John Constable
Fir Tree Study

Just a quick reminder that the online class Drawing and Painting Trees starts in just a little over two weeks. For landscape artists, trees are arguably the most important raw material of our craft and art. Their very individual character, their attitude as living beings within the landscape make them a source of endless fascination and challenge for the artist. Artists in the 19^th century routinely sketched and painted studies of these sentinels of nature in order to understand their structure as well as their artistic bearing. These drawings and studies were then used to create larger studio works. Through drawing and observation, we will learn to paint not only their anatomy, but their line, character, and the emotions they can inspire.

There are just a couple of spots left in the class. You can go here for more information and to register (scroll down).

New 2011 Workshop!

OK, here they are in their sweet little tabernacle frames. They really ought to be switched around to be hung, but you get the idea.

I am really pleased to announce I'll be teaching a five day workshop in Taos, New Mexico next fall, September 19-23, 2011. The class will be held in a beautiful private home with two spacious studios that can accommodate up to ten students. You can go here for more information or to register. This is going to be fun!

Backyard Magic II
12 x 10
Available at Huff Harrington Fine Art, Atlanta

This is the second piece of a pair of small paintings which will be framed in elegant little tabernacle frames, and available soon at Huff Harrington Fine Art in Atlanta.

Backyard Magic

Backyard Magic
12 x 10
Sold

When we first moved here three years ago, the first thing I noticed was the light in the late afternoon and evening on our west property line. Every day was a changing show of light and color. After having had huge views of gorgeous mesas and mountains from our home in New Mexico, I was astonished that such a simple row of trees, a little hill and a field could produce such wondrous results. I still am. Every day.

Autumn Afternoon
24 x 30
Available at Hildt Galleries, Chicago

It seems I am usually painting one or two seasons behind the calendar, but with this piece I leaped ahead to late October- a time when the fleeting sensual feeling of Fall is palpable.

Benediction

Benediction
30 x 40
Available at Hildt Galleries, Chicago

I made a video of a series of photos I took while painting this piece. Some of the photos were taken in less than perfect conditions and so have some glare and other issues, but I think its a fair representation of the process.

So, here at last is the cover of my new book. There are images of drawings and paintings, as well as some short essays on painting, inspiration and Nature. After a few false starts, I am very pleased with how it came out.

You can click on the badge below for a preview of the book and to purchase it. However, if you would prefer to have a signed copy, click here.

My Own Country

Moments of Reflection

By Deborah Paris

Book Preview

The Long Goodbye
24 x 30
Available at Whistle Pik Galleries

I don't know why this film noir reference came to mind for a title while I was painting this, but I think it fits. This is one of three new pieces I will have at Whistle Pik in September.

September Evening

24 x 30
Available at Heritage Auction Gallery, Dallas

My work is included in a beautiful new book called Texas Traditions, which contains essays and images of historic Texas artists as well as living contemporary ones. The publication is being kicked off on August 21 with an exhibition and sale at Heritage Auction Gallery in Dallas, and includes a barbecue (this is Texas, after all) book signing and an artist's discussion panel which I have been asked to participate in. If you are in the Metro area, please come by and say hello!

Summer Reading

Despite the horrendous heat (102 today!), my zinnias continue to show their happy faces to the sun. When I am not in the studio with the little window AC cranked up, I'm enjoying rereading Asher B. Durand's Letters on Landscape, first published in 1855.

Here's a sample:

"Go first to Nature to learn to paint landscape...take pencil and paper, not the palette and brushes, and draw with scrupulous fidelity...I know you will regard this at first thought as an unnecessary restriction, and become impatient to use the brush, under the persuasion that you can with it make out your forms, and at the same time produce colour, and light and shade. In this you deceive yourself, as many others have done, till the evil has become irremediable; for slovenly and imperfect drawing finds but a miserable compensation in the evident efforts to disguise or atone for it, by the blandishments of color and effect..."

Summer-Rick's Pool

Summer-Rick's Pool
Vine charcoal on Strathmore paper
5 1/2" x 8 1/4"

Rick’s Pool

In spring its surface is inscribed
With trails of water bugs
Across the water’s answer to the sky

On August nights the moon dips low into its darkness
While heavy breathing frogs chant
Their shimmering songs

In late October while birds make haste
Brittle pieces of color float,
Then sink, as autumn’s moment dies.

Muffled and bare at last,
And wrapped in December’s shroud
It waits in silence for what comes next

Summer Evening

Summer Evening
36 x 30
Sold

Our big cumulus clouds have created some big storms this summer and also some lovely evening light the last few weeks. I am working on ten good sized pieces for fall shows and to restock galleries with new work. This is the first to be completed.

Summer Woods

7 3/4 x 8 1/4
Vine Charcoal on Canson paper

This week it was hot in Texas with big well developed cumulus clouds forming in the afternoons. When we moved here a few years ago, I really missed those clouds. We seemed to just get high cirrus clouds. But, this summer we've had the big boys! Yesterday I saw some really large ones, all stacked up to the north as I was walking back from the studio to the house in late afternoon. Soon after, a ferocious storm blew in and our power was knocked out for a few hours. This morning I noticed one of the huge old white oaks across the road had come down.

Drawing My Way Back

Whenever I am out of the studio for a while - as I have been for the last few weeks- it takes me a while to get back into the rhythm of long days spent at the easel. When I leave there are usually works in progress and plenty of ideas for new pieces that languish in my absence. Starting on those immediately would feel like jumping into the deep end of the pool, so I stick my toe in and wade out to the deeper waters slowly. Usually, I do this by drawing-nothing serious in the way of finished drawings, but simply reacquainting myself with visual ideas by doing pages and pages of thumbnail sketches. This always builds excitement and within a day or so I am ready to start.

Southwest Corner

Vine Charcoal on Strathmore paper

I have just announced a new online course- Studio & Business Practices for Successful Artists. I am really excited about this class. There are lots of courses on the business side of art, but I think what I have to offer is unique-the straight scoop from a working artist-from the trenches so to speak. There is a direct connection between what happens in the studio and the business side of art, particularly sales, and this course is designed to explore that connection. As a working artist with a business background (my former life) I think I have a valuable perspective and wealth of knowledge and information which can save years of trial and error. This course is for professional artists as well as those who don't want or need to make a living from their art, but want to be better artists, sell more work and gain more recognition. Go here for more information and to register.

Back Home

We got home late Thursday after a quick trip to Denver to visit family. On the way back we stopped at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City which is the site of the prestigious Prix de West annual show and also home to a fabulous collection of art. As I have mentioned before, my friend and mentor Hollis Willford (1940-2007) was a two time Prix de West winner. His monumental Welcome Sundown stands outside the entrance to the museum.


Although seeing the current Prix de West show on exhibit was a treat, the most moving part of the visit for me was to see, once again, Wilson Hurley's gigantic triptychs which are installed in a special room. I have written about Hurley here and why he and his work have influenced me. Here are a few very poor shots taken with a cell phone camera. You can't see much about the art but you can get a sense of the scale. Makes my little triptych efforts look very puny! For more about Wilson Hurley's triptych project for the museum you can go here.


That's me standing across the room and also in front of the New Mexico triptych (below).