Blue Jay Nest...and more

Blue Jay Nest

6x8in egg tempera on gesso board SOLD

Artist Note.

Roses to nests -
what a juxtaposition!

This is an egg tempera which is 

one of my all time favorite medias. 

It lends itself to very detailed imagery

which you can see here.

I rarely do any egg tempera paintings

any more, 

but treasure it when I do.
This was painted for a couple who
appreciate my egg tempera paintings.

Why Nests?

I cannot explain it, but

I paint nests out of a deep

personal need to explore these

fascinating pieces of 

avian architecture
and it has been an
enduring passion for many years.

I want to share 

some of the collection that I have in my 

own little gallery here on 

Main Street in Las Cruces.

(click to enlarge.)

Below are feathers, eggs and small nests

I have tall branches to display some nests 

in a natural looking way.

I mix some of my sketches and watercolors

in the display. A friend brings in small 

beautifully carved birds to stay for a while

...like this Baltimore oriole, below, next to 

his hanging pouch nest

None of these nest paintings are for sale 

because I found I missed them too much

when they all sold in my last exhibit.

Notice the little humming bird nest

still attached to the branch on lower left.

They take a spider web thread and use it to 

attach the nest firmly to the branch.

Brilliant!

The large egg below is a goose egg, and

twice the size of a chicken egg.

it gives you some idea of the scale of these nests.

Avian Architecture

Windblown

9x12in  egg tempera   For sale through the gallery*

Phew - it is over. Life will resume its normal flow.
First, I need to thank some people.
I had a wonderful friend drive 500 miles RT to come and
take care of the meals for several days. Her name is Pam Cox
and she deserves a friendship gold medal!
She happens to be a gourmet cook so good food
was plentiful. Thank you very much, Pam.
Another friend made me some fabulous postcards with images on them
to hand out. This was managed during a difficult time for her.
A big thank you to Marjorie Van Dormolen.
Lindy Bridgers made 4 dozen nests from chocolate covered rice noodles
and popped a little candy egg in the center. What a wonderful friend.
Lisa Kubiak gave me a gorgeous necklace made by a local artist of a
silver nest with three pearls. Perfect for the opening and lots of
admiring comments were given. Thank you Lisa.
My wonderful daughter who gave me valuable critiques drove in
as did son #1 and my darling goddaughter.
A huge thank you of course to Gail, Mark and Max at the gallery. They
had wonderful refreshments and champagne. The show was hung beautifully.
They kept their cool right up to the last minute delivery of
a huge wet painting. Great people.

Thursday, May 2nd was my opening reception.
The invitation was large at  6x8in  (first class postage!)
I used the photo (below) of some of my nests and you can see a
couple of my paintings - in both the top corners.
I did a large ard so it would get noticed between the junk mail.

Artist Note

I had no idea how the public would react to a show strictly on bird nests,
but it turned out that it was a very popular theme.
The show was a collection from three years of painting these amazing
avian structures, strictly for personal pleasure. I enjoy building them
with paint the way the birds do using different materials. It is a puzzle
why I respond to nests so emotionally, but I truly do. I can clearly remember
trying to draw one I could see from the window when I was about 6.
The bird was not as fascinating as the nest and it is still the same today.

Some of my first paintings on this blog were several
of the nests included in the show.
Below are a few wonderful nests from my collection - the one in the
painting above them is a Sandhill Crane Nest. 48x36in

Tomorrow I will show some of the watercolors I did.

My last thank you is for my supportive group of blogging friends.
I have missed you and I am looking forward to trolling
to see what you all have been up to.

*M Phillips Gallery phone number
575-525-1367

Something Different

Something Different

Portrait of a Woman -  unfinished demo study    egg tempera  Not for sale

It was egg tempera class today and I brought in an old master
copy to demonstrate the strokes following form.
The original was painted in 1430 by the flemish master, Robert Campin.
He has been credited as one of the founders (along with van Eyck)
of the realist style of oil painting in the Netherlands.
The original is in the National Gallery, London, and I was really
mesmerized by how alive her eyes were - almost with a sense of fun.
I thought she was a nun at first, but reading more I found it was a headdress.
The companion piece, Portrait of a Man,  was done the year before
and he is wearing a marvelous red headdress
so I think Robert was into painting fabric folds.

Egg tempera is a linear technique and you build up with many layers to
create the marvelous colors and shading. I have done a close-up here for you to see.
They are not this obvious in the actual piece.
As you can tell from the top view, I have drawn in the painting first with a
watered down India ink applied with a brush, establishing the dark areas.

There is quite a revival going on with egg tempera and I am thrilled
to have a group of talented artists here in Las Cruces who are
enjoying exploring this fascinating medium.

Egg Tempera - My Daughter!

My Daughter

20x 16  egg tempera  NFS

It is an older painting but I am showing it because I have not done
a painting today - or yesterday.

I am still missing my daughter. She used to model for me all the time.

This painting is very special as my daughter is reading a love letter my father
sent to my mother when he was courting her.
She is wearing my mothers pear earrings. The shawl is the one I paint a lot -
my aunt gave it to me for my first child's christening.
The vase belonged to my grandmother and
the three calla lilies are symbolic of the three daughters
my parents had.
The background is an homage to Vermeer. I put his floor on the wall!

Egg tempera consists of many layers with little specks of color peeping through
here and there. I know it had a huge influence on helping me develop my
fracturing technique...even though the outward appearance is so different.


On First Friday's, Las Cruces enjoys an evening Art Walk and I opened a new
teaching space including a small gallery where I can show my daily paintings.
My regular gallery is one block south and we both hope it will work well for clients.


My new gallery pics.
ART STUDIO las cruces
                                 
The entrance leads in from
from another gallery - which is great - and it was the gallery
of a wonderful local artist for 10 years. It is on our Downtown Main Street.

The classroom is behind
this longer wall

This is a 20 foot wall and
I placed the unframed
paintings on easels.
My husband and I made the
wooden pedestals from
wood we had cut to sizes.
My favorite wall fountain
adds a little bit of interest.


Next month will be the Grand Opening and I will have the bugs worked out by then
but we had lots of well wishers and quite a few sales with fabulous comments.

Commission for a Friend.

Commission for a Friend.

Egg tempera 10x8in  SOLD

I was asked to do this painting by the sister of my friend, whose memorial
celebration I am out here to attend.
She asked for a rose to symbolize her sister, Lorraine, so I painted a beautiful one
in full bloom but partly in shadow because she lived with the shadow of cancer
over her for the last 20 years. She never gave up and she made the most of ever
year she had...taking a trip to Russia a few months before she passed.
She was a fighter for sure.
The shawl was asked for too because it is the one I paint a lot and Lorraine loved it.

Artist Note:

Egg tempera is a wonderful medium.  The oldest one after encaustic.
For those who do not know it, the same dry pigments
are used for oils, watercolor and acrylics.
It is the binder which is different.
The yolk of an egg replaces the
 gum of Arabic for watercolor, oil for the oil paint
and the polymer for acrylics.
The colors are uniquely beautiful and egg tempera paintings have stood the
test of time... from Ancient times.

Last Rose of the Season

Last Rose of the Season

Egg Tempera  9x7in  on museum board
For sale at gallery only
M.Phillips Fine Art Gallery

This is painted in Egg Tempera. (Not to be confused with the tempera paints you see used by children.)
It is a process of layering the paint in thin layers of powdered pigment to which the binder of egg yolk has been added. After encaustic it is the oldest painting medium. Fine examples of egg tempera from the 1st Century AD still exist. It was used by most artists until some genius thought of adding oil as a binder to the pigment...making oil paint.  Believe it or not, oil paint is believed to have been used in Afghanistan somewhere between the 5th- 9th centuries but was not adopted by the western world until 1500AD. Anyway, back to egg tempera.
 Andrew Wyeth  was a 20th century giant in egg tempera and lived long enough to see a renewal of interest in his chosen medium.
 Egg Tempera is without doubt my favorite media, but unfortunately you need excellent eyesight do do it justice. I can only do a few pieces a year so they are usually pieces I have strong feelings about. The shawl appears frequently in my ET pieces as I feel a huge, emotional bond with it.  Made by my Aunt Claire many years ago, it is the family Christening Shawl and has gone back and forth across the Atlantic to England for each new birth.