us in Juarez Park

Summer Afternoon 16x20in. oil T.D.

Quiet Interlude 12x14in. oil D.D.

The photo of us painting in Juarez Park was taken by Wilhelm Kopa, one of Donna's students and a damned good photagrapher. I can't remember what he must have said to crack us up but it must have been good to get 'ol Tom smilen. Donna's "Quiet Interlude" was started on location at cafe Via Organica about a week ago and now resides in the window of Galeria los Laureles. The "Summer Afternoon" was done about the same time and now sits right next to the aforementioned "Donna" in that same window. The two of them are getting a lot of attention from the sidewalk but as yet we're still not getting a lot of traffic through the gallery........... the result of an unfortunate combination of many factors. We are entertaining the Mexicans however and they are in general a very appreciative lot.

Some of Donna Dickson's Recent Work

Summer Morning - the jardin 11x15 watercolor

Early Morning Ancha 9x12 oil

Flores y Libros 10x10 watercolor

Fresh Flowers 15x11 watercolor

Morning near the Presa 9x12 oil

Esquina de Canal 9x12 oil

As promised! This is just a sampling of what Donna has been doing over the last month or so. Didn't I tell you she was good .................. Oh, by the way she's my wife if anybody doesn't know. However prejudice (or fear for that matter) clouds my vision not a bit. She's a very busy painter these days, Not only does she teach 3 or 4 classes a week but she does quite a lot of store minding to boot. We still try to get out painting on our own from time to time and sometimes it works out that we do.
It's been really hot lately and the tourists are few and far between here in San Miguel. Things will no doubt pick up when the Texans descend on the place as they always do later in June. - we'll keep you posted.........

SOLD

I've been working on a couple of larger paintings and had just about completed them but inspiration struck and I went off on a bit of a tangent. The result is as you see above. Yes, palette knife work and a decided emphasis on color. Where might this be going? I'm now half way through another one done with the knife and still finding it all pretty exciting. Not that I haven't used the knife in the past but this time it felt different and a better fit with what I want to "express" at this point. The thing was done in a whirlwind of pleasure and most of last week flitted by without my being much aware of the time ................ yes, it does fly by when you're having fun, too! Last month's trials have faded into semi-obscurity, by the way. Our gallery computer is back up and running with our precious files expertly reloaded and I can hardly remember our other gripes. Tempting to say " life is good " but I don't say stuff like that. I'll try to get back to finishing the nearly completos and post them, real soon. Also I think it's time to post a few of Donna's too, ( she's doing some pretty marvelous stuff these days ).

By the way, one of my host of followers ( Robin ) has put some of her photos of subjects I've painted up on her site, side by side with the plein airs, for comparison's sake. She also wrote some nice remarks about my work - if you want to check this out: http://robintalkscookstravels.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-05-08T06%3A00%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=44

'till later, Tom.

Calle Canal 9x12 oil

May Morning 9x12 oil

Time flies. But I had thought it did so as a direct function of how much fun you might be having. Well, the last weeks have not been a "barrel of laughs" and yet they've slid by with alarming speed. I'll not burden my legion followers with fine detail but will touch lightly on but a few of the "high" points. Firstly, about 6 weeks ago we got word that our rental house that we'd just got used to was being actively sold from under us. Secondly, our altogether faithful and seemingly robust coche decided to break down half way through the move to new quarters. Thirdly, the astute parts people in this little town could come up with respuestos for neither amor ni dinero. (we finally tracked them down ourselves over the net but it took the better part of a thousand miles round trip to actually get them on the car, with much appreciated help from Donna's non-complaining brother) Fourthly..................... it still sets my jaw to stiffen ...................... just before we set out on the adventure to retrieve the parts .................... our here-to-fore faithful and seemingly robust business computer decided to swallow up all our records. A "registry problem" according to the small explanatory box which was the only on-screen item left within our power to access. Fifthly, I've had a lot of trouble adjusting to my new studio where everything is more or less backwords to what I've been used to.
But! I'm here to inform all who have the slightest concern that as of about the last week things seem to be rebounding some-ut and riding on the confidence of this new-found "roll" I am posting the 2 new 9x12's done recently in town&country. I'm also working on 2 larger studio things which are pretty interesting, so maybe the new space and I are reaching some kind of understanding. -I'll post these two real soon, barring any new set-backs. On the gallery front, things have really slowed down here in San Miguel. May is acknowledged as being the weakest month for tourism and this year seems to be worse than ever. I think next year we will just close up 'till mid June. - 'til later, Tom.

Regresando por el Rio
30x30in. oil on canvas

La Escuela San Juan de Dios
14x18ins. oil on panel

Al Lado del Oratorio
14x18ins. oil on panel

In the last 2 weeks I've done 2 paintings with Donna's plein air group on consecutive Fridays and these is them. I like painting with her group. In some ways it's a bit distracting but in other ways it kind of takes the heat off me. If lots of kids are hanging around, as they were at San Juan de Dios, it spreads the burden around somewhat. Mexican kids are really well behaved and respectful ....... they deserve not to be entirely ignored, so you have to respond to them when they ask questions or give a compliment. Come to think of it, they were not the biggest distraction at S. Juan as mid- way through my obra I received a very painful sting from what I have been self indulgently characterizing as a probable "Killer bee". The little feller selected me out of a half dozen others in our group and demonstrated the seriousness of his intent by not only zapping me once in the neck but shifting slightly to his left and delivering, yet another dose, for the road as it were. One group member (Helga) broke her concentration long enough to extract the stinger as it was more than a little out of my view but other than a few vaguely muttered references to the possibility of dangerous alergic reactions and such there wasn't a lot of genuinely focused sympathy to be had - the class being completely immersed in their own struggles at the time. So I kind of semi hopped, semi whimpered, for a minute or two and in the end caught a glimpse of my own half-finished painting and went sulkily back to work, the swelling on my neck increasing with every passing brush stroke. This happened Friday and the swelling finally went down this (Tuesday) morning. Despite it all I like the painting! ........ it's got a kind of a buzz to it?
During this last two weeks I was also working on the big 30x30in. "cowboy picture" in the safety of my well-screened studio, the only distraction there being a brand new kitty that someone had thought it expeditious to hurl over our gate. I guess they called it right. I tried to ignore it's plaintive cries hour after hour but by the time Donna got back from the gallery I was inventing reasons why it would make sense and all ............ I've tried to keep the kitten fur out of the paint as best I can.

Calle Codo el la Tarde 14"x18" oil on panel

Jardin Afternoon 9"x12" oil on panel


La Capilla Arriba 14"x18" oil on panel

Passing Showers 20"x24" oil on canvas
SOLD

Well, well ........ March already, - how time rolls around. Bueno, I have been extremely busy with the new gallery and doing lots of painting besides. Galeria Laureles on Zacateros has been open now for 4 whole months and though just a baby is doing very well and showing strong signs of being something more than just a "flash in the pan" so to speak. It was a bit of a risk opening at this point in the worlds economic history but we felt we had something a little different to offer and the customers seem to agree. Our new bilingual gallery sitter (Marionela) is working out fine and claims she loves the job - people are saying nice things behind her back as well and we're not surprised! She's been a friend of ours now for several years and shows great to extraordinary patience with our lousy Spanish. Donna's art classes are being given on the lower level at the gallery 4 times a week now and we go out with a more advanced group of plein air painters every Friday.
Some have actually been saying that they miss our old website, so with this in mind I will try to get into some sort of gear and start posting new things, with hopefully some regularity. I just dropped off "Passing Showers" at the gallery this morning. Based on a a rather desperate attempt to draw some inspiration from this years unusually wet winter weather, I really got involved with it and am pretty happy with the result. It's a kind of a different take on the Parroquia. "La Capilla Arriba" was done at La Ermita high on the Salida Queretero above town a couple of weeks ago. "Jardin Afternoon" was last weeks plein air in the towns central square. "Calle Codo en la Tarde" is a couple of months old now but it's still available and actually in the gallery window at the moment. I should add that we do ship from San Miguel, so anyone interested in any of these could get in touch through galerialaureles@yahoo.ca or, of course drop by the gallery if you're in the area. Donna and Marionela would be happy to meet you. I however will most likely be firmly chained to my studio easel on a typical day ........ but you never know.

Here's an example of what I've been describing concerning my methods. The photo on the left was taken after about 2 hours work on the painting started in the town central square, yesterday. This morning, with reference to the photo I had taken of the actual scene, I began a little refinement and what you see on the right is the finished product, completed about 3 p.m. this afternoon. You can see that the ( all important ) bones of the composition and color were already pegged and in place very early on. And as I said before, with the sights, sounds and smells of the place still vivid in my head, it was a joy to finish the piece off today, and I'm pretty happy with the result. I considered placing more bodies here, there and about but they only would have distracted attention from the elements already in place. One has to learn when to stop.