Alan Heuer - Landscapes of the West & Beyond

Climbing to the Moon

2010-04-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

It's all about the moon glow, well and the crosses and the shadows. Okay, so we see the moon first, and then the crosses which lead us around in circles. And it's all about the angularity of the shadows and values.

2009-09-24T19:33:00.000-07:00

I did go back and work on my utopic displacement, "Fibonacci's Stairs"one more time in preparation for the 2009 Taos Fall Arts (this is the final version for those of you who have followed its progress via this blog) . I added a few minor details as well as final dark glazes, scumbles (opaques) and highlights to bring out its depth and make it glow. I have entered it along with two others other paintings in the Taos Fall Arts: "Purple Rain" (a.k.a New Mexico Thunder) and a miniature. Show details below.

"Fibonacci's Stairs"
oils on canvas
48" x 36"
$6,400

On display during the 2009 Taos Fall Arts Festival, Taos Invites Taos.
Friday, September 25 through Monday, October 12, 2009.
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Reception: Friday, September 25, 5:00 - 7:00
(come meet the artist!)

2009-09-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

This year I joined the Taos Artist Organization so that I could participate in the 2009 Studio Tour from Sept. 19 -- 27. My studio will be available for tours by appointment.

The reception is this Friday, September 18th, 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM at the Taos Art Plaza -- across from Smiths. Come meet the artists, join the fun and get a map!

I will also have numerous works on display as an artist at the Taos Art Plaza (and for those of you wondering, yes, I'm still also at Sage Fine Art on the Plaza).

"Light before the Storm"
oils on canvas
16" x 20"
$680

On display at the Taos Art Plaza Sept. 19 - 17
223 Paseo del Pueblo Sur
(across from Smiths)

Reception:
Friday, September 18, 6:30 to 8:30 PM

Valley View Meadow"

2009-08-10T13:03:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I attended a fabulous outdoor wedding in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado near Crestone and had the opportunity to do a 16" x 20" plein air painting overlooking a meadow with a hot springs pool. I arrived early before the crowd began to gather and took the photo on the left. It's fun to see how the camera sees things after I have done my interpretation on location.

Okay, so what's different and why?

Composition. No major changes from the photograph; however, the small changes I did do are important. In the painting there is a small circular wisp of running water just to the left of the pond (this is actually there, but you can't see it in the photo). I used this along with a circular sweep of grasses to lead the eye back to the far meadow. I also opened a passage between the near meadow and the far meadow and made the far meadow a little larger by reducing the size of the trees. Also you might notice that most of the grasses (left & right) mostly lean towards the middle meadow. I increased the length on some of the shadows (I didn't arrive until 9:00 AM). I warmed up the color scheme as this is how it "felt" and I brought the mountains forward so it feels more like a valley rather than just a distant range. The painting also includes a few of the yellow flowers that can be seen on location but fade to nothing in the photo.

"Valley View Meadow" - near Crestone, Colorado
oils on canvas 16" x 20"
$680

New Mexico Thunder

2009-06-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

I've been fascinated by clouds since growing up as a boy in Wyoming. When I finally ventured to New Mexico in 1995 I was not disappointed; a storm not unlike this drenched me the first week out. I have learned since then its better to catch the storm with a good camera and paint from the safety of my studio. I used a black & white reference for this painting; I like black & white because I can filter out certain hues to obtain the values I like best. I then proceed to paint. With this particular piece I used a lot of Alizirin Crimson & Viridian Green with white as the base (as they make a beautiful grey); I then added other colors to either warm or cool the tones.

This particular view is just south of Espanola (between Taos & Santa Fe) looking east.

"New Mexico Thunder" 40" x 40" oils $4,150

Ranchos Red Roofs

2009-06-07T22:06:00.000-07:00

To me at least, the simplicity of the shadows on the Taos hills of "Ranchos Red Roofs" harkens to Maynard Dixon, one of the early southwest painters whose work I admire. Not that I set out to paint anything like Maynard Dixon; it just seems as my style matures I find myself simplifying the shapes rather than worrying about detail -- something Dixon did. And in many of my paintings I seek a whimsical flow of line rather than an accurate rendering of the landscape. As a young man I wanted to strive for detail as did many of the early painters I admired ... Frederick Church, Albert Bierstadt. I stood in awe in the great museums at their finally rendered detail. But it seems the more I strive for detail -- especially in my smaller works -- the less I end up using it. I'm finding the more I leave out the better I like it.

"Ranchos Red Roofs" oils 16" x 20" $680

Taos Yellow Truck

2009-05-25T16:53:00.000-07:00

I've seen this yellow truck around Taos now for several years and been thinking of incorporating it into a painting. During the TAO reception where I had hung my "Taos Summer of Love" I had the good fortune to meet the gentleman who owns the truck. I don't remember his name, but he assured me it would be alright to do a painting with his truck. As I left the reception and headed up the hill towards the Plaza I found it sitting in a parking lot. I quickly pulled out my small digital camera ... the one I now try to carry at all times ... and took numerous photographs from a variety of angles. As I did with "Taos Summer of Love", I combined several photographs before commencing with the painting that you see finished here.

SOLD
"Taos Yellow Truck"
16" x 20" oils on canvas $680

Taos Summer of Love - the process

2009-05-17T18:48:00.000-07:00

I was under the gun for this painting, because I wanted to deliver a dry painting -- and oil paints generally do not dry quickly -- some paintings aren't truly dry for 75 years. At most I wanted to deliver a painting dry to the touch.

It was due for hanging on Thursday and I only commenced with painting on Monday (I did the drawing Sunday after designing in Paintshop Pro on Saturday -- see my previous blog).

To speed the drying process I used an acrylic wash for the under-painting over the pencil drawing I did Sunday (which I often do anyway). I then did a thin layer using transparent pigments thinned with generous amounts of undiluted Gamblin Galkyd painting medium which drys very quickly in thin layers (besides transparent layers look best when thin as they have a beautiful translucent quality).

I then painted directly into the wet transparent layer using a lead based Windsor Newton white mixed with opaque and semi-opaque pigments -- i.e., cadmiums, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, cobalt violet etc. I used mostly hog bristles and dragged the brush so some of the under layers would show through. White lead dries quickly and although toxic was the best choice for the job.
For the final layer (Wednesday evening when the painting was "mostly" dry) I covered the entire painting with Galkyd right out of the bottle. I then made some final adjustments into this transparent wet layer using mostly transparent pigments with a touch of white lead here & there.

The painting was dry by Thursday morning.

As you can see I did decide to leave the old hippie out of the final painting. And I did receive a lot of positive response to it on Saturday evening

Thus, it is now hanging at the Taos Art Plaza (across from Smiths) as part of the TAO (Taos Art's Organization) Summer of Love show. It will be there until June 21st. There will be a masquerade ball on Saturday June 20th. I plan to be there!

And so will the painting (unless it finds a buyer, of course)

SOLD
"Summer of Love"
16" x 20" -- oils on canvas $680

Taos Summer of Love

2009-05-09T13:46:00.000-07:00

This summer commemorates the 40th anniversary of Dennis Hopper's journey to Taos via the movie"Easy Rider" part of which was filmed in Taos. And in fact Dennis has made his way back to Taos this summer to help the town celebrate that auspicious summer. Yesterday evening I saw him standing among the guests at the Harwood museum where he has displayed some of his own art -- very contemporary, very large, abstracted, dramatic black & white acrylic paintings that fit the space quite well. One of our favorite local painters -- Inger Jirby -- was herself decked out in black & white and I could not help commenting to her on it. Of course it was planned.

Anyway, back in 1969 the Taos locals were none to happy with the hippies that had also descended on Taos. But, Taos eventually absorbed rather than spit them out. In fact one day one of them came into a local bar with a mouse on his shoulder and asked for a beer. The bartender put one down on the bar and the mouse ran down and drank the beer. The bartender was quite amazed and set down another one. The mouse ran down the hippies arm and drank that one too. And the bartender asked, "Where'd you get it?". The mouse looked up at the bartender and said, "Taos, the damn things are all over the place around here."

And so the summer of love is almost here and it seems I have nothing ready for it. And yesterday I joined TAO (Taos Arts Organization) and they are hosting a show with, you guessed it, "Summer of Love" as the theme. So, I decided I'd better get busy.

Anyway ... this is what I've come up with so far. With luck and fast drying oils it should be a painting by Thursday. I haven't decided whether to leave the old hippie in the road or not. (for those of you who don't know that's me circa 2009)

"Fibonacci's Stairs" - the finished painting

2009-02-22T15:17:00.000-08:00

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In the end the stairs leading to Fibonacci's house proved a bit of a quandary as it is almost dead center ... a bulls-eye as it were. It is the center of the spiral that leads outward to the waterfalls.

I took it over to my gallery (Sage Fine Art here in Taos) and asked Lynn McLain what he thought of the composition. The response was quite positive and he in fact felt the house and window were in exactly the right spot as a painting this busy needs a destination.

So for now at least this is the final painting. My paintings do sometimes change before they sell, though I suspect I will leave this one alone.

All told it comprises 6 waterfalls from 4 States including Arizona, California, New Mexico & Wyoming. The background falls are of course Yosemeti, The forground fall is Williams Falls just up the mountain from Taos. The side fall is a part of Popo Agie Falls up in Wyoming. The middle falls are also in New Mexico. The buildings are from Jerome, Arizona. Fibonacci's stairs and the lake are fictional. Thus, we have something both real and not real ... I call it utopic displacement.

Fibonacci's Stairs

2009-02-04T15:42:00.000-08:00

I'm using dynamic symetry in my next painting loosely based on Fibonacci's sequence which in nature often forms a spiral as in a nautalis shell. Notice how the waterfalls in the background spiral back into the large one in the foreground, then across the bridge and up the stairs to the little house which is the point of the spiral.

The rooftops on the left bottom and house on the right are actually from the cliffside town of Jerome, Arizona where I visited in the Spring of 2007. The distant falls are from photos I took of Yosemite when I travelled there as a kid back in the 70s. The forground waterfall is in the Williams Wilderness near Taos. The other two waterfalls are also in New Mexico and courtesy of photos from my buddy Doug Scott here in Taos.

For me sometimes the title is as much fun as the painting, though often it comes long after the painting is done.
I don't think Fibonacci will mind.