Posted on 2 Comments

Living Where the Wind Blows

Sunday morning. Three cars stuck and retrieved from the road. The County crews plow the road and the wind undoes it, weaving fingers of snow intent on snagging your tires and sucking them in. Sometimes it looks like an eerie scene created by Tolkien.

The massive pine branches wave like they’re greeting someone important, almost festive as the snow flies from them making mini snow storms. It’s mesmerizing to watch, and I’m glad I’m indoors!

Not for long though. Off to Taos we go. Time to get some groceries before the next storm leaves the California coast and heads our way.

Next Friday is the celebration of my 6th Anniversary in business (Angel Fire ArtSpace Gallery!) In most ways I can scarcely believe it, and then again, I feel the years of fighting to beat the odds in my psyche. I’ll post more about the event, but if you’re headed to Angel Fire to catch the Night Skiing that opens next Saturday, come on Friday and celebrate with me!

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
Posted on 1 Comment

Brrrrr. Global Warming? Not here!

Let’s see, roughly 16 inches of snow. 5 foot drifts and it’s 10 degrees and still snowing. Open the door to let the (crazy) dog out and got blasted with snow and in 2 seconds I’m covered and white. The screen door won’t close for all the snow piled on it, under it and around it. I cleared it out last night…no more.

While it’s great for the Mountain, (yay) it doesn’t bode well for getting to the gallery soon. I’ll continue to hope so, but it’s 9:35 and I can’t see my neighbors house.

Brrr. Think I better go build another fire.

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
Posted on 1 Comment

Relaxing


It’s Sunday. The wind is howling, snow is blowing, I hear a big storm is coming. Good time to stay home. I got creative and worked on my latest commission for a few hours this morning. Then I let the creative continue and followed instructions John found for adding a new touch to the dining room. Here’s the site: http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/11/diy-project-lindsays-wine-bottle-vases.html

I had a stash of bottles awaiting transport to the Taos Recycling Center, so I looked through and found a nice one. Here’s what I did with it. The wall’s not crooked, the photo is, but at any rate, it was fun. I had this fun red frame with white mat that just happened to fit one of Jennifer Cavan’s postcards from a few Christmases ago and that hid the wire (some surplus picture wire) on which the vase (converted brandy bottle) hangs. It took only a few minutes (after I got the labels off…wow do they use some glue on those! A good soaking with Dawn did the trick.) That’s a chunk of rammed earth wall there behind it all. I painted it sort of “mottled” red a few years ago.

Anyway, I’m taking a quiet day now, and the zoom zoom will begin again tomorrow! I think I’ll go push some sand around in the old hot tub room that I’ve been working on for 6 months. The brick is laid. I need to fill all the tiny gaps with sand. That takes time. Put some music on and push the sand around. Sounds like a time for some pondering.

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
Posted on

Happy Thanksgiving!

The house smells like cinnamon and nutmeg, the turkey is in the smoker outside and I happily had time to finish (I think) the painting I’ve been working on for two months. It was quite a journey. 48 x 24 gallery wrap canvas. And acrylic. When staring for the first time at that big white expanse I quivered. Today, I quivered again when I cleaned the brushes and closed the paint.

Here is the result:

I’ll look at it for a while before I touch it again. I’m calling it “Angel Fire High”

And I’ll start planning the next one…but that will have to wait till Monday. Tomorrow night is a 4th Friday Holiday Kickoff reception and Saturday is live theatre, and so is Sunday afternoon. So begins the next season. Cheers! and Happy Thanksgiving!

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
Posted on 2 Comments

Must be Fall

The leaves have just begun to turn. I don’t know how long they’ll last or if they will all turn before they fall, thanks to the early snow we had. For sure the nights are cold enough to turn them all, but we’ll see soon enough. I know it’s fall even without color on the mountains…the gallery is still and quiet.

This evening we (the two galleries) are hosting a private reception for some traveling writers who are vising the area on a “famtour” (familiarization). Following the reception, I’ll join them for dinner. I’m looking forward to all of that, but in the meantime it is really hard to sit here and have the gallery open with me, myself and I to chat with. I already cleaned up from last night’s fourth Friday event, and the gallery looks beautiful, if I do say so myself. I need to paint, but I’m wearing these fancy clothes so I don’t have to go home and change before the reception/dinner. I’m a messy painter, so I won’t risk it.

The Artisan Expo I went to last Sunday was a blast, thought I spent my accumulated wad in a heartbeat. I bought all the supplies I need for the new class that is coming up beginning next week…and then I bought a moderate supply of a brand new product…Ultra Soft Pan Pastel. Check it out here….it’s going to be a blast to play with! (and paint with). I’d probably be getting dirty right now, but they were sold out before i got there. They are shipping me what I ordered…and I can hardly wait!

Guess I’ll go play on facebook for a bit. See ya!

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
Posted on

Sunday Serenity

Sitting on the front porch, gazing at the lake as I type. It’s 76 degrees, and the only sound is the birds, the frogs at my neighbors pond and the tinkle of Grace’s collar as she sniffs the ground like she’s never done it before.

I’m relaxing as I post, having just returned from Albuquerque where the noise and the traffic was getting to me. I have tons to do in the next few weeks, with 6 commissioned paintings to produce by July, a hot tub to get out of the house so I can pull up the brick to dry the sand, and a myriad of “Spring” household duties to attend to. Oh, and there’s the gallery. This coming Friday is the monthly reception “4th Friday” event. Hmmm. I’ll breath deeply now and run tomorrow.

The hot tub will be going out in pieces. Daniel is coming on Wednesday to literally cut it up. I’m so mad at it that I absolutely refuse to remove the doors and frame to get it out whole. That’s what it gets for causing so much trouble! Once it’s gone, I’ll pull up the brick (as I just said) and let the sand underneath dry…then re-level it and re-lay the brick. Then, a new hot tub is welcome to come to the room. A smaller one would be nice, to give us more space in the room for growing things. That’s what we’re hoping/praying for, anyway.

Robie (my roomba) is vaccuuming for me. Which is good, because even in 24 hours of being gone Grace left an alarming part of herself all over the floor…black hair, floating about as you walked through and disturbed the air!

Yup, I’m definitely blessed. And, there with the triumphant electronic toot of Robies “I’m finished” tone, I’ll sign off and go investigate the freezer for what to make for dinner. John will be proud of me. I think it will be fish (talapia) and asparagus. Yum.

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
Posted on

Quiet Saturday

It’s Saturday and lovely, though cool outside. I guess everyone is out on the mountain enjoying the fresh powder, cuz they certainly aren’t here! The up side of that is that I’ve been working hard on my next commissioned piece..and recording it. It will be a long video, so I’ll likely release a small segment on youtube and then refine the rest for a full lesson on katherinesarttv.tv

I got the membership software installed and the initial free videos and posts up already, now comes the hard part of recording all the videos! It takes about 9 hours of video recording to get a full hour of indepth content and lesson. At least I can do what i love while I’m recording…..Paint!

So, despite the fact that it is still January, I’ve broken the block and have been painting most of the last two days. The piece I’m working on is an 18 x 18 watercolor on canvas of a Northern New Mexico church. Painting watercolor on canvas requires many many layers so I’ve been working on it for about 30 hours already, but not altogether of course, as the layers have to dry in between application.

Speaking of which..it’s time to get back to it.

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
Posted on 1 Comment

Georgeous here!

wow. January and the temp is 41. May be cold to you…but it’s regular heat wave! Hoping for more snow as the warm temps have been slowly eroding the pack we had…but the Resort is working hard to keep it great for the skiers! Not being a skier myself, I rely on what my friends say and they say it’s good.

When I drove home yesterday the dirt road that leads to my house was a veritable river. While we’re enjoying the moderate temps…we are a ski town. Need that snow. Hoping it comes soon as is forecast. It’s kind of unpredictable here in Northern New Mexico.

Not skiing…but painting. Have a line up of commissions to do (yay!) and figured I’d better get started. Not procrastinating, exactly…for some reason I find it hard to paint in January. No explanation. But I did get started anyway.

Had a rare visit with my dear friends Nancy and Art. Sweet.

Tonight I’ll go to the Jack Ingram Concert with the girls. It’s been decades since I was at a live concert. Got my boots on. Ok, so they not cowboy boots. I’m not exactly a country girl…

Painting is dry. Back to it…

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
Posted on 1 Comment

My how the Snow is flying!

I’m at the gallery right now. It’s 3:34 and I’ve been here for an hour. The snow has literally been flying, for hours, nay, days. There is so much snow in my front yard (a combination of accumulation, roof slide and where it is blown and pushed from the driveway clearing) that we can’t see out the windows anymore. It’s at about 5 1/2 feet. Pretty soon it will match the bottom level of the roof line. Uh-oh, what then? Where does the snow come off? hmmmm….I see pulling snow in my future. sigh.

It’s been kind of tough keeping normal hours at the gallery. Ok, nearly impossible. At any rate, I’m here now and glancing outside at the snow flying again. I think I’ll head out around 4 or so if I don’t see any activity here. Go to the website folks…always open…snow or not!

When I get home I’ll take a picture and post it. wow. lots of snow.

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM