June 2007
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Woody's Blog June 2007 .................................................................. |
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 Welcome Home Cactus |
WFWS Opening (6/1): I'm back from Arvada, Colorado. We drove up for the opening of the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies 32nd annual exhibit. The WFWS is a joint juried exhibition of nine western watercolor societies. Colorado was the host this year. The annual show was started by the New Mexico Watercolor Society. The NMWS will host the Western Fed exhibition in 2012. Next years exhibition will be in Tucson, Arizona. After dinner with other western watercolor artists and the awards ceremony, we viewed the exhibition. Anyone interested in quality watercolor needs to see this exhibit at the Arvada Arts Center. The work will continue through November 11th. A second top notch juried watercolor exhibit is on the second level of the center. It is an annual show by members of the Colorado Watercolor Society. We drove to Boulder on Saturday and shopped on Pearl Street. Every city should block off several downtown streets to all but pedestrians like Boulder did years ago. It is a delightful place to spend time and money. Frani and I found a sculpture of a Peacock, for the garden, at the first gallery we walked into. |
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WFWS Watercolors: John Salminen was the juror for this years Western Fed. John perhaps is best known for his realistic urban landscapes. He selected 148 watercolors from 1,034 entries. Eighteen artists from the NMWS (New Mexico) were in the exhibit. Four New Mexico artists won awards: Lynda Burch, Peter Krusko, Mary Sweet and Al Zerries. This is a tough show to get into and very satisfying when you finally make it. A list of workshops put on by Salminen are on his website. He has had two exhibitions of his work in Kansas City - most recently at the American Legacy Gallery of Jazz and Blues (2006). Speaking of the Blues - I picked up a CD by Dion called "Bronx in Blues". Yes - that's Dion of Dion and the Bellmonts (1950's and 60's era). The sound is fantastic. You can listen to short samples here. New music to paint with - it really improves the watercolors. |
About Me March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 |
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| Our New Park >>> |  |
August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 |
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| My letter about one reporters view of Albuquerque did get published in the Washington Post, Saturday 6/2/07 CLICK HERE to read it |
New Park (6/4): Soon, we will have a new park in the 4 1/2 acres behind our house. It will improve the look of the neighborhood and give the balloons a nicer landing spot. Everyday they haul in several truck loads of dirt trying to level out the area. Next comes sidewalks, sprinkler lines and grass. |
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Saturday (6/9): Don't miss this opening Saturday in Santa Fe. My friend Peter Krusko does wonderful, magical watercolors of the mountains around New Mexico. His paintings are at the Nussbaumer Fine Art Gallery in Santa Fe: http://www.NussbaumerFineArt.com. A sculptor and another painter have a joint exhibition with Peter at: Nussbaumer Fine Art Gallery
314 South Guadalupe Street Santa Fe. NM 87501 June 9 - 23, 2007 Artist's Reception June 9th 4 - 7 pm |
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| NMWS Dinner at the Range (6/6): We had our NMWS board transition dinner on Wednesday at the Range Cafe on Wyoming. Ending one year and starting another. We have an energetic group going into the new year. Building our membership is a major goal of mine as the incoming president. Keep an eye on us and watch us grow. |
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| Now - I'm off to Taos to paint for a week. It's getting warm in Albuquerque - almost 90. Taos
will be a refreshing change. Yesterday the high in Taos was 64 with a
low of 36. I best pack a sweater for morning walks before breakfast.
This will be my 22nd year taking the workshop in Taos. I've learned a
lot - gained many, many friends and put on 50 pounds, it's those Chili Rellenos. The Sagebrush Inn is a magical place when the Adams State Watercolor Workshop is there. Why not consider joining us next year ?
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Back from Taos (6/17): I'm back in Albuquerque from another wonderful week in Taos. That's a pic of me, through the window. It rained in the early part of the week keeping us inside to paint. I created a web page with six of my watercolors I painted this week. It's great to renew old friendships and to forge many new ones. A week of painting at the Sagebrush always charges my energy for the whole year. In a few days, I'll publish a page with pics of my friends paintings. It's always good to be home even if I do need to turn on the AC in Albuquerque. I took a slow route home, up the high road to Chimayo. Stopping to shoot photo along the way in spots like Las Trampas and Truches. Lunch was Chili Rellenos at Angelina's restaurant in Espanola. This local favorite gets five stars in most reviews. After a wonderful lunch, I even stopped to visit Roxanne Swentzell's gallery in Pojoaque. |
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| to see pics of my friends in Taos CLICK HERE or CLICK HERE |
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 above is one of my new watercolors from my week in Taos click on the painting to see others |
NMWS June Meeting (6/18): My first meeting as the new president of the watercolor society went quite well due to my friend Michael Cellan. Those 42 years of teaching art really showed in his dynamic presentation about the use of perspective in landscape for painters. Thank you to my friend for driving in from Colorado Springs to help us out. Frani and I also enjoyed the wonderful time we spent with Michael and his delightful wife Gloria. I hope I can return the favor sometime. If anyone needs a great workshop presenter Michael has a full bag of tricks in various media. His website is at http://web.mac.com/medcellan - where you can learn about his Art Workshops. Michael recently retired - I know he will truly enjoy his retirement as much I am. Remember - the four best reasons to be a teacher are: June, July, August and Retirement. |
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| June 20: This morning I spent my recent Cheap Joe's Award money. I ordered 3 more sheets of Gatorboard to stretch my Arches 140 lb watercolor paper around. It makes a wonderful surface to paint on. I did two paintings that way in Taos last week. Shown on the right are samples of the stretched unpainted paper and a finished watercolor just removed from the gatorboard. |
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 Thom Hartman |
Politics Again (6/21): Most of talk radio is filled with very abrasive "right wing" voices. In Albuquerque and Santa Fe we have Air America, a progressive voice of reason and logic. The best voice to date is Thom Hartman. If you don't have an Air America station in your area you can still listen to Thom, live via the internet. It's refreshing to hear voices that are pro education, pro union and pro universal health care - coming straight out of my radio. I'm still backing John Edwards because he truly will work to end poverty in America. Our own governor, Bill Richardson has both the experience and the clearest position on bringing "all" our troops home. 14 more brave American soldiers died in the last 48 hours. How many more lives do we have to waste ? |
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OOPS !! Bad Day (6/23): Today was one of those days. Nothing went right and still everything worked out. I arrived early at the La Mesa church to set up for my digital workshop. The church was all locked up. I had reserved it from 10 am till noon. People started arriving and by 10:15 we lot of us decided to move my workshop elsewhere. But, then someone showed up to open the doors. We were not written in, on the schedule, for some reason. No matter, I proceeded to set up the projection screen, lap top and projector. Something was missing - my camera was at home. I started to a tap dance - no one else's camera had a chip that fit the slot on my laptop. But somebody had a brand new camera with a cord. So we went forward. It all worked out and everyone was quite patient with me. I tried to demo how to shoot digital pics of your paintings and edit them as digital entries for juried shows. I knew from years in Middle School to be flexible and adjust. |
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 NAEA New Orleans March 26-30, 2008 |
NAEA New Orleans 2008 (6/24): I just submitted two proposals for hands on workshops at the art teachers national convention next March in New Orleans. One is my old Collograph Printmaking Lesson. The second is on building Kaleidocycles. I've presented at NAEA before, but I've never done a two hour hands-on workshop at national. Frani will love going back to New Orleans. In a couple of days we head for the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, then on to beautiful Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon in Utah. A little bit of fun in the HOT sun further out west.  |
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 Riders in the Sky |
Cowboy Music (6/24): This evening we took in some great "Cowboy Music" in Santa Fe. Riders in the Sky were playing at the Santa Fe Brewing Company. As Ranger Doug, Too Slim, Woody Paul and Joey sang about Tumbleweeds and the Santa Fe Trail - there was a beautiful New Mexico sunset behind them. It don't get no better than this buck-a-roo. Perhaps you are not up on Cowboy Music - If you saw either edition of Toy Story (Disney Movie) then you have heard this group. They picked up two Grammy Awards from the music in those films. Riders in the Sky sang "Woody's Roundup," and "You've Got a Friend in Me," and many more tunes in those movies. The bands current tour is in honor of Gene Autry who would have been 100 this September. Autry was born in 1907. |
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 Grand Canyon |
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