Well hey there! I’m so glad you stopped by but I’ve moved!!
Please come and visit me at my new website: http://rachelmurphree.com
While you’re there… Check out my blog or sign up for my newsletter!
See you there! Artfully yours, Rachel
I am absolutely thrilled to announce that Paradise Glow, my painting of the desert red bird of paradise plant, won First Place in the NM Watercolor Society’s Southern Chapter juried exhibit! Thank you to the exhibit judge Robert Dozal for choosing my piece. This is a first for me to win an award in an NMWS show!
I have a second piece juried into the exhibit called Jeweled Crown. Thank you to juror Linda Doll for picking both of my paintings to be in the exhibit.
You can view the entire show here: https://tinyurl.com/SC-2020-NMWS The show is a really nice one with artist’s comments under each image and also comments from Robert on the show and the prizewinners. The exhibit is online only because of the pandemic, but we were scheduled to be at the Branigan Museum in Las Cruces and hopefully will be there in another year. They are super to work with. So please sit back and enjoy the exhibit: Rough and Tumble: Life in a Desert Town.
During isolation I have been out of commission with lower back issues for several weeks and standing, sitting and walking were painful. The recovery is slow because I didn’t want to risk a visit to the chiropractor and I was really missing painting. Today I made a travel kit to have near my sofa and painted while my daughter cooked pierogies and kielbasa. The onions were starting to sprout because I hadn’t been cooking recently and they have interesting shapes. And now it is time to eat!!
Here are two paintings that are in process, and almost finished. I thought I’d post them so you could see what was occupying my time recently!
The first is a barrel cactus and in reality the blossoms are more vivid than they appear here, but they need to be amped up, and the spines “pushed back” as well as other tweaks.
The second is one of my favorite subjects: The Desert Red Bird of Paradise. I’m happiest with this painting so far, but it also needs tweaks and the stamens!
I’ve had the privilege this year of being in a watercolor critique group where we each have 15 minutes to present one or two paintings for constructive criticism. Both of these went before the group this month and I’ll work on them as time allows soon. It’s quite beneficial, I highly recommend joining one of these groups!
’tis the time of year for sunflowers, although they are welcome anytime! I have been playing with ink sketches with washes in my sketchbook, as well as a just watercolor painting. The bunch of flowers is now gone but my memory of it is on paper.
I wanted to show you a series of paintings that I did through a class taken in the summer with the fabulous painter Nancy Frost Begin. She challenged us to be willing to simplify our subject and change elements such as color, value, etc. to INVENT rather than just REPORT in our painting. I started with the photograph that inspired this painting I did of echeverria several years ago and I simplified the subject first.
The first question: Was I willing to change the color?
Was I willing to change the shape?
Was I willing to change the scale? To zoom in? or out…
Was I willing to change the value?
Was I willing to change the form?
Was I willing to change the space? i.e. reverse what we think about the background and foreground
What a difference they all are aren’t they? coming from the same point of inspiration. It was a mind blowing and mind expanding exercise that I’m sure I will do again! I loved it!
Nancy Frost Begin, NMWS will be the guest demo artist for the Rio Bravo Watercolorists on November 20, Wednesday at 10:30 at the International Museum of Art, 1211 Montana, El Paso. She will be discussing What Are You Willing to Change?
I’ve recently mounted paintings onto deep cradled wood panels, sometimes painted on the sides, sometimes not. Here they are individually and as a group. Click on any photo to enlarge and browse.
The paintings are at the Marketplace at Placita Santa Fe (5034 Doniphan Dr, El Paso) or at First Impressions Salon (6633 N Mesa St # 502 – ask for Leslie)
Because they are mounted on wood and are not behind glass, they can be shipped. Contact me if you’d like details.
These varnished watercolors applied to black painted 2″ deep canvases are selling as fast as I can paint them. They have a more modern rich color because of the varnish and not being behind glass. The smallest is 5″ square. The largest so far is 8×10″. Fun to do and see on the walls! So far they have been only at Flattop Salon but I hope to have them at the Marketplace at Placita Santa Fe and at First Impressions. #elpasowatercolors #flowers #shopsmall
Rachel Murphree Watercolors 