Christmas Card

I really was going to try another technique and still may this am before I have to start cooking (and cooking and cooking--artist in the kitchen today!).   But instead, the brush had different ideas;  I went with them, and offer you a Christmas card this morning.  May you have a blest Christmas filled with light and beauty and peace.

From Small to Large

Here's the latest. Its unfortunate shadow at the top is due to a) it is a watercolor sadly in need of a frame, so I have it pinned to my wall but b) I ran out of pins so c) because I stole some from the picture above, d) the picture above is casting a shadow.

I did a lot (17)  of sketches the last time I was in NM, but this is the first I have tried to enlarge.  It is outside of the town of Abiqu, along the Chama River, not far from the Christ in the Desert Benedictine Monastery which I was fortunate enough to visit for the first time. This is Georgia's country all the way.  I think it is the best kept secret in the United States, because the cliffs are colorful, moody and grand, the silence palpable, and the sky incredibly, unblinkingly New Mexico blue.  And the painting itself is technically much better, not overworked, not saved from the grave like my last offing.

From time to time, I start wondering why I do this--paint, I mean--and why I am so passionate about it.  After all, I am not going to be making millions in the wild New York (yes, I read the WSJ) art market.
And I am not sure my paintings say anything anyone else's don't.

The anwer is simple:  freedom to express what I see, as one of G-d's creatures. And I am blessed by G-d to have the option.  As a notebook I have says, "Pretending to be a Normal Person day after day is Exhausting".  Hmmm, and what IS normal, anyway??