Donna Clair

Southwest Contemporary Artist

Category: Art Journal

STARTING OVER TODAY…..

Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world. – Lao Tzu, [Tao Te Ching]

LA TIERRA DEL PUEBLO – 22″X28″ WORK IN PROGRESS (Glazes)

Studio No. 3114 – LA TIERRA DEL PUEBLO – 22″x28″ Work in Progress (Glazes):  Color Notes:  Sky:  Cerulean Blue and Permalba White.  Distant Mountains:  Cerulean Blue, Permalba White and Cobalt Blue.  Take Bristle Brush after the basic painting – dip in painting medium and “spritz” into sky and mountains to create distance.  Trees:  Prussian Blue, […]

EL RITO DEL NORTE 20″x16″ Work in Progress – Glazes

  Studio No. 3214 – EL RITO DEL NORTE (Early morning, Garcia Park, Taos, N.M.) 20″x16″ Work in Progress (Glazes) – Color Notes:  Oil colors mixed with painting medium.  Sky:  Cerulean Blue, Payne’s Grey, Permalba White – Repeat for reflections on the water.  Aspens:  Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow, Italian Pink.  Dark Grasses:  Prussian Blue, Burnt […]

LA TIERRA DEL PUEBLO (Taos, N.M.) – 22″x28″ Work in Progress (Underpainting)

Studio No. 3114 – LA TIERRA DEL PUEBLO (Taos, New Mexico) – 22″x28″ Work in Progress Underpainting.  Color notes:  All colors mixed with MGUnderpainting White and Turpentine.  Sky: Cerulean Blue.  Mountains:  Cerulean Blue and Cobalt Blue.  Greens:  Chrome Oxide Green Opaque, some Yellow Ochre.  Fields:  Yellow Ochre, Italian Pink.  Foreground:  Burnt Sienna – some Chrome […]

WALKING RAIN – 24″x30″ Work in Progress – Day 7

Studio No. 3014 – WALKING RAIN – 24″x30″ Original Oil – Work in Progress – Day 7 – The Foreground.  Color Notes:  Highlights on the earth – Naples Yellow Pale, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna – some Holbein Rose Red and Dioxazine Purple in the shadows.  Trees:  Permalba white, yellow ochre, chrome oxide green for the […]

WALKING RAIN – 24″x30″ Work in Progress – Day 5

Studio No. 3014 – WALKING RAIN (Taos, N.M.) – 24″x30″ Orig. Oil – Work in Progress – Day 5.  Color Notes: Dark Sky – Prussian Blue, Mars Black.  Lighter Sky –  Prussian Blue, Payne’s Grey, Davy’s Grey.  Lightest Sky – Permalba White and Naples Yellow Pale. Foreground:  Trees – Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna and some […]

WALKING RAIN – NEW 24″x30″ WORK IN PROGRESS (UNDERPAINTING)

STUDIO NO. 3014 – WALKING RAIN (Taos, New Mexico) – New Work in Progress (Underpainting).  Color Notes:  All colors mixed with Grumbacher MG Underpainting White and Turpentine.  Sky – Variations of Payne’s Grey, Prussian Blue, Cobalt Blue, Permalba White.  Foreground:  Earth – Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna.  Trees:  Prussian Blue and Burnt Sienna, Chrome Oxide Green […]

INTO THE LIGHT – 22″x28″ Work in Progress (Glazes)

Studio No. 2914 – INTO THE LIGHT – 22″x28″ Work in Progress (Glazes – transparent and semi transparent colors, usually the darks of the palette mixed with painting medium and applied over the underpainting) – Color Notes: Pine Trees – deep, dark Prussian Blue and Burnt Sienna, some Chrome Oxide Green Opaque.  Road – Burnt […]

INTO THE LIGHT, 22″x28″ Work in Progress (Underpainting)

Studio No. 2914 – INTO THE LIGHT (In the Taos Mountains, New Mexico) – 22″x28″ Work in Progress (Underpainting) – Color Notes: – Color is mixed with turpentine and Grumbacher MGWhite.   Trees – Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna, Chrome Oxide Green Opaque.  Sky:  Thalo Blue, Thalo Yellow Green, Permalba White.  Scrub Oaks:  Cadmium Red, Burnt […]

HAPPY SPRINGTIME!

ESTACA IN BLOOM – Exhibition-quality archival print now available.  17″x22″ Sheet size – $75.00 plus shipping ($10.00)  To order: Call Tesuque studio.

LA PUERTA – NEW 16″X14″ ORIGINAL OIL

  Studio No. 614 – LA PUERTA (Tesuque, New Mexico) – 16″x14″ Original Oil on Italian Gessoed Panel, Framed in Gold with Linen Liner.  (Size with frame 24″x22″)  Completed 2/20/14.  Now available for preview/purchase at Online Studio Gallery.

ASPEN SHADOWS – 22″x28″ Work in Progress (Glazes)

   Studio No. 814 – ASPEN SHADOWS – 22″x28″ Work in Progress (Glazes) – When paint from a day’s work is slow to dry, I go to the next  one.  That is why I usually block in several pieces at a time.  Then one day – Voila! – they are all finished!  I love it. […]

CALLECITA DE TESUQUE – 36″X36″ Work in Progress – Orig. Oil (Glazes)

Studio No. 514 – CALLECITA DE TESUQUE – 36″X36″ Work in Progress (Glazes) Orig. Oil on Linen – The glazes are the dark, transparent and semi-transparent colors that add depth to the final painting.  I thin my colors with painting medium and lay them over the underpainting after it is thoroughly dried. To add strength […]

WINTERLIGHT/TESUQUE – 48″x36″ Work in Progress

WINTERLIGHT/TESUQUE – 48″x36″ Work in progress – Original Oil on Belgian Linen.  Eureka! I found a New Color in my stash of oil paints today!  Like discovering gold!  It is Grumbacher Perylene Maroon!  Working on the dark foreground today – the dirt:  Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, the new Maroon color, some ochre – Snow on […]

CORAZON SAGRADO, New 20″x20″ Original Oil

  Studio No. 414 – CORAZON SAGRADO (Sacred Heart – Tesuque, New Mexico) – New 20″x20″ Original Oil on Canvas – wrap-around painting.  Completed 2/3/14.  Now available at my Online Studio Gallery.

WINTERLIGHT – TESUQUE, 48″x36″ Work in Progress (Opaques)

Studio No. 214 – WINTERLIGHT/TESUQUE – 48″x36″ Original Oil – Work in Progress (Opaque Paints) — There is a very good reason why I block in several paintings at a time – Corazon Sagrado is too wet to work on – needs a couple of days to dry. 

CORAZON SAGRADO – 20″x20″ Work in Progress (Glazes)

Studio No. 314 – CORAZON SAGRADO – 20″x20″ Original Oil – Work in Progress (Glazes).  Color Notes:  Sky:  Permalba White, Payne’s Grey, Cerulean Blue.  Building:  Yellow Ochre, Italian Pink, Burnt Sienna – with Dioxazine Purple in the shadows.  Foreground:  Burnt Sienna, Chrome Oxide Green Opaque, Burnt Sienna and Prussian Blue.  Snow:  I found a wonderful […]

FIELD WORK/TESUQUE – 2014

  January 2014 – Field work:  Looking around.  Becoming acquainted with my new neighborhood.  Nothing replaces a good friend with whom to “roam” the roads, a good camera, a good eye — and perhaps a willing spirit.

UNA SENDA DESCONOCIDO – 12″X24″ Work in Progress (Underpainting) – Color Notes

Studio No. 114 – UNA SENDA DESCONOCIDO (A Path Unknown) – 12″x24″ Work in Progress (Underpainting)  – Original Oil on Canvas — Sky:  MG Underpainting White and Yellow Ochre Light.  Trees:  Chrome Oxide Green Opaque, Yellow Ochre, Prussian Blue.  Snow:  Payne’s Grey and Underpainting White.  Road:  Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna.

CALLECITA DE TESUQUE, 40″x40″ Work in Progress (Underpainting) – Color Notes

  Studio No. 314 – CALLECITA DE TESUQUE, 40″x40″ Work in Progress (Underpainting) – Colors are mixed with MG Underpainting White and applied with turpentine.  Sky:  Paynes Grey.  Road: Yellow Ochre/Dioxazine Purple in the Shadows.  Outline/Trees: Prussian Blue and Burnt Sienna.  Brush:  Indian Red.  When I make an underpainting, I try to see the colors […]

LA TIENDITA DE ANTIGUA GUATEMALA – Orig. Oil Painting – Special Offer

LA TIENDITA DE ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA – 51″x 39″Donna Clair Original Oil completed in 2001 – Framed with Linen Liner. My friend Joan Norris, midwife, sent me an e.mail asking if I would help sell this painting to benefit the Northern New Mexico Birth Center.  This painting has been hanging in the Birth Center all these […]

CALLECITA DE TESUQUE – 40″x40″ Work in Progress (Sketch)

Studio No. 214 – CALLECITA DE TESUQUE, 40″x40″ Work in Progress – Sketch in Prussian Blue and Burnt Sienna.  It is my habit to have six or seven paintings blocked in at a time — each morning I work on the one that calls “Paint ME!”

WINTERLIGHT – 48″x36″ Work in Progress – Glaze

Studio No. 214 – WINTERLIGHT – 48″x36″ Work in Progress. Glazes.  Hoping this painting will have the feeling of late afternoon light.  Decided to thin Payne’s Grey with painting medium (not turpentine) and cover canvas.  This is an experiment!

WINTERLIGHT (TESUQUE) – 48″x36″ Work in Progress – Underpainting

  STUDIO NO. 214 – WINTERLIGHT (TESUQUE) – 48″x36″ Work in Progress – The underpainting – Turpentine and color mixed with Grumbacher MG Underpainting White.  Hoping this will have the feeling of a late winter afternoon – am thinking of glazing over the entire underpainting with a thin film of Payne’s Grey.  Snow – Payne’s […]

UNA SENDA DESCONOCIDO – Exhibition-quality Archival Print

  UNA SENDA DESCONOCIDO (A Path Unknown) – Click here for the High Road Print Catalogue.   Long, long ago, after moving to New Mexico, I discovered the mystery and fascination of back roads – some led to quiet pastures, and some to old churches, capillas, ghost towns– old crumbling buildings, broken fences — signs […]

FIELDWORK 2014…….

Una Senda Desconocido (A Path Unknown) – For me all it takes is a good camera and my 20-year old pick-up truck – maybe a sandwich and some cookies!  In every place I have lived and painted – Santa Fe, Truchas, Taos – there has been a period of excitement in the beginning and once […]

STUDIO WORK…..

Once or twice a year I order my paints, canvases and panels. As long as the gesso is mixed, it pays to build an inventory of supplies at the ready.   If in the middle of a “work blockage” — don’t fight it — gesso canvases, build your source material with some field trips.  Taking […]

PREPARING TO PAINT — GESSOING CANVAS

It is my habit to work on a “toned ground” – years ago I worked on a red ground and sometimes ochre.  Then I found that a grey-blue background worked best for me — I mix the gesso (if necessary thin a little bit with water to a workable consistency) with Payne’s Grey and then […]

WELCOME 2014!

NEW YEAR….New palette, new canvas ……anything is possible!

WINTER GIFTS……

  To Art Friends Everywhere!  Many of you have been with me a long time and know I love to send this greeting every year.  The original of this painting was “adopted” by some great friends and very prolific art collectors years ago and still resides in a lovely home in Taos.  The street in […]

FROM MY TESUQUE WINDOW – 12/19/13

This morning – from Tesuque window – I see a painting in there – taking shape – loved the light coming in through the garden gate on the patch of snow…..

OUR DAILY BREAD…..

OUR DAILY BREAD (Taos Pueblo, New Mexico) “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of […]

HARVEST MOON RISING – 30″x40″ Work in Progress (The Glazes)

STUDIO NO. 2113 – HARVEST MOON RISING – 30″x40″ Work in Progress (The Glazes) – Glazes are transparent or semi-transparent colors thinned with painting medium and worked into the underpainting.  Trees:  Combinations of Chrome Oxide Green Opaque, Yellow Ochre, Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna and Cadmium Red.  Sky:  Ultramarine Blue, Violet Lake, Thalo Red Rose and […]

HARVEST MOON RISING – NEW 30″x40″ Work in Progress (Underpainting)

HARVEST MOON RISING –  30″x40″ work in Progress (Underpainting) – Original Oil on Canvas.  Trees:  Chrome Oxide Green Opaque, Yellow Ochre, Prussian Blue.  Sky:  Ultramarine Blue; Cadmium Yellow, Thalo Red Rose, Cadmium Red.  Earth:  Mixed all colors together to get a wonderful “mud”.   All colors mixed with Grumbacher MG White and thinned with turpentine.

TAOS SUNRISE – 36″x36″ Work in Progress (Opaque Colors)

  STUDIO NO. 2013 – TAOS SUNRISE – 36″x36″ Work in Progress (Opaque Colors) – Worked on this canvas all week and dropped the idea of using only five colors.  Added Cadmium Yellow Light to the area where the sun is rising and will add some dry brush Holbein Rose Grey to the sky next […]

TAOS SUNRISE – Work in Progress – the Middle Tones.

10/31/13 – Second day of work on this canvas – “Scumbled” (rubbed in) colors in all combinations.  Laid in branches with combination of Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, and Prussian Blue.  Concentrating intense light in one area.  Let dry for a day or so…..Stay Tuned!

36″x36″ Work in Progress – TAOS SUNRISE (Underpainting)

STUDIO #2013 – TAOS SUNRISE, Work in Progress (Underpainting) – On Toned Ground:  Whole canvas is covered with mixture of gesso and Payne’s Grey.  Allowed to Dry.  Loose sketch:  Darks – Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber – some Prussian Blue.  To lighten add MG Underpainting white.  Light areas:  Yellow Ochre Pale and Grumbacher’s MG Underpainting White.