Hummingbird iii

Patience
6 x 6 Oil/Panel

Three little birds that I have painted for the all artist show at Ventana Fine Art tonight.

Hummingbird ii

Hummingbird ii
6 x 6 Oil/Panel

Hummingbird i

Hummingbird
6 x 6 Oil/Panel

A landscape for a change!

Grove Ferry Springtime
16 x 16 Oil/Linen

I have visited this place many times. It is near where my friend Jim used to live in Kent and I just love it. I suppose I fell in love with the area because Barry and I first discovered it on a beautiful summer's day and had a really good painting session there.

I am getting lots done, although still have lots more to do before I return to England. I am also waiting for my first appointment with the United States government which will entail fingerprinting! I think this will be the fourth time they have taken my prints! Do they change as you get older I wonder? Dad still doing well, but hoping to go back at the end of May, but that will depend upon the fingerprinting appointment. Hope I get a date soon.

Sitta carolinensis - White breasted Nuthatch

Nuthatch and the Bumblebee iv
12 x 16 Oil/Linen panel

Here is another painting that I started in the UK and finished here. I love the idea of expanding the simple bird portraits into the landscape....

I have a cold. I am not pleased! I managed to escape all kinds of bugs when I was toing and froing to the hospital all through the British winter and now I return to New Mexico to the sunshine and I get a cold... very annoying!!

Eurasian Nuthatch - Sitta europaea

Nuthatch and the Bumblebee iii 12 x 12 Oil/linen panel

I worked on this painting a lot in the UK and brought it back here to finish. There always seems so much to do at this time of the year and now we have decided to knock down a few walls and upgrade our bathroom with a view to renting the house out eventually. It's going to be a lot of work and I am dreading it! I hope I can hide in the studio, but I suspect I maybe called upon to do some of the hard graft! I hope everyone is enjoying their spring. It's so hot here at the moment, I am finally getting some colour back in my cheeks playing tennis at lunch time with my friend Sue!

Two weeks

I can't believe that I have been back in New Mexico for two whole weeks now. I haven't managed to get much painting done, but have done taxes and sent off my papers for my citizenship which is a huge achievement because I have been dithering about this for the last four years, mainly because of money, but now it has cost me more. The moral of the story is, don't procrastinate!!

I have also managed to do a fair amount of cleaning! For some reason this just didn't get done in my absence! I wonder why? I did feel somewhat compelled to at least clean the studio because some lovely collectors came to visit through our gallery in Taos to see what else we had and Barry made a sale, which was very welcome.

I must say it is lovely to be back in New Mexico and see some good friends and I have posted the photo from our recent day out in Abiquiu. Barry and I lived in Abiquiu for seven years next door to Rick and Lori (click on Lori to see her wonderful whimsical work) and I spent many a glorious hour or so down by their riverside. When I was struggling being so far away from my family I would go down there and 'contemplate my navel', but other times I would walk down simply for a break from painting and would lie on their wooden bench and watch bald eagles do their glorious dance in the sky.

Amazingly Dad is doing very well without me, which is good news.

Now to some painting...