Paradise Glow wins First Place!

Paradise Glow Framed watercolor $450

I am absolutely thrilled to announce that Paradise Glow, my painting of the desert red bird of paradise plant, won First Place in the NM Watercolor Society’s Southern Chapter juried exhibit! Thank you to the exhibit judge Robert Dozal for choosing my piece. This is a first for me to win an award in an NMWS show!

Jeweled Crown Framed watercolor $450

I have a second piece juried into the exhibit called Jeweled Crown. Thank you to juror Linda Doll for picking both of my paintings to be in the exhibit.

You can view the entire show here: https://tinyurl.com/SC-2020-NMWS The show is a really nice one with artist’s comments under each image and also comments from Robert on the show and the prizewinners. The exhibit is online only because of the pandemic, but we were scheduled to be at the Branigan Museum in Las Cruces and hopefully will be there in another year. They are super to work with. So please sit back and enjoy the exhibit: Rough and Tumble: Life in a Desert Town.

On the Easel: Desert Florals

Here are two paintings that are in process, and almost finished. I thought I’d post them so you could see what was occupying my time recently!

The first is a barrel cactus and in reality the blossoms are more vivid than they appear here, but they need to be amped up, and the spines “pushed back” as well as other tweaks.  

Barrel blooms in progress

The second is one of my favorite subjects: The Desert Red Bird of Paradise. I’m happiest with this painting so far, but it also needs tweaks and the stamens!

Red Bird of Paradise blooms (in progress)

I’ve had the privilege this year of being in a watercolor critique group where we each have 15 minutes to present one or two paintings for constructive criticism. Both of these went before the group this month and I’ll work on them as time allows soon. It’s quite beneficial, I highly recommend joining one of these groups!

Up in the Air in Albuquerque!

This painting of Century Plant/Agave blooms 20+ feet in the air was juried into the Albuquerque chapter of NMWS Spring Show.  It’s the Society’s 50th anniversary celebration with an exhibit of over 100 watercolor paintings and is definitely worth a stop if you’re in Albuquerque during May! Click on the link for complete info.

With this acceptance I will have signature status into the NMWS so I can sign my paintings with those initials after my name from now on. This has been a goal of mine and I’m happy to have reached it! 

Up in the Air $400