Kaia Thomas - A path with ART

I'm excited to announce I've been invited to exhibit at the Willcox tasting room of award winning Aridus Wine Co.! I will have a number of  paintings on display as well as some recent charcoal drawings. Miniatures, small works and greeting cards will also be available just in time for the holidays! The opening reception is December 3rd from 1-3pm and the show will be on display through the month of December. Also taking place in December is the first annual "A Painting's a Painting No Matter How Small" show put on by TwoTen Fine Art Gallery in San Antonio, Texas, which I was pleased to learn my small painting " Escalante Pasture" was accepted into. Click Here for show details.

Triangle T Guest Ranch 7th Annual Garlic Festival On July 30th & 31st, I was invited to participate in a garlic festival held near Dragoon, AZ., in Texas Canyon at the beautiful Triangle T Guest Ranch. I not only had a booth with art to sell (first time adventure), but also did live demonstration painting both days! What a great experience!! Smells of garlic wafted through the air, garlic everything was available and when I say everything... how about garlic ice cream?? Of which was sold out both days and I never got to try :(   Both days ended with a show of dancing horses - an impressive scene to behold. Some horses looked to be natural dancers, others looked more like controlled tantrums lol! In preparation for the festival I painted a series of small garlic still life paintings, which was a fun discipline and found myself learning a great deal in the process. Who knew the variations one could achieve painting garlic! However,  4 days of modeling garlic in ...

"Old Practice" 6x12 in. oil painting, one of three pieces that was accepted and sold at the  Albuquerque Museum Miniatures and More Exhibition Fundraiser in November 2014 So, I came to realize that it had been 5 months since I wrote a blog post! It is shocking how time is flying by these days. It just so happens that those past 5 months contained some very post-worthy events that I am going to do my best to recap and get us up to date here. I was deeply honored and thrilled when I received the acceptance notice that I was juried into the 2014 Miniatures and More Exhibition fundraiser at the Albuquerque Museum of Art. I may have unleashed some squeals of excitement upon finding out. The show started at the end of October and ran through November. I entered three pastoral/landscape pieces and only two returned home...  the above painting had sold during the show! Also in November was the Heather Green Studio's Annual Anniversary Show. The theme was flower...

"Unexpected Friend" - Framed 6" x 8" oil on canvas panel Available through 55 Main Gallery 55maingallery@gmail.com A friend of mine had this beautiful cat show up at her house one day, she was so purrfect! As it turned out, this cat had been in a car accident and was later reunited with it's owners. My friend had bonded with with the cat, and was sad to see her go. I had taken a photo of the kitty at one point, as I often do with cats I meet, and here it is years later, I ran across the photo and decided to paint from it. What a joy! This is a small, framed and ready to hang on your wall, 6" x 8" oil painting.

"Blackstone Sunflowers" 10" x 8" oil on canvas panel Contact me for pricing and availability During a recent trip to one of my favorite places on Earth - The Blackstone Hotsprings Hotel , I was struck by grounds keeper Dorthy's amazing sunflowers that were growing there. Having brought my painting gear along, I set up and produced this plein air piece. I am always deeply inspired whenever I stay there!

Sometimes I find I take for granted places I see day after day, like my driveway, and skip over potential paintings because of this. So...I set up my easel in the driveway, and in no time at all, was inspired to paint. My focus landed on the shadows cast by the Salt Pine tree.  "Driveway Shadows" 6" x 6" oil on canvas panel 

"Red Hill" 6" x 8" oil on canvas panel Available through 55 Main Gallery Another small painting of Northern Arizona scenery. I really enjoyed the process of painting this one. There was an effortless flow that happened while painting it, which was such a welcomed rarity from the usual struggle to get my vision on to canvas:)

"Northern Arizona Hillside" 6" x 6" oil on canvas panel Up for auction! Sold! Yet another in a series of small paintings of Northern Arizona and Southern Utah.  I don't think I am ever going to tire of the beautiful colors and contrast of this area. This scene is from the Navajo Reservation just before sundown.                          (Underpainting)

"Alluring Hillside" 6" x 8" oil on canvas panel up for auction! Staring bid $35! Click Here to see auction.

"Red Rock Country" 8" x 6" oil on canvas panel Up for auction! Click Here to see auction. Trying to capture the intense magic and beauty of Southern Utah's red rock country is most definitely a challenge. For me it's a real struggle to decide what to leave in and what to leave out. There is no way I can capture all the detail in those red rock mountains. I think this piece caught the essence of the place, though. This scene is near Escalante River.  This painting is up for auction on DailyPaintworks .

"Thunderhead" 24" x 20" oil on stretched linen up for auction starting bid $350! Click Here to see auction. I saw this scene while driving home one summer afternoon. What really struck me and made me reach for the camera, was how tiny the farm house looked next to this massive thunderhead building over the mountains. It had a very humbling effect.  One of the many things I love about living in the desert, are the intense and invigorating summer monsoon storms. The progression of "Thunderhead". For those interested, this painting is going up for auction on DailyPaintworks.com

"Colorful Dwellings" 8" x 8" oil on canvas panel Starting bid $50 Click Here for details. Last weekend I took my Mom to Bisbee, Az. for her birthday. She had a great time and got a much needed break. We stayed at The Jonquil motel , a favorite place of mine. They have a really nice back yard area for sitting, with views of one of  Bisbee's appealing qualities, colorful homes and unique architecture. I got inspired to paint one particular scene that had a nice grouping of colorful Bisbee homes. I set up my gear and created this little painting. 

 North View with Agave" 8" x 10"  Oil On Stretched Canvas $160   Click Here for details!   I painted this for a facebook challenge put on by a friend just for fun. The challenge was called "Looking out my front door", the only rule being the painting had to be within 50ft of the front door. I painted this view about 5ft from my front door. Plein air magazine actually got wind of what he was doing and did a blog post about it.