Solstice turns us to full summer.

West Central Texas is heating up, I spend the center of each day sheltering in place with my air conditioner and my painting supplies.  A few friends drop in and I have lots of family nearby.
My second try at the chimney rock on Ghost Ranch.  This one is oil on panel 9 x 12.  See my post of 5 15 2019 for the first one which was a study, 6 x 8, in some ways stronger than the larger one.  Still wet, just laying on the frame it will have soon.

Last month I completed a third painting of the San Geronimo ruins at Taos, Like the pueblo Mountain itself there is so much meaning there, I expect I will paint it again and again. Impossible to catch the vibrations in the ground and echoes  of those seeking sanctuary inside at the end of a bloody conflict.

This one has significance for my family.  Oil on panel 11 x 14.  

Morning and late afternoon I check on my little container garden. cherry tomatoes, yellow squash, basil, garlic chives and mint are growing.  The yard is lush and green from abundant good rain.

I have much to be grateful for in a snug comfortable home.  e

Six inches of rain here, no damage. A lovely May.

Our town is lush and glowing this Sunday morning. I love my tiny yard. I do not have an open space for veggies, so a group of big pots in my sunniest area  hold herbs and tomato plants.  NOTE added: After 6 inches on May 4th and 5th,  Three more inches on May 8th!  all in a very short ferocious storm.

When we lived in the country I had a garden!

I grew kitty cats.

And lots of pumpkins!

 See the pumpkins on the porch of this great red house we used to own on Schubert street.

 And I used them in the Red Cape of course.

 I miss my country garden, with black berries and eggplants and cucumbers and onions and tomatoes and so much more.  No way could I do the work of it now.  It is good to have done it at the right time.

The first two blooms have opened on the Little Gem Magnolia. High above my head but there are lots of buds lower.

The small atrium gives light and a view to the breakfast and dining areas. The outer wall is profusely  blooming Star Jasmine right now.

 St Frances watches over it.

Paintings usually sit out to dry on my breakfast table.  Some works in progress between painting sessions include Daphne a donkey at New Buffalo near Taos and some of the sheep Daphne usually protects.  As these paintings are in progress, I have received word that Daphne was in another pasture and coyotes struck and killed 4 lambs.

I am playing dolls as well.
The red haired doll with long curls was so much fun to paint.  This one is a sculpt by my friend Elaine and has been sent home now to join her doll family.

Below, my five completed at present from the series I am working on with Elaine, a few more to go. I like my red haired doll in blue, wish she had curls too! Each doll is different as they should be.

She is a doll, a painting and a textile.  This covers so many of my interests!  See this doll below finished and in an orchid dress.

Elaine found two of my paintings in an antique mall in Dallas. Here they are on a wall at Elaine's house, over a group of the  dolls.  Signature is 1977 before Jackie and I were married.   I had two one person shows in Dallas, large ones that to my amazement sold out! in 1973 and 1974.  Mary Emerling made that the look of the times.  My shows were sponsored byRalph Willard. 

I painted and sold over 250 of the primitive children, big ones like these, plus uncounted cats and lambs and lions and other small paintings and also a raft of fraktur in grained frames of Jack's making.   He is always so much in my heart, day by day.  e

Another week another doll made and another painting finished..

Still trying to put one together each week.    Three done, three more to go. These are the molded cloth heads that Elaine has made from my old sculpt plus plenty of her own magic as she worked with them. Elaine has two , and has given me the rest. The very small Steiff bear is just right for the little boy doll to hold.

  I love the little bonnets but hate to hide the doll's hair.  

It is hard to focus and divide my time between painting on canvas and making dolls.  I am using a few days each week for each pursuit...And it gets worse,  I am gathering supplies to make beaded leather medicine pouches with my daughter Cheryl when she  visits soon.  Here is my Road Runner, the state bird of New Mexico.     "Our Bird!"    Oil on Canvas  11 x 14 inches.   e

art fun

On Saturday March 2nd I sat for Bill Kalwick's demo at the
National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society
"Best of America" SMALL PAINTING National Exhibition Held at Hanna Gallery in Fredericksburg. That was the culmination of three great days of art. 

I enjoyed being with the great group of artists.

       Bob Rohm demo

 At home I am painting adobe, this one with permission for non commercial use from the collection of palace of Governors  Santa Fe. Photo is B and W.  Subject Taos Pueblo of course, date in the 1930's.

oil on panel, 14 by 11 

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