A thirst for first

"Reflections of the Past"  36x60"x1.5"  Available

Finally...winter is showing signs of exhaustion! While most of us have endured several chilly months inside our cocoons, a wariness begins to emerge, causing us to get up, shake off the cobwebs, and get out of our winter cave. Spring spurs a little urgency to evaluate where we will go next.  Some of us will be packing travel bags, and experiencing many "firsts", while some may stay settled into a comfortable, solid routine.  Oh, Spring!  What lies ahead?

Do you ever look at nature and wonder just how you are here in the present?  Does the outdoors bring forth new ideas? It surely does for me!  

One Spring I took a painting trip to California's Palm Desert that produced some of my favorite pieces (the inspiration for the piece above). The subtle colors of the old palm tree skirts were an unexpected sight. What amazed me while creating their likeness, was how I was present in an incredible moment of our earth's existence. The palm trees have been there for hundreds, if not thousands of years. drinking from the pools of percolating water that bubbles up from the infamous San Andreas Fault.  The thought came up that my paintings took an ensie-weensie second of their existence.

Time is precious. And while the palm trees continue to drink from the well, we continue to spin around so that we don't notice what is actually around us.  So here are a couple of ideas we can practice to slow down our busy lives and enrich our presence today...

Take a minute out for your "self" and just  b r e a t h e  deeply.
Listen to the sounds around you.  What do you really hear?
Go to the market and buy a fragrant bouquet to enjoy.
Get up early to view a sunrise.  How long has it been since you have done that?
Or touch the velvet of a rose flower...although they are out of season, you get the idea?
Use all of your senses to fill yourself up.  What will you do with your Spring?

Moving along...    
  

Love me some desert work

This past December, my husband and I thought we'd do something different and take our growing kids on a trip instead of stressing out on buying gifts that perhaps might not be appreciated. Experiences instead of things?  What a concept!  

Well gosh, since I'm there I might as well get some business done while I'm there.  My favorite place to paint is pretty much the California desert, so I took oodles of photos for future work, and while I'm there, I might as well pay my galleryt a visit and hand over a few pieces. So my easel was on fire because I had just given myself one of those self imposed deadlines.  So here is what came out of the deadline.  Check out Brian Marki Fine Art Gallery online to for a peek of what he has to offer. 

The Main Strip (10x24" oil on panel)

Desert Floor (10x24" oil on panel)

This one has yet to be delivered...

Defiant Heat Rising (36x48" Oil on gallery wrapped canvas)

Getting back on track

Gosh, I've been offline now for nearly 3 months and so much has happened with no time to recover and replenish my energy.  Moving into the plein air season means a lot of painting outdoors when the weather is cooperating, especially in Oregon where rain is the main deterrent.  I took a trip down to California to paint the desert in the Palm Springs area and Monterey CA. with a couple of fun and adventurous painters Michael Orwick and Thomas J. Kitts. We three packed ourselves, our luggage, and painting gear into a Prius with a top box and ventured on to paint. I didn't expect to, but I  truly fell in love with the desert. It was quite a different scene than what I was imagining with coral and sage colors in the early morning to orange and soft blues in the late afternoon light. We discovered the best times were the starts and finishes of each day, making for long working hours. Here are a few paintings from the desert.

"Skirts" 12x9" Pastel 

This piece was painted in Indian Canyon, an area that is sacred to the Native Cahulla tribe. It hosts many types of palm trees that nurse off of the streams that spring from the San Jacinto Mountain range.  The colors of the palm skirts range from orange to grey, purple to pink and almost any color you can see. This was a magical piece to paint.

My setup.

"Desert Breath" 8x6" Pastel

This piece was painted in a 30 minute race to catch the setting sun's last glimmer. It was probably the most exciting and favorite piece to paint in a long time. Unfortunately, this desert floor is slated for a housing development :(

We woke up at 5:30 to catch the sunrise on the San Jacinto Mountain Range.

"Color Cast" 12x9" Pastel

Just after the sunrise, all the colors immediately go flat.

"Evening Wash" 9x12" Pastel

Another one of my favorites, because of the warm and cool colors used to portray the evening's last hint of light, I painted this as the sun was setting behind the San Jacinto Mountains. The light was incredible in the desert and was so happy to experience such a tender display of color. The mountain range took most of my rendering time because of the subtle nuances of light on the range. The foreground wash area just happened to fill in so immediately. Ya gotta love that when that happens.

Then off for a full day of driving to Monterey, Ca for the Plein Air Convention.

The Plein Air Convention & Expo (PACE) provides a great time to reconnect with painting friends from past competitions as well as making new connections along with tons of learning. I love this event and the energy it has. Again, I was asked to go on stage and offer up a pastel demonstration. Although I was fully prepared for the demo, I didn't get "staged" in time and then tripped up on the staircase. My side tray of selected pastels all fell to the floor and made for an Academy appearance. It did rattle me a bit, but I recovered and continued as best as I could.  Here is my demo, titled after the spill.

"Tripping Pond" 12x16" Pastel

Demoing onstage

One of my pieces from the 700 artist paint out painted at Point Lobos State Park

There is still so much more to share about my past adventures, but I'm guessing you have read this far and are ready to tune out. I may be a bit sporatic at best, to post more regularly, but like I said the plein air season has me outdoors chasing the time allotted for me to create. 

Thanks for sticking with me. ~Brenda