Visiting Mom

My mother lives in New Mexico, Although she grew up in Minnesota. She dislikes the cold of winter and the humidity of summer. I think it is a lovely place to visit. 

Front Yard Tree with Lizard

Front Yard Tree in Sunlight

Watermelon A

Watermelon B

Front Yard Tree Side Branch A

Front Yard Tree Side Branch B

These are all post card size (4.5x6 in.).

They are listed in the order in which I painted them.

About the watermelons, she has about 5 garden boxes, each one about three feet square. The water for those boxes is her splurge. Water is expensive there, of course. I chose to paint the watermelon because it is a simple form and I am trying to develop an ability to represent form more convincingly. 

About water, her area made national news while I was there because of the contamination of the Animas river by the EPA at the mine in Silverton. The river was orange for a couple days. The water utility people said that they shut the intake from the river and will use stored water as long as they can. Luckily it rained twice while I was there so she did not have to water as often.

Back to painting. I made two at a time, working on one while the other one dries, going back and forth. I liked that process. One of each pair has a pencil drawing as a starting point and the other does not. In each pair, I like the one without the pencil drawing better, but the pencil drawing was necessary to get to the ability to do it without the preliminary drawing.

I'm still not happy with my watercolor skill level. Little glimpses of what I want to see in my work show up from time to time, egging me on. I also made some pen drawings while I was there. It felt like a relief to allow myself a break from the watercolor struggle. I'll put those in the next post.