Patagonia Landscape

On my visit to Arizona this month we drove down to Patagonia. It's a small town about 25 miles north of the border; a really cool new age type place where the people are laid back and the weather is normally mild and breezy. The town's 5,500 ft elevation keeps the climate fairly cool in the hot summer months and in the winter the temperatures average around 60 degrees. On the day we arrived the overnight lows hovered near 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Pipes were freezing and plumbers were raking in the dollars. The next day was warmer and we drove into the Santa Rita mountain range and found a place to stop and paint. The terrain in the area is unique and beautiful.

When you want to paint something but you only have an hour

I get antsy if I go a day or so without painting and that's why I stock a lot of small canvases. I just have a strong compulsion to always be working on SOMETHING! I might only have an hour or so to work so if there is nothing in progress I will grab some props and set up a still life. Flowers are always the best subjects and pots come in a close second. Add some fruit or even a vegetable and you are in business! It can be a challenge to use all three in a painting, especially a small painting like this one, but I tried anyway and I love the result. Working small forces you to pay attention to the big shapes and the design.

6" x 8"

Sunflowers with Tangerine

Vanna from the Ukraine

Another talented and lovely model who posed for us at the Scottsdale Artists School: Vanna. She is posing in a dress she made herself, one that would be a ceremonial dress in her native Ukraine. Just a super model who was so much fun to paint.

11" x 14"

oil on linen

Tubac painting

When we visited Tubac, AZ the weather did not exactly cooperate with our desire to paint outside. Cold and windy, with a high of 45 degrees forced us to revise our plans. We spent about an hour painting a cute little row of shops until we decided we needed some hot food and coffee.  I was, obviously, attracted to the red door and the lovely broken bricks. The pot was pretty too. :)

9" x 12"

oil on linen

A Provocative Pose

We drove down to Scottsdale on the Friday before I came home to attend an open studio at the Scottsdale Artists School that lasted five hours. Three hours in the morning and another two after lunch. We had free tickets for the model session, which normally costs $15.00 for the entire day.

It was very crowded in the morning but most of the locals didn't come back after lunch so we had more freedom to move around. There was a lot of discussion about how best to set up the light in the morning. With so many people packed into the room it was not easy to find a place that didn't shine the light in an artist's eyes. Somehow they came up with a 'lit from below' design, which gave the woman an almost malevolent gaze. The lighting, in combination with the tight red dress and the riding whip really created atmosphere. I loved the opportunity to actually finish a painting in one session and it was interesting to try the blue underpainting I worked with in Nancy's workshop. I was a little surprised when I finished and looked around. No one else had even tried to get her entire figure on the canvas --some people had even left the riding crop completely out.

I'm pretty sure no one from the Hyter Group back home would have missed the chance to paint the entire figure. We relish our costumed models.

I call her "The Dominatrix"

16" x 2o" oil on canvas