Blog

Well,  it's finally time for a trip back to Taos, New Mexico for painting.  The colors of New Mexico are awe-inspiring.  It is easy to see why so many artists have gone there to paint.  The land that Georgia O'Keefe called home is a truly enchanted land.  I have never seen skies that color anywhere else.  Photographs do not do it justice.  The sunsets and sunrises seem swathed in hues hard to capture with paint or film.  But, we artists keep trying.  I wonder what Georgia O'Keefe would think of the land now-a lot of the land has remained the same thanks to conservation efforts to keep it that way. 

That to me, is what plein aire painting is truly about.  It is a chance for we, as artists, to capture a moment in time that may never be there again.  A small snipet of history recorded forever in paint, pastel or watercolor that remains frozen on the artists canvas.  I am not a building painter, but I know many artists who capture buildings in their paintings only to find them gone the next time they visit.  I painted a barn in Odessa, Mo. a couple of years ago and when I returned a year later, time and storms had taken it's toll. 

It is also the same with the rock and boulder formations of the west.  Nature and it's every changing landscapes provide the artist with constant change and challenge.  This is the true gift of being an artist-to see and record the changing of life.

Happy painting!
Jennylynne