Backseat Driver

Backseat Driver__8x10 oil study on panel__$450

This week I have been working from some reference obtained along my farm journeys. I remember this cattle drive alongside the road we traveled out west. We slowed down so I could paint as we passed. The drive-by painting I did then was of the COWS! It was snapped up by the Great Plains Art Museum at the University of Nebraska.

This one is available!

Twilight Transit

Twilight Transit__16x20__available at Act I Gallery, Taos, NM

Boy do I have a lot of art to share!  ...and other stuff of life! 

Where to begin??

For now, I will share some art, and hope you enjoy!

A few weeks ago I did this painting as a demo for some great artists of the

Hill Country PACT.  

Below is the start of the demo...above is the finish. If you were there, tell  me what you think!

Since it a twilight scene, I am sending it to Act I Gallery inTaos, for the winter exhibit called "Twilight". 

Since this photo, I have added the "morning star", Venus, as it looked a few months ago during the rare Venus Transit. So that explains the title!

Tomorrow's post begins a little series I have begun. It is special to my heart, and will benefit some lovely elderly people I know! Please check in tomorrow!

Merry CHRISTmas, Joey!! 

See the Thunder 2

See the Thunder___24 x 30 oil on linen___$4500 framed at Wind Way Gallery, Rockport, TX

A few weeks ago I posted the study for this painting. H.L. purchased it, and graciously let me hang onto it while I used it for reference to paint this larger version. I will show this one in Rockport, TX at Wind Way Gallery, where I have a special exhibit as their guest artist for the next couple months...unless you ask for it first ...

As a plein air painter, I often take my outdoor works and use them as studies for larger versions. One of the things I teach in my workshops is HOW TO create a large painting from a smaller study. ...BUT, my next workshop is all about sketching, drawing and grasping a glance quickly with a drawing instrument. It's called Chiaroscuro and Chocolate...see info below __________________________________________ 

Here are some locations for a few of my workshops. email me if you want more info on any of these...

See this SPECIAL ONE.

I can't wait to see the water go down the drain BACKWARDS there!

September 6, 12, 20, 27__Austin___ "Chocolates and Chiaroscuro" contact V...,. 

Sept. 15, 2012___Salado TX, Contact Belinda Walker__1 or two spots open!

Oct. 28-30__Texas__at Fredericksburg Artists School

2013___New York City, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania...

2014___February 23-March 1___New Zealand

**BE SURE to tell me if you sign up! I like to send things to my students to get them ready, keep them "seeing", and thinking, and talking about it!

Sunny Dawn

Sunny Dawn__16x20 oil on linen___available next week Act I Gallery, Taos

Here are some locations for a few of my workshops. email me if you want more info on any of these...

And here is a link to a SPECIAL ONE.

I can't wait to see the water go down the drain BACKWARDS there!

July-August ___weekly__Austin___ "Chocolates and Chiaroscuro" 

Sept. 15, 2012___Salado TX

2013___New York City, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania...

2014___February 23-March 1___New Zealand

**BE SURE to tell me if you sign up! I like to send things to my students to get them ready, keep them "seeing", and thinking, and talking about it!

Gallant Angus

Gallant Angus____6x8 oil on linen panel_____$250 unframed
This is a Gallant Angus merely because I painted at a farm on Gallant Road today in Gadsden, Alabama. This is a beautiful area in Northern Alabama...mountains, rivers and friendy people who truly enjoy being hospitable to "tresspassing" artists :)
This angus was moving left when I began the painting, but she turned to the right with the whole herd. I picked up a second canvas and began another painting of a "right moving" cow...I was able to complete both paintings by moving back and forth between the canvases as the cows traversed the field...I will post the "right" one tomorrow

_______________V....Vaughan Spring Schedule________________

April 9-13, Southeastern Plein Air Festival, Gadsden, AL

Memorial Dy Weekend-May, Phippen Museum Western Art Show, Prescott, AZ

Summer Workshops in Texas, Colorado and more!

...see my schedule for more dates and events

Chilly Morning at Allen's Old Place

Chilly Morning at Allen's Old Place__8x10 oil on linen__$450 with wet paint
With miles and miles of Nebraska cornfields and soybeans ready to come out of the fields, my workshop found the PERFECT HILLTOP to paint from. A hilltop place (formerly belonging to one of my hosts, Allen, but now being restored by his good friends, the Moravec's) has given us 360 degrees of landscapes to paint! You will see a number of my hilltop demos in the next few days! Whereas the sun rose QUICKLY from reds to yellows in yesterday's post, this sunrise "stalled" when low, foggy damp clouds rode in on the western breezes. Artists like when there is a LITTLE more time to grasp the glance outside.
Passing America: The Great Plains click to see 154 works from the show

#96 - Plain Mesa

Plain Mesa__8x10 oil on linen panel__for Passing America: The Great Plains__$590 framed
See a special feature about my upcoming solo show at the University of Nebraska's Great Plains Art Museum in this month's issue of Peaks&Plains Magazine. I will give a little talk about the practice of "drive-by" impressionism, and some thoughts about the passing of America, during the opening reception in Lincoln. Come if you can on October 7, next Friday night.
The painting here was done near Santa Ana, TX, at the edge of the plains, where a few mesas break up the plain, and in this case, some skipping shadows moved over the plainscape. I love the suummer sky!
I now have ALL 154 paintings for this exhibit on my web site. Go take a look!, and come back as I am adding more details every day...but the good part is the pictures, and they are all there!

Sign up for one of these two workshops!
http://bonecreek.org/pdf/Vaughan%20workshop.pdf

http://www.fbgartschool.com/2011_classes.htm scroll down this page to V....Vaughan

Click to see SPECIAL piece of artwork to benefit a Texas fire victim. A fun way to help if you can!

#90 - Windy Hilltop

Cow Hilltop__8x10 oil on linen panel__for Passing America: The Great Plains__$590 framed

Some of you have noticed the #89 before the painting title (or #90, for this post!). I have numbered each painting that is in the upcoming exhibit as a way to track and catalog the pieces. VERY SOON, I will have all the works TOGETHER in a special place on my web site, and you will be able to view thumbnails and a LARGE image, and to see which works are available. I will give my blog/email/Google group/and facebook friends the first look at the exhibit "all together". There is still a lot of writing to do, but each painting has a story of travel and observation of the lost farms across the Plains. I hope you will stay along for the finish of my journey.
Below is some info about upcoming workshops, and help for a Texas fire victim ...

See a special feature about my upcoming solo show at the University of Nebraska's Great Plains Art Museum in this month's issue of Peaks&Plains Magazine.

Sign up for one of these two workshops!
http://bonecreek.org/pdf/Vaughan%20workshop.pdf

http://www.fbgartschool.com/2011_classes.htm scroll down this page to V....Vaughan

Click to see SPECIAL piece of artwork to benefit a Texas fire victim. A fun way to help if you can!

#88- Panhandle Span

Panhandle Span___8x10 Oil on linen panel __for Passing America: The Great Plains_$590 framed
Location: Texas Panhandle, along the Texas Plains Trail on the span of plains, under the span of sky.

See a special feature about my upcoming solo show at the University of Nebraska's Great Plains Art Museum in this month's issue of Peaks&Plains Magazine.

ALSO...PLEASE see what you can do to help a Bastrop, TX fire victim...My good friend, Linda....(below)

Flames of Life

A SPECIAL REPRODUCTION to benefit a Texas fire victim___various sizes

To see the sad story, and photos click here...PLEASE pass this along to ANYONE who might help!

For order/size info, click here http://www.reallybigcanvas.com/content/flames-life

Dumas Shade

Dumas Shade___6x8 oil on linen panel for Passing America: The Great Plains
I am sitting at my friends' kitchen table, blogging from their computer in David City, NE....A LONG day started in Salina, KS, after a short visit with my son (and I dragged my daughter along for this ride), we headed up to Lincoln, NE to deliver 130 paintings to The Great Plains Art Museum...My show will open there on October 7, and runs through Dec. 11...
The small work above is one painted on the plains of the Texas panhandle, where shade is a big comodity this long hot summer.
I will be in Nebraska and Kansas for a few more days, telling the story of my drive-by painting effort and visiting with friends. Like the Bohaty's who we visited with tonight. They fed us a wonderful feast of their grass-fed beef from their own herd of British White cattle. We had a wonderful meal and talked about farming and such....

Black Baldy

Black Baldy___6x6 oil on panel___$290 framed for Passing America: The Great Plains
I posted a Hereford of the same size and price, yesterday but forgot to hit the "publish" button on the blog. So, if you only see the blog (and not the e-mail) click here to see yesterday's Hereford ...This is "cow week" as I have a small little group of different types of cattle that I have seen across the plains...these are small canvases in matching frames for my exhibit, but they are not "drive-by" paintings. ...This painting above is what we call a "white face", which, I think is a type of Hereford but if anyone knows better, please let me know! I suspect they have a little bit of Angus.

Spring One Plus Three

Spring One Plus Three___6x8 oil study on linen__$150 Click BLOG image to see thick details
The other day at my friend's ranch I was waiting for Robin to finish her work and grabbed just one more canvas to do this quick sketch. The "one" is the cow, and the "three" are the cattle egrets. I LOVE when the egrets accompany the livestock in the pastures, following closely to snatch up little bugs in the grass. It seems that the egrets on my old farm were more shy than these. These hung close to us all day, giving us opportunity for good sketching and good photos.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY To my oldest kiddo, DAVIE! I LOVE YOU!!

Blue Pastures

Blue Pastures__6x8 oil study on linen panel__$170 ...click blog image to see some juicy detail
I am swerving off the "secret road" bluebonnet paintings I promised this week, because today I headed north with artist pal Robin Cheers (go see her work today!...and note her comment about TICKS...I feel like she does tonight!). We went up to Bell County to paint on the ranch of my friends, Tom and Debbie...it was a PERFECT day, weather-wise, but I got a few new scratches on my new pick-up truck, driving some narrow trails at the ranch. As I look at my study above, I can see some adjustments I need to make (cow anatomy), so if you want it, let me know, and I will send you the "better version". Robin and I discussed how, having grown up sketching HORSES, we both have to "proof" our cow drawings, lest our natural inclination to "round out the rump" takes over...By the end of our day, our "pasture mates" grazed themselves closer and closer, until we were surrounded by all the angus, horses and cattle egrets...oh, and ONE SERIOUS art critic, below...

Robin facing off with an art critic

Low Tank__Angus, cows, water, tank, pond, whiteface

 

Low Tank__18 x 24 oil on linen___available

I finished this one today, using one of my studies from the farm collection . (click link to see all 365 of those works). I have wanted to paint this one BIG since I first painted the study a few years ago. The title describes the setting. A "tank" is what we call "water ponds" in this part of Texas...They are "stock tanks" made to keep livestock watered. Our farm had 4 or 5 of them and they were gathering places for cows, herons, migrating birds and our boys who loved to fish, and the dogs who loved to swim there. The water is VERY low in this view, but I remember a rainy fall followed and the water came nearly to the top of the dam that year.

I shot this photo late in the day, and will replace this image with a better one tomorrow, so if it looks funny, check the blog tomorrow afternoon :)

E-mail vvaughan8@yahoo.com  
web http://www.v-vaughan.com/

Grazing Together_cow, cattle egrets, angus, black

Grazing Together__24 x 30 oil on linen__available

FINALLY, I completed the demo start I did the other evening at the PACT meeting (PACT is an art group in Austin...and I hope y'all can remember how this one started...it was difficult to photograph, but you can click on the image to see details.) This subject might be my favorite thing to paint...really, ANYTHING having to do with farms is my passion. Please see my new blog and project at http://www.vvaughanusa.blogspot.com/  and be sure to sign up to be a follower, as I am making changes  constantly to update the project.

E-mail vvaughan8@yahoo.com
web http://www.v-vaughan.com/
Passing America: The Great Plains http://www.vvaughanusa.blogspot.com/

Grazing Trio_cow, angus, egrets, sketch

Grazing Trio___5.5 x 8.5 sketch
I have been painting this week, but not well enough to photograph the cow painting I began as a demo Tuesday night...Actually I lost most of the day, doing some heavy duty house cleaning and solving a self inflicted cell phone problem...TOMORROW I will finish and post the Angus painting. I am on the verge of creating so much anticipation that I hope it's not a let-down!

Big Boy___black cow, angus, pen sketch, cattle

"Big Boy"...sketching a lotta bull!

This is officially "angus Week" for me, since I will be painting an angus scene tonite at a demo I am doing for an art club nearby. I have been enjoying the sketches, and when it came time to prepare reference for a demo, the angus angle seemed just right! I will post it tomorrow, unless it comes out awful...

Some of you, my "regulars" replied a few weeks ago that you'd like to follow my new blog "Passing America..." I will get more info out on that sometime during the Holidays. I created the blog this week, and am learning new things about Blogger. Since I started this blog a few years ago, I have done NOTHING to update it...just too busy to get on that roll, but last night I really got into it. It appears that while working on the new blog, I must have ordered changes or updates for this one , too, because it LOOKS different....UH OH, I hope I didn't lose all my archived content....

Angus Reflection_cow, angus, black, sketch

Angus Reflection__from my sketchbook__8.5 x 5.5__$50
We have water in Texas now....ahhhhh
I am moving my studio downstairs this week...what a chore! I don't have an easel I like down there, yet, so twill be sketches this week!

Seventy Years Ago_cows, angus, farm, landscape

"Seventy Years Ago"___3.5 x 16 oil on linen panel___click to enlarge___$250
I imagine that seventy years ago this farmscape probably looked just about the same. I painted it today from a photo, using a long piece of linen panel I have....It was a pensive moment as I painted this, now looking back on my relationship with a wonderful lady who passed into eternity, yesterday. Her picture is below, taken 70 years ago!!
Helen Vaughan was my husband's Grandmother, my children's GREAT-Grandmother. I counted her as my Grandmother, too, since I lost all mine while I was young. She was from that Great American generation which loved freedom and worked hard for everything they had. She rode and trained Arabian horses til she was past 80! She was the youngest at heart as anyone could be...never getting TOO set in her ways. But her GREATEST ability was that she was able to make YOU the center of attention. She had a way of engaging in conversation that never pointed to herself, and she did this by asking questions. Questions that could NOT be answered by merely a "yes" or "no": "What is your favorite thing to think about?" "What did you enjoy playing when you were little?" "Tell me about your best friend when you were ten"...A few days ago she asked me "what month is this"? I said "It's October..."and had to bite my tongue, because I ALMOST reminded her that in a few days it would be the day that her beloved Eddie, our Pappy died, in 2001....She was a Texas woman through and through, but "all-girl" as she loved dolls, and shoes and accessorizing! ...we all laughed at the contents of her suitcase, which she took to the hospital a few weeks ago: about 300 packets of sweet-n-low and 7 pairs of shoes! I do not remember seeing anything else in that suitcase....Grandmother seemed to wait till she had seen everyone yesterday, and just as the last few family members left for a bite of dinner, she left us....October 28, 2009, exactly one month past her 97th birthday, and EXACTLY, to the day, 8 years after Pappy died...same day...
She loved Jesus, and now is alive like Him, forever....THANK YOU, Lord for Grandmother Helen.
Helen Vaughan (left) and Dorothy Miller, her life-long best friend ...Dorothy just died this week, too....The photo was taken in 1939. Seventy years ago.

Bovine Winner_cows, angus, farm

Looking Forward_ 20 x 30 oil on linen__available!
This past weekend was the first annual show for the American Society of Bovine Artists...yes, Bovine. And yes, I am a (new) proud member! I am also proud to be the first winner of the first show. The painting above is a studio version of my field study from "Last Year on the Farm", my series of 365 paintings of my last year....all 365 paintings are on my web site, if you have not seen them, yet, please go look!
This art is also the image I chose for the cover of my book about it. The book title is "Last Year onthe Farm: A Story of Change. You can see the first 10 pages of the book here http://www.blurb.com/books/196927
...Today is a sad day. My husband's beloved grandmother, Helen Vaughan, who we call "Grandmother", was placed in Hospice care. She may not live long. I will like to tell about her beautiful life...she just turned 97...was born the year that the Titanic sank....wow. She lives very close to me, so I am going to spend the night there tonight and may not be in touch much for a while...please enjoy my links.