

I doubt I'll ever do another oil like this one, I just can't wait long enough for thick underpainting to dry, and I don't want to try to oil paint on top of thick acrylics.

My next posts will be paintings and drawings in Santa Fe, and everything will be new.

Happy Noo Year

It's not too late for one last hoopee, even though it is in the middle of January already. I've resolved to blog, draw and paint more in the new year. Also I want to show my remaining artwork from last year, including a painting that I used for my holiday card:
Old Town Mazatlan, Catedral Basilica de la Purisima Concepcion, oil 16" x 20"


I showed this picture six months ago, when I began this blog. Even though this is a blog about oil painting, I do make lots more drawings than paintings. My first drawing of the year is from the window of our hotel room in Denver on Jan. 1, after waking from the New Year's party our daughter Chris took us to:
Coors Field, ink and watercolor pencil, 9" x 12"


The party was appropriately wild, with dancers on stilts:
The White Rose Gala, watercolor marker, 9" x 12"


STILL ON THE HIGH ROAD

I love the living drum I got in Santa Fe on our second trip last year, by Elk Good Water, Taos Pueblo. I wish you could hear it:


Having more leisurely time on this trip, I made new sketches along the High Road from Santa Fe to Taos:
Judy on the High Road


The High Road is my favorite sketching route. I've always drawn in my notebooks wherever I've travelled, and this is how I've filled up a notebook a year. I was looking for different views in our old favorite locations:
A scene in Chimayo


Three scenes in Truchas:







And a scene in Las Trampas, the back side of San Jose de Gracia Church:


Even though I'm done showing old pictures from the High Road, in this new year I still have lots of fond images that I'm compelled to turn into more pictures, which I'll continue to post as I make them.

Doll Doctor Antiques

I finished and delivered a new oil painting:
Doll Doctor Antiques, 24"x 30".


Marilyn and Ariel Baylen were very pleased, and I was too because frankly I didn't know how it would turn out. This was the first complete oil rendering I've ever done. It took me two months because I was very methodical and deliberate about it. Since it was a commission I wanted to do the best job I could. Oil paintings have always taken me a long time to complete, but I want to look at the reasons the Doll Doctor took so long.

RENDERING AS AN INCOME
A rendering is essentially a portrait of a building, and the more accurate the better.

I started rendering for an income when I won an art contest illustrating the Pioneers Museum.
I made my living for several years by rendering for developers and builders. They'd give me the blueprints for unbuilt houses and I'd draw an ink picture on milar of what the house would look like after completed, including landscaping. They have software to do that now. I'd get paid maybe as much as $150 per rendering, and they would sell their houses for $250,000 or so based simply on my drawing. I'd do two renderings a day or more if I could, but it was certainly a feast or famine business. I'd paint renderings in acrylics, watercolors or guache, but not often.

I freelanced lots of individual framed renderings of people's homes and businesses, that I'd sit in my car and usually do on the spot. I drew the Margarita at Pine Creek because it was such a good place to eat at, and I sold the drawing to the owner the next time we ate there.

I was always an oil painter at heart but never imagined actually making a rendering in oil until the Baylens commissioned me. They liked my paintings of Old Colorado City they'd seen in the history center, and they are located in the heart of old town. The first thing I did was to make a full-sized rendering for the painting.


You can see how I even cut it apart to make the perspective more dramatic. I traced the rendering onto the canvas after drawing it in charcoal on the back side.

I had to reorganize my studio and purchased a new portable oil palette, one with a lid to help keep the oil paints wet (I also covered the palette with Glad press and seal wrap at night).

I had to buy new smaller brushes that I'd never used to oil paint with before. In fact the whole idea of drawing the oil painting first is not what I learned in school, where my teachers would say, "Paint, don't draw! That's why they call these paintings!" And they wanted me to develop the painting as I went along, emphasizing layout and color balance and working all over the canvas. It quickly became clear to me that for this picture I was going to have to work from the top down so as not to smear anything below, and that I had to try to do as much of the picture on my drawing table instead of my easle. For one thing, sitting on my stool at that easle made my back sore.

After I traced the rendering onto the canvas I then used acrylics to completely cover the white of the canvas, and to make bright underpainting for the oils.


The edges of the canvas are taped, because Judy Wise taught me to paint my own frames. I then took the canvas outside to start the painting on site, paying lots of attention to layout, actual color and details.


This was where I learned that trying to paint all over the canvas was not such a good idea, because I had to wait for these oils to dry before I could continue to paint, or else I'd end up getting them all over my hands and arms. Waiting for the oils to dry so I could paint over them has always been the big slowdown in completing paintings, but even though I was trying to be very efficient I did end of having to repaint a lot. For one thing I had to redraw the windows, making them wider to appear more in proportion, and making the right color for those bricks was time-consuming. I finally had to end up shopping for more oils at Meiningers Art Supply in Denver.

At least now that I'm finished I'll be able to do it better and faster next time. It helps that time management is no longer that important for me, nor is making an income from my art.

Old Town History Center Wrap Up

Dave Hughes, the Treasurer of the Old Colorado City Historical Society and the person responsible for the revitalization of the old town, printed last month's expenses and income in September's monthly West Word newsletter.
"We got a windfall from the Art and Print Show Sales in our Center of Jack Ekstrom's work that dates back to 1976, when Old Colorado City first emerged as a visually historic part of town. He sold $1,872 worth on the evening of August 7th, and generously offered us 60% of that, or $1,123. He also drafted up, free, several of our advertising posters for Founders Day and the Cemetery Crawl."
There are five pictures left from the 13 in the show, and those will be put up for sale in the Silent Auction at the OCCHS Membership Dinner, Oct. 1 at the Ghost Town Wild West Museum.
You ought to be pretty familiar with those pictures by now:

1. An Act of God, oil, 20" x 28". Showing the effects of the lightning blast in 1995 that sent Sacred Heart Church's east steeple into the middle of Colorado Ave. We remember that strike, it was like an explosion. This picture, painted in October several months later, shows a Latino family Quinceanera celebration.

2. Mattress Factory, pen and watercolor, 12" x 14". The old firehouse, where Old Town Bed and Breakfast is now, just before the fire that ended it. The gentleman in the picture was a long-term resident of Norton's Home, across the street, who many people saw everyday striding in his distinguished gait.

3. Mrs. Morrison and General Palmer, pen and ink, 18" x 24" matted. In 1917 General Palmer, the founder of Colorado Springs, was riding from his home in Glen Eyrie to the Antlers Hotel when Mrs. Morrison came running out of her burning home at 2217 W. Colorado Ave., which is still there. She'd set her laundry on fire through using naptha. The general took her to the Antlers with him and provided her with a room until her home was repaired.

4. Pikes Peak from Bancroft Park, oil, 24" x 36". That's Michael Garman's truck. When I tried selling this to Michael, he exclaimed, "Why in *!!* would I want to buy that? The gentleman in the painting isn't Michael, but a familiar neighborhood figure at that time walking his dog.

5. Sacred Heart Church, oil, 18" x 24". This classic view was made from the end of our alley not long after we moved here, when beehive incinerator ovens were still in use.

I had put two other of my older renderings in the art show too, but those are not going to be auctioned.

Cliff House, pen and ink, 24" x 36"

Barker House, pen and ink, 20" x 28"

These are both buildings in Manitou Springs just to the west of us. When people asked me why I put them in my Old Colorado City show I replied, "Those are what I really like doing. I've always regretted that Old Colorado City doesn't have buildings like those."

El Camino Real

So long to Santa Fe, for another year. There were several scenic drives we could have taken out of Santa Fe to get back home to Colorado Springs including the freeway, which is the least scenic but fastest. But Hiway 285 takes you north from Santa Fe toward Espanola, and there are many scenic drives to get sidetracked on.

One junction to the left takes you past San Ildefonso Pueblo, a fascinating place that we'll get back to sometime.
You can't miss the Catholic mission at San Idelfonso, it's right in the middle of the Pueblo.

Instead we took the next intersection to the right, toward Nambe Pueblo. It's our most favorite drive, that follows the El Camino Real to Taos. It has provided me with much subject matter for paintings and drawings.

Sacred Heart Church at Nambe, oil 16" x 20"

That's John Prescott standing in front of Nambe Mission. The old Catholic missions on the Indian pueblos are all classic Southwestern scenes, and I'm as big a sucker for them as any artist.
The next stop on the El Camino Real is Chimayo, one of the most scenic historic stops, with the famous El Santuario. That place also calls for us to stop for awhile, so we'll certainly go back there too.

Continuing on the El Camino Real, we always stop at Truchas. How could anyone not? The site of Robert Redford's movie "The Milagro Beanfield War," Truchas is a town of galleries, and in the center of it is another venerable mission. You have to admire adobe construction that's lasted over 300 years.

Old Truchas Mission of Holy Rosary, 1764, oil 18" x 24"

Las Trampas, the next stop on the El Camino Real, features a famous Catholic church that I've painted a few times.

San Jose de Gracia Church 1760, oil 18" x 24"

I couldn't keep from painting the church at Las Trampas from two different views.

Las Trampas San Jose de Gracia, oil 18" x 24"

Continuing once more on the El Camino Real north toward Taos is Picuris Pueblo, with the mission having been restored by the people at Picuris.

San Lorenzo de Picuris, oil 16" x 20"

And finally you come to Taos. There is indeed a famous Catholic church painted by Georgia Okeefe south of town, as well as a mission at Taos Pueblo. But I love the pueblo itself, and its location.

Holy Taos Mountain, oil 30" x 48"

Do you see the face of the holy mountain, looking straight upward? I don't know where he came from, but appeared as I was painting it. To me he seems to have a headdress flowing down his left shoulder. When we were at Taos Pueblo in one of the shops we met Carol Suina, who said the name of the holy Taos mountain was "A-che-yats" (my spelling).
Again looking forward to coming back to this magical place, and all the others I've shown you, we continued home, going through San Luis, Ft. Garland and Walsenberg, a beautiful drive with continuously changing epic vistas. San Luis is one of our favorite stops, it's back in Colorado but still very much Hispanic, in fact it's the oldest town in Colorado.
And now that I have such good space in my basement studio, thanks to this blog and to all you gracious people who helped me with your comments, I can begin to paint again -- I must have a dozen paintings that need finishing, most from the El Camino Real!