Kaia Thomas - A path with ART

"Playground of The Ancients" 24" x 30" oil on stretched linen up for auction! Click Here to see auction. This is one of my favorite places to hike and paint, which is just a few miles from where I live in southeastern Arizona. I painted a 9" x 12" study on location, and later in the studio,  painted this larger version. This painting is up for auction on DailyPaintworks . Painting on location

"Diva and Prickly Pear" 5" x 7" oil on canvas panel (with reference photo) The last few days have been busy preparing for an upcoming miniature art show. This is one of the small works I will be entering. So excited! I will post more about it soon...

 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. 

From now until December 16th, you can get 20% off any artwork in my Etsy shop.  Just use the coupon code HOLIDAY13 during checkout.  Here are few of the available paintings you will find for sale! Please visit my Etsy shop and take advantage of this opportunity. Sale ends soon! Click Here to enter the shop.

 Rest Stop Ocotillo - 5 x 7 study in oil   I had no clue when I started a 5 x 7 study of "Rest Stop Ocotillo" that a brand knew style would be born. A style that somewhat resembles icing a cake!     I began the study with a palette knife and although I intended to paint the rest of it with brushes, I used the palette knife all the way to the end, even signed it with the knife!    For the most part, I struggle with being too tight in my work. My paintings often land more on the realistic side and I long to have a looser, more painterly style. In this case, when I started applying paint with the palette knife, something broke loose and that more expressive side suddenly emerged. I was so surprised to see it! I felt a kind of elated freedom and a renewed inspiration! The thick, expressive paint and crazy colors that happened were so exciting!   When I approached the larger canvas version of "Rest Stop Ocotillo", I did not expect to contin...

"Agave Grande" 8 x 10 oil on linen panel $280  www.kaiathomas.com  I decided to set up and do some plein air painting in our front yard. Over the years our cactus garden has really taken off and I am seeing paintings everywhere now! I was really happy with how this one turned out.

" Playground of the Ancients" 24" x 30" o/c     My latest project has been painting a rock landscape series. This painting is the first in the series. This series is being done from field studies and photo reference taken over the last few years. This place is one of my all time favorite spots to hike and hang out in. It is part of the Chiricahua mountain range located here in Southeastern Arizona and only a short distance from where I live. I have been visiting this magical spot for over two decades (okay, that just made me feel old - lol).  Here are some photos I took during the painting's progression - enjoy!  Underpainting....  Adding darkest darks and lightest lights...  See the small original field study?...  Boulders are nearly complete... The pose...lol...

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.

"San Pedro in Bloom" 18" x 24" acrylic on canvas board custom made Redwood frame $395 + Shipping click here

The desert often has a reputation for being sparse or barren and when I first moved here nearly 20 years ago, I found that I carried a lot of assumptions about how the desert is and was pleasantly surprised to find the desert was full of magic and beauty and not at all what I assumed it to be. One of the biggest surprises was when spring came and the cactus suddenly bloomed with the most beautiful flowers I have ever witnessed. I call them the desert's secret treasure. This spring, after all the much needed rains from this winter, the cactus have been producing quite the show of blossoms.  I am happy to be able to share a little of this desert treasure with you.  All the photos were taken at our property here in Southeast Arizona... Chain Cholla Blossoms Prickley Pear Blossoms Bird of Paradise ( not a cactus )  Hedge Hog Cactus More Prickley Pear flowers Blessings of beauty and ...

Ok, so it's been a while since I posted. A lot has been happening, let's see, first of all I have  exciting news!  The "Art with Heart" gallery in Tempe, Arizona approached me to show the mandala paintings for three months!! Next exciting thing is that I made the leap and bought a really nice printer so I can now make my own art prints from home. This is a huge learning and a lot of frustration at times working out the bugs but I am thrilled - the prints look amazing! I have two currently available in my Etsy shop... "Summer Cloud" 8" x 10" print of oil painting 2009 For Sale click here "Castaneda Desert" 8" x 10" print of digital painting  2009 For Sale click here I will continue to post and share prints as I make them. I also would love to get some advise if anyone wants to leave some. Mostly I would like to know about getting the colors on the monitor to match what comes out of the printer or vice versa. The digita...

I'm huddled in my studio today, trying to stay warm. It's raining again...if it weren't for the cactus everywhere, I would think I was back living in Washington! I live in southeast Arizona where we have been in a 15+ year drought and I do believe that the start to this year is changing that... So, whilst I am huddled in the studio, I am making the best of it and being creative. I have heard of ACEO ( art card, editions and originals)for some time and left it on the back burner until this weekend. I tried my first one and I think I'm in love. I'm a detail freak, so working on such a small canvas is such challenging fun!           "Fig Trees" acrylic on canvas paper 2.5" x 3.5" I will definitely continue to create these little guys and have them up for sale on the Etsy shop soon!