Deere in the Lavender

Deere in the Lavender__6x8 oil on linen panel___$150 wet! (sketch is included)

Does two years in a row count as a "tradition"? I say "YES", and my friend, artist Pat Haberman and I have a tradition to go out and paint the bluebonnets on my birthday....OK, so my birthday was LAST WEEK (but we were both busy)....and there were only 17 bluebonnets in the Hill Country this year (a terrible contrast to last year's bumper crop)....so we went to the Lavender farm at Becker Vineyard... (OK, so it's too early for the lavender, but NOT BY MUCH!)...AND, it was too windy to get out the full plein air gear, so I sketched this (see below), and went home to paint it from my notes....more and more often along my Plains journey, I am finding myself very comfortable painting from memory...there's something nice about being able to "make it up", and my many years of plein air study has given me some understanding about light and color...So, I painted the one above, working only from this sketch, because I forgot to bring my camera...The paper is wrinkly because I had a death grip on it because it was so windy!

Sketch 11__Walking Companion__deer sketch

Walking Companion__sketch #11 from my Colorado Sketchbook__auction soon!
In Colorado at 9,000 feet in the mountains the air is cool and thin...PERFECT for taking long hikes, which I do every morning...usually a few miles with our Lab, Maria. One morning we stopped to watch this little doe walking across a meadow below us...then she saw us and walked up the hill to see what we were doing! We watched each other for 15 minutes from about 40 yards away, then each of us continued on in our original directions. It reminded me of what I have just read in a book by Stephen Ambrose about the Lewis and Clark Voyage of Discovery....they came upon places where the elk had never been hunted and the elk were curious and came close to see them...
We are home now. It is HOT in Texas....I made the serious mistake of taking Maria for a walk at mid-day and I think she almost had a heat stroke...I had to put her in a cold shower...morning walks from now on.

To all my friends in NEBRASKA! Right now there is a special exhibit in Lincoln, at the Great Plains Art Museum. This is a special exhibit called Curator's Choice. Each of the curators from the past 30 years has selected their favorite works for this exhibit, and my painting called "Passing" was selected. Next week is a special reception at the museum, and I will get to go! PLEASE COME MEET ME! The reception is Friday, August 6, 5-7 pm. ...otherwise, keep a lookout for me along the backroads! I will be doing some "drive-by painting" on the backroads for a few days! Let me know if you are coming vvaughan8@yahoo.com

Passing America: Windy Plow_John Deere Tractor, plains, farm,

"Passing America: Windy Plow"__6 x 8 Drive-by painting for Passing America:the Great Plains

On the way home from the mountains last week, I planned for us to frive through the southern Great Plains, so I could officially begin my next museum exhibit, "Passing America: The Great Plains". We pulled off the road on a lonely stretch. I forgot why (Nancy and Barbara, please comment below and remind me wy we pulled over!)...It was fiercely windy and a little bit cold. I turned around to look over the land, and saw this cloud of dirt in the distance. When we finally drove off, I made sure we drove by slowly so that I could sketch John Deere coming at us. Here is my small canvas sketch. I wanted it to look windy.

Passing America: The Great Plains is an exhibit which will continue my work of "Last Year on the Farm". As I gave gallery talks about my farm works, I met many hundreds of people who have similar stories of families having to leave the farm way of life...for various reasons. I realized tht there was more to say about this "passing" way of life. Small farms are disappearing, and it's most obvious in the Great Plains. So, for the next two years, I will travel the plains to document what I see and study. To underscore the theme, I will be creating the paintings WHILE ON THE MOVE, "PASSING" by...I call these my "drive-by" paintings. (I am in the process of trademarking that phrase.)

I have been laying the groundwork for the exhibit for a year, now, and am finally mapping out my travels.

A new blog will communicate the progress....please let me know if you want to follow that. It will be "live" soon. I am working on putting it up NOW!...There's a lot more to say about my "drive by" paintings....soon!

Join me at a workshop or event, soon, if you can :) See yesterday's blog for dates.