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 ...

Giving a value study demo for the class (photo courtesy of Clement Scott) So, not only was the day of March 20th the first day of Spring, the new moon, AND a solar eclipse, it was also my first day of teaching a class and giving a demo! Of course it was a very nervous day for me, and I'm pretty sure I drove my family and close friends a little nuts with all that nervousness, but it was also a very exciting day that ended up being such a great experience. For one thing, I learned that I actually enjoy teaching, and even more so, giving a demo! A progression of my black and white value study (photo courtesy of Louise Walden) This class was part of the Art 130 course at the Cochise College in Benson, Arizona, taught by friend and fellow artist Clement Scott . He had invited me to be guest instructor for the introductory day of landscape painting. I am very grateful for the opportunity and so happy I was talked into it! The students were great too! There is something a...

"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...

 "The Ol' Egg Room"      8" x 10" oil on canvas panel   Contact me for pricing and availability When painting pal Clement Scott and I, discovered an old barn to plein air paint in Pomerene, Arizona, we didn't realize the history that would be revealed about it after asking permission of the land owner to paint in his yard. This old dilapidated structure, tucked away amongst a grove of pecan trees and knee high weeds, had once been an important egg sorting room, where special lighting allowed them to reveal whether the eggs were keepers or not. It was a main supplier of eggs to many nearby towns. Who would of known??! Hearing a story such as this can help breathe life into a painting.  I added the chicken later on, as a sort of homage to the place and our experience.

"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.

Okay, so I have a bit to catch up on here - it's been a while since I've posted... Biggest news would be winning Best of Show at this year's Ann Boyd Wade Fine Art & Photography Show in April!! Very excited, and deeply honored by this!  I did a solo plein air event for my gallery for the April artwalk... It was so much fun, and one of the paintings sold! There was another plein air event in the month of May, again during the artwalk weekend. This was a group event, which included a wet canvas sale and show.  We all had such a blast! Diane Hayes, Clement Scott, Kaia Thomas, and Michelle Cook One of the pieces created during the weekend... "Off Main" 8" x 8" oil on canvas panel Available through 55 Main Gallery 55maingallery@gmail.com Well I think that about covers it for now...there will be more news to come :)

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 

"Afternoon At The Amerind"                             6" x 8" oil on canvas panel Contact me for pricing and availability My friend Clement Scott and I had a recent plein air adventure near the Amerind Foundation in Dragoon, Arizona.    It is an area full of history, and about a million paintings waiting to happen! We had a blast, and this painting is the result of that day.   If ever in this neck of the woods, a visit to the Amerind Foundation is a definite must! Well worth it.

"Strut" 6" x 8" oil on canvas panel Contact me for pricing and availability Some years ago, we attempted having chickens. Attempted being the key word there. They had so much personality. I had taken a photo that I thought really captured their personalities, and thus a painting was born!

"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)

"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 .

"Arizona Colors" 6" x 8" oil on canvas panel up for auction! Sold! Click Here to see auction. Another study of my trip through Northern Arizona. I was very taken with the late afternoon contrast and colors that were happening. The Juniper trees made perfect subjects for capturing it. The underpainting... Establishing the darks ... I have been spending the last few months really focusing on my planes and values. I feel like I'm starting to get a feel for it. Although, as an artist, I don't think I will ever arrive at anything. It's a life long journey of learning and growing.

"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...

"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

"Early Morning" 6" x 12" oil on canvas panel       I got back to work on the horse series yesterday, and I have to say I got a little excited about this one. Everything seemed to just fall into place as I painted, which believe me, is not a common occurrence!    The Block-in   This is another scene taken from my adventures in New Mexico .  I think I may have years worth of reference photos from my time spent there:) No complaints about that! Beginning to add color       I took the reference photo during the early morning. The air was crisp and heavy with dew. You could even see it glistening on the barb wire fence. The light was amazing, with lots of inspirational interplays happening to spark the creative spirit. I'm glad to finally come around to painting this moment...  

Untitled 12" x 9" oil monochrome on stretched canvas Sold I had to put my horse painting aside in order to complete this recent commission painting. A sweet lady asked if I could do a painting of her grandmother. It will be a gift for her mother. "Of course"!, I said. I'm always eager for a challenge.  I was really excited about this until I saw the actual photograph...there was next to no detail in the grandmother's face. She needed to be recognizable, otherwise I could have made it up as I went. I thought at this point the commission was over, but she had another photo that might work (she only had the two photo's of her grandmother), and that one really spoke to me. Her grandmother was a nurse in her day, and this was an old black and white photo of her tending to a baby. When I saw the photo I had an instant vision of doing it in a monochrome block-in style, keeping that vintage feeling.  I completed it today, and I think I managed to ca...

"Peace in Peñasco" 6" x 8" oil on canvas panel Starting bid $25 Click Here to see auction! This was a beautiful scene I came across while traveling through northern New Mexico near Taos, and near a tiny town called Peñasco. I loved how the red barn was nestled amongst the vibrant greens.  This painting is up for auction through DailyPaintworks.com . The underpainting and laying in the darks.