Kaia Thomas - A path with ART

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 ...

The year of 2016 has been nothing but amazing thus far, beginning with winning a Best in Show, a Best in Landscape, a People's Choice and a Judge's Choice award! There were many adventures and events attended as well, including the Plein Air Convention and Expo held in Tucson, Arizona in April, the Bisbee Plein Air Festival in May, also in May I held my first ever plein air workshop with 10 students, and most recently I was super excited to participate in the Maynard Dixon Camp Out as a guest artist in Mount Carmel, Utah! What an amazing experience getting to see the grounds and studio of Maynard Dixon, not to mention meeting great artists! The landscape is of course gorgeous there in southern Utah and I got a lot of painting time in as well. This path with art continues to grow and expand and I am truly grateful for all of the support and encouragement along the way. I am fortunate to have met some amazing people that have helped me realize this dream of being a full tim...

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...

Macario Pascual and myself painting the Escalante River at the Kiva KoffeeHouse I have just returned from yet another magical painting adventure in Escalante, Utah. It was my second year attending the Escalante Canyons Art Festival plein air competition.  Although I received no ribbons this year, I was, however, rewarded with beautiful scenery, new friendships, and wonderful hospitality. The people of Escalante, and the people volunteering and attending this festival, are largely the appeal for me going. The artwork produced and entered in this year's competition was truly incredible! View of the show It was challenging this year, with the wet weather, and some nagging health issues - however, I remained focused and excited throughout the experience! I painted several pieces, at several locations during the week long event, and here is a sampling of three of my favorites... "Backbone Bonsai" 10x8 in. oil on linen panel Available Pa...

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 

Here is the progression of my newly completed painting "Sunflower Medley".  This was a joy to paint - minus the miserable heat wave that had to be endured during it's creation! Enjoy... "Sunflower Medley" 24" x 20" oil on linen $1200 www.kaiathomas.com

 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.

To say I was excited that "Power Flower" was selected as a finalist in the American Women Artists Online Competition, would be a definite understatement. To be amongst such amazing talent and to be selected out of over 500 entries! Wow! You can see the slideshow of the finalists on the American Women Artists page .

April 13th, 2013 Taken during my show at 55 Main Gallery in Bisbee, AZ pictured here are gallery owner Cristina Plascencia (left) and myself with the artwork.   I was having one of those insightful moments a few days ago and it lead me to the thought "I should write a post about that!" So here goes...   It came to my attention that I have had this blog for nearly four years now. Of course, there were periods of time where I seemed to endlessly fail to find the time to write a post but I did my best to write when I could and share some important aspects of my journey and artworks I created.   I had pondered in the beginning what to call my blog - I wanted it to be fun and interesting and of course pertain to what I was going to share - thus the play on words  A Path with "Art" was born. It wasn't until recently that this blog name took on a much more profound meaning for me.  At the beginning of October 2012, at a very low point in my lif...

 About three months back, I started painting miniature sunsets in oils. I was doing it as a sort of discipline and exercise at the time but found that it became a passion for me, painting these tiny, concentrated, desert skies. After some time of doing these miniatures, I had the urge to go BIG! I wanted to see how the larger versions would look and would I be able to capture the same potency.  "Brilliance"  24" x 30" oil on canvas Available Here! The first of the larger versions is seen above. I was very happy with how it turned out and thus began my new passion - painting large sunsets! "San Pedro Sunset" 24" x 30" oil on canvas Available Here! "Sky Symphony" 20" x 16" oil on canvas Available Here!