For most of my painting education/career I wasn’t very interested in painting the landscape (strange, given the awe I have always felt for nature’s sublimity). My first attempt in Santa Fe during the winter of 2008 found me cursing my frozen fingers and a particular tree that seemed to get a kick out of dropping snow on me and my palette. It wasn’t until a decade later when I met my (now) wife Jillian - and when I found out it was something she enjoyed doing - that I started to get into it. I had to pull out all the stops if I was going to gain her favor. My love for landscape painting grew as I fell deeper in love with Jillian (It’s several years on, and now our 20 month old daughter Sylvie paints outdoors with us occasionally…and she loves it - I’m sure she’ll have more Instagram followers than me in no time).
Plein air painting became a particularly great activity during the pandemic, and all that time outside (diving into a 100 landscapes project) was a great opportunity for me to get better and to balance out my overall studio practice. Needless to say, a collection of sketches, studies, demos and dust have been building up in my studio over the past few years. I decided to blow off that dust, mount, sign, varnish the paintings, and re-open a storefront gallery here on my site (Each piece for sale is floated in a wooden handmade frame, thanks to my dad… In truth, “thanks” isn’t nearly enough for all the beautiful work he’s done! I should probably take him out for lunch). I will be offering signed, dated & numbered limited edition giclee prints for several of the sketches as well.
Handmade Frames by my dad, Dwayne Hall
ART SANTA FE | July 12-14 2024
For anyone who is interested in seeing this ensemble of work in person (always ideal!), I’ll be exhibiting the landscapes in booth #128 at the Santa Fe Convention Center from July 12-14. Click here for tickets, and more information about the show.
Painting is the fun part. In general, I’d much prefer numb fingers and falling snow to having to promote myself and my work, but it’s certainly an aspect of my career that needs some balancing out as well. Wish me luck… and come say hi!
Argentonnay Sketch 2019
…And lastly, I’ve finally decided on dates for my Autumn Landscape Painting Workshop here in Santa Fe:
Part 1 | En Plein Air - November 7-11 & Part 2 | In the Studio - November 12-16
We will be spending the first five days painting the landscape from various locations in and around Santa Fe. The focus will be primarily on creating color and compositional studies that will inspire our second five days of in-studio paintings. Enroll for each session separately, or sign up for both parts (and save $200).
Follow the links above or visit the Workshops page for more info and registration, and be sure to visit the Calendar page to find out about other upcoming courses.