La Musica de la Noche Tom Dickson

I thought I'd post this latest oil of mine just finished last week, so .............. here it is. We put it in the gallery window and it seems to be stopping a lot of people cold on the street. I'm also working on several other night scenes of San Miguel and will post them when they're done. We've had a lot of people in to ask the price of that one ( 3200 U.S. ) but people are pretty keen to hang on to their pesos these days. All the same, that one is not going to last long. I like doing night scenes so will probably try to keep one or two in the gallery in future. Speaking of the gallery and galerias in general in San Miguel; ours ( Galeria Los Laureles ) has been more or less just floating since mid April. The summer is usually slower than the winter here but this year has seen the fewest tourists in town in many years. There are many reasons for this and the Mexican people are feeling the pinch at every level. It certainly is not the optimum time to be in the business of selling art but all the same I must report that our gallery has made a healthy profit over the past year and we intend to keep at it as long as the discerning art lovers out there make it possible. However, we do find ourselves looking wistfully forward to those halcyon days of winter these days......... Donna's art classes continue to attract a lot of students as her reputation as a top notch teacher expands. She loves the challenge and her students love her, - she certainly has a way of bringing the best out of them, - some of the more serious among them have shown tremendous improvement over their studies and it's greatly rewarding to D. as well.

In the Courtyard 15x11 ins. watercolor Donna Dickson

Manana Nueva 14x18 oil Tom Dickson
SOLD

Calle San Francisco 16x20 ins. oil, Tom Dickson



Another sampling of what the two of us have been doing lately. I've been working in the studio a lot lately and doing a lot of experimenting. I keep going off on tangents ( something I haven't been doing a lot in recent years ) and have much unfinished work piling up against the studio walls. I'm happy with the ones I've actually finished though and the two of mine above are examples. "Manana Nueva" was started in the Jardin a week ago and fussed over 'till yesterday. Calle San Francisco was a studio painting all the way. I get more and more interested in clouds as time goes by and am finally feeling that I'm getting somewhat "in touch" with the subtlety of them................ but like in the song they're tricky devils - you can look at them from both sides "up and down and still somehow" you don't really know 'em at all. They have in fact, been one of the biggest challenges of my painting career. They can be a great asset to the atmosphere of a picture, or, if done poorly they can suck the life out of an otherwise decent painting. I can remember doing the odd sky where the treatment of the clouds would have been more suited to bags of cement ................... some painters avoid the problem by just not "going there" but I think they are missing an element with a lot of potential if they don't.
Donna's summer students have been returning in the last few weeks, so she's been busy with them but still managing to get some painting time on her own in. She's done a few interiors lately that have been very nicely handled and the one of hers above "In the Coutyard"is a prime example. Things at the gallery continue to be pretty slow as tourism is way down. People have been scared off of Mexico by the swine flue, Mexican drug wars, kidnappings -in short, a lot of bad, largely undeserved press. The Great Depression #2 doesn't help much on top of it all of course. ............... we're keeping our fingers crossed ............

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.