Linne Thomas Art

Painting on location workshop

2011-06-13T08:34:00.001-07:00

Linne Thomas:

Two day Plein-Aire Workshop:
With yavapaideals.com, I am offering a 2-day “Plein – Aire” workshop on June 20 & 21 from 9:30am -1:30pm at Watson Lake.. It wonderful to be in nature and not always working from a photograph; I highly recommend giving it a try. Register through yavapaideals.com.

Grab your water bottle, your sunscreen, a big hat, pack a lunch and grab your paints and join me for painting on location next week.

Linne

Late spring renewal...

2011-05-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

May 27, 2011

As I was saying before time warped and accelerated and I now find it’s the end of May already…wow how does that happen?

I have just returned from almost 2 weeks in the Midwest visiting family and friends and takes me longer to bounce back from long trips than it use take. It was a good visit; I didn’t get to see everyone I’d like to have seen because I have stopped renting cars and started taking public transportation. I now use Amtrak, Metra and CTA from place to place in and around Chicago, Indiana and Michigan. It does limit just how many people I can get to in one visit, but it saves me a lot of money and I make my “carbon” foot print a lot smaller. I also am a little overwhelmed by city traffic after 22 years in Prescott, Arizona.

I came back with very sore knees – there are so many stairs to go up and down in the Midwest. I guess it makes up for the flatness of the landscape? With degenerating kneecaps it’s a challenge - but I am home and recovering, thanks to my first of 5 Supartz injections! Ahh the miracles of modern medicine and Medicare!

My planning drawing on a red background.

When I last did a blog entry I was working on a diptych of a “wash” down in Skull Valley, Arizona. I was going to try and master acrylic painting on a larger size painting. I have been doing smaller canvases for years. I wanted to move away from the toxic fumes that oil painting presents. Well…so much for good intentions, I just didn’t like it at all. I ended up repainting the whole painting in oil over the acrylic. I used the acrylic as an under painting and it worked out fine. See below. I paint on a red or purple under painting because it makes your colors “POP”! It’s a technique I learned from my friend Dan Rupe. Google Dan -- his work is wonderful, he was a big influence on my work. I have facetiously likened it to painting on black velvet. The final results are below.

“Skull Valley Wash” diptych on stretched canvas panels, 24” x 18” combined, $765.

I also recently completed two other landscapes in oil on canvas.

“Sweet Nectar”, ocotillo in bloom with a visitor – an Anna’s humming bird, 24” x 18” an oil painting on gallery wrapped canvas, unframed for $645. Or framed in a barn wood frame for $795.

I love to paint aspen turning to gold in the fall up in Flagstaff, Arizona. They line up like soldiers, standing straight and tall in full dress uniforms!

“Fall in Line”, oil on canvas, framed size 14” x 17”, $365.

I took a bunch of photos from my window seat flying back to Phoenix on Tuesday and I am thinking I am going to do some smaller (9”x9”) very loose and abstract watercolors from those photos. I also was inspired by the pastry counter and freshly baked bread at a Whole food in my old home tome of Northbrook, Illinois and my friend Patty’s Tres Leche cake and her strawberry pie --- great eating and I see some oil paintings out of those photos. I took lots of Chicago Street scenes as well as the very green trees through the windows of my friends home.

It was a very good trip and I came back tired but renewed in so many ways. I even managed to get my Linne Thomas Art facebook page up and running this week. Happy last days of spring.

Yours truly,

Linne

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-13T17:26:00.000-08:00

"Life is like a box of chocolates!"

This is a big file, but I did that on purpose so that you can download it and use it for a Valentine for someone you love.

Linne

New Directions

2011-02-11T21:30:00.000-08:00

February 12, 2011

I have decided my brain has probably been exposed to the fumes that accompany working in oil for too many years. They make "odorless" paint thinners, but they are still toxic. Between breathing those fumes for over 40 years, being an ex-smoker now for 25 years after 26 years of sucking down my beloved Marlboros and other herbal substances in the 70's, why I am worried about the fumes of my art, is more than likely a little silly. Being a little silly has never really stopped me from doing things and this is a good idea. Soooo...I have decided to switch to acrylic paints. Acrylic paint has greatly improved over the years. It looks and handles like oil paint, so it seems like a good move. I have 4 smaller canvases ready to go, I've bought the paint, tomorrow I set up my palette and start painting. My studio will smell better and my mind just might get clearer. I have decide to go back to this wonderful southwestern landscape and start painting the scenery around Yavapai County. I want to get more of "me" into my work. I am not quite sure what I mean by that, but it's a goal I am going to work toward defining. It's nice to try new directions and inspiration. I am "stoked"!

This is how I start a painting. I like to paint on a red or purple field, I think it makes my colors "POP"! This it the plan for a diptych I am going to do of a wash/arroyo near Skull Valley, Arizona in acrylic paint.

Winter news not the blues...

2011-02-10T09:13:00.000-08:00

As seen in Phoenix Home and Garden magazine, June 2010

Photo by Laura Moss, LauraMoss.com

I got a call from a student and a friend of mine to tell me she had seen my paintings in the June 2010 issue of Phoenix Home and Garden that she bought at the library. I said I didn't think so, but she said yes they even spelled my name correctly. I asked what was the title and she said, " The Lucidity of Open Space" and I said "Wow those are my paintings!" I went through a phase of naming paintings from with phases I culled from Gabriel Garcia Marquez' "One Hundred Years of Solitude". The prose in the book was so visual and rich, I loved it. The only problem was I could never remember what title went with which painting, I had to become a little more descriptive with my titles. Oh well---it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The text in the magazine wrote, “The cheery paintings by Linne Thomas are part of a triptych titled An Open Space of Lucidity. The homeowners spotted them in a display at Phoenix Sky harbor International Airport and tracked down the artist at a Scottsdale gallery.”

So of course, I am pretty stoked (my 1970's roots) and am sharing it with as many people as I can contact. I probably am ready to let it fade a bit now?

Also new are some new Fine Arts Prints I just had done by the wonderful Alan Lade of Lade Back Photography and Fine Art of a commission painting I just completed called "Tis the Season". It's a painting of the Yavapai County Courthouse at Christmas. Prescott is Arizona's official "Christmas City". I am going to be able to get it printed on canvas and fine art paper with archival acid free

inks and UV protection and it will be on my website www.LinneThomasArt.com very soon. Alan did an amazing job capturing the image, I am glad to have found him.

Linne February 10, 2010