TAOS 9/21/18 – WORD PAINTINGS #28 – SANCTUARY
TAOS 9/21/18 – This has been an upsetting week for any woman who has experienced any kind of abuse – friend, partner, stranger. Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch have risen again like ghosts from the Grave of History Past! It honestly makes me ill to see them on TV and my mute button is getting […]
WORD PAINTINGS #27 – CULTURE SHOCK
JAN HERRING WORKSHOP, CLOUDCROFT, N.M. – 1968 As mentioned in a previous post, I celebrated my 79th birthday three weeks ago; life was very different for women back in the day! Culture shock for me really wasn’t because of the move from my mid-western roots to mostly Hispanic and Native American city of Santa Fe. […]
WORD PAINTINGS #26 – THE JAMISON GALLERY
What a Gal! Margaret married well known art collector C. Bland Jamison in the Taos home of Leon Gaspard. Gaspard’s wedding gift to the bride and groom was a wonderful Russian snow scene with a large group of men and women in colorful peasant dress crossing a bridge. (This was one of my favorite paintings […]
WORD PAINTINGS #25 – NEW BEGINNINGS
Once we settled into a daily routine, life calmed down. Mornings, diaper changes, breakfast, laundry – now it was time for me to set up my own schedule to paint. It was easy to spread out a comforter and all their toys on the floor of the family room. Cheerios were everywhere. John had his […]
WORD PAINTINGS #24 – LOST AND FOUND
SOMBRIO DRIVE, CASA SOLANA – We began to settle into the house – adjusting to a new kind of normal – family life. Of course we had to have furniture. Tom Broome was Chief of the Voluntary Fire Department. When he wasn’t battling blazes, he managed his family’s furniture store. We took out some credit […]
#23 – THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE!!!
Looking back on all my years at the easel, I have only met two or three artists as generous as Jan Herring. She poured information into us – new words, new methods, technique. No question went unanswered. Our class came together as strangers and when Friday came around we had shared some very precious hours […]
#22 – Taos 9/15/18 -REFLECTION
Twelve days ago I celebrated my 79th birthday! A little bittersweet…. Do I miss those long ago days when I had great legs, a nice smile and lived life with strong certainty that I could accomplish anything? – Hell, Yes!!! Now I move ever more slowly and my word of the day, every day, is […]
#21 – EUREKA!!! MAMA LEARNS TO PAINT!
Jan Herring had taken a workshop led by Frederic Taubes, a well-known Polish painter and author. Apparently she excelled and he invited her to be his assistant the following year. Taubes had studied the methods of the Flemish masters and developed a line of copal painting mediums, which when applied to a board or canvas […]
#20 – JAN’S MAGIC BRUSHES!
Jan Herring was a dynamo. Quite simply, she loved people and she loved to teach! Married to a Texas farmer named Henry they raised their family in Clint, Texas. She began painting in 1952 and it was my understanding that she had studied with well-known artist and writer, Frederic Taubes. Over the span of her […]
#19-MAMA TAKES SOME BABY STEPS
Need to start this post with a huge confession. Although my resume states that I studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, my night school studies there lasted only one half of the first semester. Started out with high expectations of learning the basics. Although I won prizes all through my grade and high school, […]
