This is a 'creepy' forest tale that happened to me late June 2019. And it might have repeated itself this year of 2020, had I not learned my lesson! (More about that soon....) My 'Tuesday Revelers' may recognize this tale, as I shared a version of it last year in...
musings from the studio and beyond ~
dawn chandler’s reflections on art and life. . . .
plein air painting
let it be ~ sunrise east of the ranch
Sunrise Sunday morning, September 16 found me sitting in my car staring eastward from a shelf of land where the New Mexico mountains meet the eastern plains. I'd come up here to paint. I was feeling lackadaisical. Too, I was hoping for the arrival of my friend who had...
painting process: the aspen pillars of my cathedral
Yesterday a friend shared with me that she’s recently taken up painting, and that she’s “learning and loving it.” (how cool is THAT?!) She further revealed that she’d really like to shadow me at my easel — and that reminded me that over the past few months I've taken...
painting my way back to philmont….
Over lunch, I had commented to my friend that I was shocked we hadn’t suffered any fires yet. The winter and spring had been worrisomely mild, and the winds had howled across April and May. And yet here it was one day from June and New Mexico had hardly...
when painting isn’t fun anymore…and getting over it
I work well under pressure. I like deadlines and due dates. At least that's what I've always thought. I remember a few years ago getting ready for a solo show of my abstract/textual landscapes and, just a couple of weeks before the show opening, I realized with...
what do you call a gathering of 1000+ painters?
I don't think I've ever witnessed 1000+ painters gathered together under one roof before. Certainly I've never been one of 1000+ painters gathered together under one roof before! But that's exactly where I recently found myself, when I attended a convention of...
a winter roadtrip with my muse, part two
Not all the art I made during my little solo sojourn were in my sketchbook. Another of my goals was to do some plein air painting — something I hadn't done since late December when, the day after my car accident and day of my 53rd birthday, my pup and I went for a...
creating 60 paintings in 30 days and other bad ideas
Back in September — because evidently planning to be away for a month on a 4000+-mile road-trip wasn't time consuming enough — I decided to set a challenge for myself of creating 60 paintings in 30 days. Lots of artists do this sort of thing from time to time,...
of lakeside chairs, vermont gardens, & the contemplation of a new hampshire river….
The final installment of my August painting trip in New Hampshire... Of all the scenes in this small New Hampshire tract where I spent a few days in early August, none captivated me more than a little corner between my aunt's tool shed and her guest house. Here,...
of sunrise clouds and sunset boats….
I promised a few weeks ago to share with you the several little plein air paintings I did while traveling New Hampshire last month. I've fallen behind with that. The truth is I've had a hard time turning my thoughts back to New England when my heart is breaking in...