Kaia Thomas - A path with ART

So I finally found some time to dust off the plein air equipment and get out to paint! It's actually been so long that I am embarrassed to say. The kick in the butt is my upcoming workshop with Chris Morel and not wanting to show up to paint too rusty. As usual, it was an adventure...it was a pleasant, first cool day in 3 months and all seemed to be going well...We went to a favorite spot of mine that I've known about for many years and it's just loaded with magical beauty. Unfortunately it's also a favorite spot shooters...I was about an hour and half into my painting when the gun shots started. The shots would make me jump and added some unwanted brush strokes to my painting. I tried to endure but soon became very uneasy about ricochet bullets. So I had to put an end to the painting... We went to another area away from the flying bullets but by then the day was nearly spent... So I spent the rest of my time taking photos of the beauty... All in ...

I realize it has been way too long since my last post. Life has gone and got crazy busy again...busy is getting to be a more frequent occurrence these days and time is beginning to be a precious commodity... I recently completed two mandalas - "Renewel" is an 8" x 10" acrylic painting (shown above) and "Vibrancy" is a miniature 2.5" x 3.5" ACEO acrylic painting (see below) and both are available for purchase in my Etsy shop .  These were painted in a different way then I usually do. I disciplined myself to only two colors (minus the black) and after laying out the mandala drawing, what I would normally do is find particular patterns that I wished to emphasize with certain colors and sometimes painting over lines in the process. With these mandalas, I tried something different, where I kept every line and painting with the rule - no one color could touch itself...so it was like - purple, green, purple, green, that sort of thing. I found...

Cactus are certainly a feature living in the desert and they never cease to amaze me.  This year we had an Agave cactus (the kind Tequilla comes from) that was planted when we first moved here, coming up on 20 years ago, that put out it's flower. The thing about Agave cactus is, when they flower, that's it! That's the final doing of it's life.  I put together a series of photos that I took as the flower grew. It's tough to capture the feeling of just how big these flowers are but I did my best. Two hours after the very last photo I took, a wind storm came along and blew it over. I was glad I was able to capture this Agave's last stand.

I heard this report on the radio last night - I couldn't believe it!! McCain proposing a bill to make supplements available only through doctor's perscription? I am a supplement user and have been for a long time.  I believe that the best medicine is "preventive" medicine.  Supplements have helped in my health and well being so much over the years.  So much of people's ailments today, whether physical or mental, are due to vitamin deficiency.  Bi-polar difficulties, for example, are greatly due to a lack of vitamin B's. This is yet again a product of greed.  A way to make more money off us, at the cost of our freedom to take care of our selves how we choose. I actually am not big on the politics scene and don't normally get involved but this was upsetting... http://www.salem-news.com/articles/february192010/nutrition_bill.php

T oday I found myself pondering how we seem to live in a dualistic reality, so I began questioning this... Everything seems to be split in two, for example: body and mind right and wrong good and evil hot and cold light and dark day and night up and down male and femal e love and hate and so on...what I found myself asking was " is that the extent of my options?" " 1 or 2?" When one considers the vastness of this world, Universe, life and all the possibilities that exist, are you telling me there are just TWO options? Why not three? Why not 50?! My point, I guess, is that I think we get stuck in an "either/or" frame of mind, when in truth, there are a myriad of possibilities.  I think that the benefits of having an open mind is that it gives rise to options. Close-mindedness is being stuck in a dualistic brain; hung up on one side or the other, giving all one's energy over to upholding a certain view - politics is a beautiful example of th...

As I was on the way home from my job this afternoon, I had an interesting experience that I thought might be worth sharing...As I looked to the south I became mesmerized by the beauty of the mountains; the way the light and shadows were playing together and the inviting warm colors of the end of a Fall, desert day. I had that welling up of inspiration to try and capture the moment.   I was tired though, it had been a long work day and I found myself saying "just go home; now is not a good time".  It was then when I suddenly saw how I continuely spoil those magical moments when I could stop and paint or sketch, by feeling that I'm not up for it or that I can do it in the future, convincing myself that I have other more important things to do. I hit the brakes and pulled over. I keep my art bag in the car with me at all times and I pulled out the sketchbook, watercolor travel kit and tripod stool to sit on. 20 minutes later I was driving down the road energized and happy, w...