Dear friends,
HELLO!
It has been a while (more than a year?!) since I reached out with a studio news email.
My setting roots sabbatical has ended and New Mexico painting is happening! I am happy to be at a place where sharing what I am up to makes sense. I am beginning to sell new work (though some painting I am not ready to part with yet) and if a painting interests you please reach out.

Looking, taking in, seeing something for what it is, noticing, connecting, witnessing changing light, following shadows lengthen, and maybe (just maybe) riding a wave of light/sun/color driven miracle. This describes painting outside at its best. When I work from life, I often return to the same location a few times, working on the same painting. Speed is not my goal, rather I take my time. I like the paint to build up. I enjoy getting to know the juniper, cottonwood or path over hours.
I've started painting around town too. This has the benefit of meeting people, and being invited to paint more places. It absolutely pushes me out of my comfort zone!
Painting from life is not something new to me. In fact, for years I worked exclusively from life and consider it the backbone of my practice. That said, it isn't like riding a bike, and it is taking me some time to get the rhythm back. Here, in El Rito, I am going back to my roots and my desire to commune with the world as a kind of witness to what I see and feel. It is clunky at times and I find I am facing the same question of direction posed to me in my twenties. It was during a workshop with David Barbero. I convinced the group to meet for sunrise at the Gorge Bridge outside of Taos. I still have the small, loose painting of the sunrise I made that morning. I don't have the labored rendering of the bridge painted after. The first was quickly painted and intuitive. The second was a competent rendering creating form and space. David Barbero commented that I needed to choose a direction. Apparently, I still haven't! I remain an artist with multiple, parallel paths that intertwine and inform one another.

Sometimes a painting I begin on location isn't resolved and perhaps returning to the spot isn't an option. When this happens I often work from memory in the studio. This proving to be a rich vein offering surprise, playfulness, and following intuition. On the other hand, painting in the studio from memory offers extended time to mix and apply the colors I recall, but didn't have time to mix in the field. These paintings are worked on in the evening after painting on location.
Being able to paint renderings of what I see is cool - and sometimes magical. But, I also view working on location as a step to something more. In this case - working from memory.

During a 2012 residency at Playa Summer Lake I painted stripes. Looking across the shallow lake bed rimmed with reeds and mud I watched colors shift with rain, snow, wind and setting sun. Painting wet into wet color stripes captured the feeling better than any plein air rendition could. After 2012 I continued painting stripe color studies on the Oregon coast. In 2019 I painted stripes again on the Taos plateau. This year I began painting stripes in El Rito.
There is a big sky here and vast space. Distant hills glow cranberry pink before evening's final shadows cross. This past summer I was often out in the evening walking with my dogs on dirt roads just outside of town. When the sunset colors emerged, I stood, stunned by the beauty. I took photos. But none of the photos capture the colors I saw. One evening I recorded myself describing the colors and when I returned home I began painting while listening to that description on loop. Two more nights of looking closely followed by working from memory led to a painting that captured what I experienced. Since then, I have worked on location and memory painting color stripes.

The last time I reached out, I mentioned an exhibit I was going to be in. Well, that isn't happening (Covid). These paintings exploring magical realism and the Oregon landscape are available! Reach out if you are interested.

With gratitude & well wishes,

Shawn