Something different...sort of....

Framed Miniature - $25.00 - free shipping

I was straightening up my studio and I ran across some watercolors in the bottom of a box. I never had the knack for working with water colors but I decided that I could keep them in the kitchen and when I'm sitting around the table I can play with them a little. This was what I came up with - obviously a repeat of my most recent oil but I really liked the feel of it.

Its a tiny little jewel. The watercolor itself is about 2 inches by 2 inches and framed its about 4 inches by 4 inches.

Simply Moonlight (not quite finished)

I have suddenly decided I like "night time" paintings. This is my most recent attempt to convey this new interest. Those of you who are familiar with New Mexico will recognise the famous Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Rancho de Taos.

I still need to correct a small patch over on the left hand side but other than that its almost done. Forgive my impatience but I really wanted to post something this evening.

The Road Home

This is a painting I did several years ago. I reminds me of home.

Cerrillos Daisies (Sold)

TWO PAINTING IN ONE MONTH - I'm on a roll!

When I was home on vacation I took this photo and knew that I would be painting. I also knew that it reminded me of Dee Sanchez (who's blog is listed on the right) and I love what she did with it. Make sure you visit her site and give it a look.

My painting is 9x12 inches and may end up being one of my personal favorites.

Back to painting.....finally!

Wonderful things - balms for my painful spirit.

Wonderful performance

Watched the Georgia O Keefe movie Saturday night and again Sunday afternoon ( another wonderful thing) - I want to go back in time and have Mable Lujan to invite me to rest and recover my soul at her her house.

I'm back (from New Mexico)

This is a photo, not a painting but it will be a painting one day soon. I have posted it mostly for Dee Sanchez - it reminds me of her work.

I went home for a rest and did everything but rest. I think I was foolish, came back very tired and have been a little extra fatigued every since.

But it was good for my soul and I enjoyed every minute of it. Hope to put brush to canvas soon to show you what I saw and experienced.

"In The Swamp" by Thomas Lewis 40 years ago today

I am very fortunate to own this painting. This 8x10 inch jewel was purchased by my father for my mother on July 20th 1969. My father gave it to me in September or 1978 - two year after my mother had passed away.

You may wonder how I can be so sure about the date - it was purchased in Taos, NM from the artist who signed it.

Especially for Naoma Zinck / Moon Landing Day 7-20-69 / Thanks Thomas Lewis

Have you been wondering about me?

Something from very long ago - early 1980's

Hi guys. I know - it's been a very long time since I posted anything and obviously a long time since I have painted anything.

I'm tired, tired and sad. I do nothing these days but work and sleep. And even in that I find no peace. Constantly dreaming about things that slip from my memory when I open my eyes but then haunt me all day long. Seriously - bit and fragments come to me all day long. I almost grab hold of them and they vanish. It's been going on for a while now and its driving me crazy.

I dream a lot about buildings and room and hallways and passages and I wake knowing that there was something or someone there in the dream but I just can't recall enough of it to sort it out. I think that's why I am sleeping so much - I'm trying to catch hold of it and pull it forward so I can work on it.

In just about a month I am going home to my beloved New Mexico for a couple of weeks. At the risk of sounding like I'm losing my marbles I will say that I almost feel like I'm being summoned to return. I can't hardly wait - its about all I have right now that makes each day worth stumbling through.

I almost feel like I am needing to return home to find something.

Hopefully when I return I will be renewed and ready to go again. Hopefully I will paint dozens of canvases when I get back. Hopefully I will once again be a painter...

GREAT NEWS!

After a rather uncomfortable MRI last Tuesday I just got word that everything is fine. YEA!
Thank you to all of you that left messages and kept me in thier thoughts and prayers. I love you all.

So have a Happy Easter - I know I will!!!

Headed to the studio right now - so stop nagging Bill!

My good blogging friend Bill is a nag. Thank Goodness!

I know I have been gone for a while but March came in like a lion and stayed that way - at least in my life. Terribly busy both at home and work. We have had lots of company and had to throw a mattress in the studio but it now its back to normal.
I recently went to the doctor and finally accepted a little chemical help for what ails me. He put me on an antidepressant (fast acting - thank you very much) and I can already see an improvement. And no Bill, I won't share.
Then last night I got home from work and there was a message on the answering machine from the doctor. "There's an.. (how did he phrase it...oh yes) an abnormality on the mammogram...set you up with an appointment with a specialist...call me back..at home..."

Well son of a bitch...

TA - DA!

"San Geronimo Whitewash"
12x24 inch oil on canvas
SOLD

I normally photograph my paintings outside but we have had rain all day so I couldn't. I was anxious to get it posted on the blog so I went ahead and took this photo - it has a spot of glare that I couldn't avoid but I wanted you all to see it anyway . As soon as I get a chance I'll re-shoot it and post a better pic -

SURPRISE!!!

I finished the painting last night! Really, I did! I'll be posting it as soon as I have a chance to photograph it. It turned out very nice and I'm happy I went back to it instead of tossing it into that black hole of a closet where I hide my frustrations.

The other good news is that my recent health problems turned out to be nothing more than a incorrect dosage of Thyroid medicine. Once we got that figured out I started feeling better.

I'm very anxious to post my new painting I call "San Geronimo Whitewash" in hopes of redeeming myself for such a long absence.

Something interesting happened on my way to a resignation...

...life called me by my first name.

For quite some time I have been intending to post to this blog and let you all know that I would be taking a break from painting and from The Capricious Painter...I just couldn't find the right words to say...

January proved to be a stressful month for me. For reasons I can't explain I reentered a serious grieving period over my son. It hadn't been that bad for a while but suddenly its like he died yesterday.

My direct supervisor resigned effective just before Christmas break. To his credit he has moved on to be part of a group that is establishing a brand new company serving the disabled. He will be very good at that but I can't help but wonder if he really knew how good he was at this job and how much we all needed him. Still, he shouldn't let any thing hold him back least of all sentiment. My company has split his job and hired two wonderful people but still, they aren't him now are they? Then two weeks later my counter part resigned his position for a great career change. I'm very happy for both of them but I miss them both. Besides, you know what a drag it is to train a new supervisor...ha ha!

My health has also been an issue. I have struggled with unusually strong palpitations which, believe it or not, leave me exhausted. Saturday night we went to a friends for a gathering. As I was walking across the street with a casserole dish in my hand I was suddenly over whelmed with fatigue and had to hand the dish to my Dana just so I could make it back to the car. Weird huh? So now I'm sentenced to wear a thirty day event monitor so they can try to figure out whats going on.

Speaking of Dana, he has been ill also with a very serious upper respiratory infection. Things at my house have been a continuous cycle of dragging ourselves to work and then back to the house where we both sleep the hours away trying to wake up feeling somewhat normal again.

In the mix of all of this I had been working on a painting. I was struggling with it and was losing the joy of it. I really attribute this to my fatigue. It just felt wrong to me...it began to look horrible to me. I was very unhappy and had decided that my ability to paint was so poor, so without any merit that I should just give it up once and for all. I was unhappy with my inability to break out of my routine use of color, my routine brush strokes, my routine everything. I can't see any growth and don't feel like I have the time or money to devote to improving my skill level. Out of sheer frustration I was just finally done!

.......So I said to my sister LaVonne on the phone the other night in regards to an issue she was dealing with that "if you don't listen to life when it speaks to you it's forced to raise it's voice"......

I had not been upstairs in my studio for weeks, too depressed to go back. Sunday night, no it was actually Monday morning, at 4:11am I heard the biggest crash upstairs. Like things being knocked over and falling to the floor. We had a guest sleeping upstairs in the other room and I was concerned that he had knocked a lamp off of the night stand. I lay there for a while but there was no other sound. The next day neither he or Dana reported hearing the crash. So last night when I got home from work I climbed the stairs up to my studio and opened the door to see if the sound had come from there. It had. Something big fell of the wall where it has hung for a very long time and when it fell it took two other things with it, although nothing was broken. I picked everything up to make sure all was okay and when I turned around there was my unfinished painting on the easel looking back at me. It was a sudden confrontation, I hadn't consciously thought about it before I saw it. My very first thought was "Damn, that's not a bad painting and the sky is beautiful."

I kind of scooted around the room and backed out still watching the painting as though it was going to jump off the easel and follow me down the stairs.

Its not going to win any national juried shows, its not going to be a gallery door buster, but its not a bad painting...and I like it. I like it.

A View From The Top

This is an old painting I did back in the late 1980's. It was always my son, Andrew's, favorite. I've posted it before but I wanted to put it up again tonight because he's heavy on my mind.

I had lots of company over the holidays and my nephew was camped out in my studio. In order to accommodate everyone I pushed all of my studio furniture to one side and we put a bed into the room for Ted. Yes, he's been gone for a while but I have been so busy and so tired that I haven't been able to rearrange my studio. I hope to get it done this weekend so I can start painting again.

Don't give up on me!