A Blast from the Past. Desert Scenes done in our Arizona years.

We had a great time visiting our friend in Florida.  We had one 80 degree day but most days were low 70's.  We came back to 40 something temps here in MI.  It was nice to get an early taste of what spring will be like in a month or so.  Here is a photo of Roger & me at a restaurant on the beach and no, that is not the beach behind us just a mural painted on the wall.

Now that we are back, I plan to get back to work on doing small canvases for my small paintings series.  Since it will be awhile until I have new paintings to post I thought it would be nice to reminisce with desert scene paintings that I did while I lived in Tucson.  As I went through my files to pick out a number to show you it brought back good memories of my Tucson art days.  I painted many desert scenes....too many to keep track of.   All of these paintings sold and I remember who bought some of them or where I showed them.  There are also some that I have no idea where they sold or who bought them.  You will see that these paintings are all similar and different at the same time.  This is just a fraction of my desert scene collection.  Hope you enjoy seeing them.

"Amber Glow"

"Colors of the Desert"

"Desert Beauty"

"Desert Gold"

"Fruit of the Saguaro"

"Pink Paradise"

"San Xavier Mission"

"Red Mountains"

"Yellow Poppy Paradise"

"Psychedelic Desert"

This was the last desert scene painting that I sold in Tucson.  I was working my last shift in the SAAG Gallery before I moved.  A young couple came in and admired the painting and decided to buy it.  When they found out I was leaving AZ they were happy to have made the decision to have a piece of my work.

"Desert Oasis"

I entered this painting in a exhibit put on by SAACA shortly before I moved.  I won third place but did not sell the painting so it came to MI with me.  I decided to show it at LA's cafe here in Three Rivers.  thought no one in MI would want a desert scene painting but I was wrong.  I sold it here!

"Images of Steam Pump Ranch"

This last painting is a one I did for the same exhibition I mentioned above.  There was a  special category for paintings done of Steam Pump Ranch that has historical significant in Oro Valley, AZ.   I couldn't make a decision on what area of the ranch to paint so I did this composite painting of the images that I though represented the ranch.  This painting took the award for this category. I donated the painting to the Historical Society to hang at the ranch.    It was nice to win two ribbons in my last competition  in AZ.

New Paintings both large and small

I have not produced a lot of art since the first of the year mainly because we were busy remodeling our master and guest bathrooms. What I have done are a couple of commissions and one large painting  for my new display at the Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center.  Other than that I have been working on tiny paintings. 

Here is the large painting which I titled "Calla Lily Trio".  The size is 22X22.

 Here is my VACA display.  I featured calla lily paintings along with craft items and my fun flowers chair and painting.

Since most of what I sold at the holiday show were smaller items I decide to do a "tiny art" series.  Here are the three newest additions.  These are size 6X6 on canvas. I sell them with the easels.

I am still curious as to why a 22X22 painting appears as the same size as a 6X6 painting  when posted here.  Oh, well that is just the way it is. 

This is the first year since we moved from AZ to MI that we have had a really bad winter.  We had lots of snowfalls and the snow just piled up.  When it finally melted we had floods in town.  Lately we have had some 50 degree days followed by 30 degree days.  This week has been on the cold side.  Prior to this year the weather has not bothered us and we did not miss AZ but this year we said "what were we thinking?'  Don't get me wrong, we love our life here but the winter was not fun.  On, the other hand, I remember those 110 degree and higher days in AZ and those were not fun either.  That was when we would travel to get away from the hot temps.  So, now we plan to take a trip to visit a friend in FL for a week to get away from the cold for a short time.  Hopefully spring will be here when we get back.

I recently bought 6 more tiny canvas which I will paint when we get back from our trip.  So far I have done patterns that I have done in larger versions that I know will sell.  I may get creative and try out some new ideas for this series.