I had a glorious day painting along a nearby "river". It was diverted by the early miners and parts of it are being reclaimed. I was reminded why painting is so good for the soul, especially outdoor painting. You are filled with the moment..all the sounds and scents of the place. The trick is to get past the technical stuff and get into the painting. I believe that that comes with practicing your painting skills. Another way is just to enjoy "being". It is so good to get away from life "stuff" and put your mind on the act of painting..it relaxes you the way meditation can relax you. You empty your mind.
This can also be achieved in the studio, but you do miss out on the total landscape experience, which I feel is so important. Even if you just get out and sketch you will come away changed.

Painting fresh on the pochade! I loved the colors in the willows and the snow...what fun!

I viewed a utube (http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=73402839573&h=ic11R&u=P8JD9&ref=mf)video shot in a forest near Asheville, NC this morning. The participants were mourning the death of a tree as well as talking about the beauty of the forest. Aside from being over the top and hysterical in many ways, I began to think about representational art which often depicts beauty. I wonder if there would be such a reaction if a gallery that specialized in such art closed because the public was only interested in decorator art and plastic trees. Why isn't there passion about that? I am afraid that the tree group was screaming to an empty audience, one that is removed from the natural world. I am also afraid that we are seeing some of the same thing in the art world. You can go to a discount store and find decorator art for your walls, or you can find more at some frame shops, catalogs, and even some galleries. The difference? No soul. Mass produced. Sure it was a bargain and it looks great on the wall. Now...go to a gallery that specializes in originals, or to an art museum. Do you see and feel a difference? or am I screaming to no one in the forest?

I just published my first book. It is very exciting to see my work in print. I wanted to do something in honor of the 150th Birthday of my town Breckenridge, Colorado. There are plenty of photography books about this area and I wanted to provide a book of some of the paintings that I have done over the past 4 years. Fortunately I had archived many of my paintings that are now in collections across the country. A lesson to remember....keep digitals of high quality! You never know when you may need them.

"Pilar", oil. 5"x7". Amy Evans (me)

I returned from my trip to Shreveport, LA and Jackson, MS, where I visited family, attended a high school reunion, and met with art groups. While in Jackson I visited a gallery that had some of the other Amy Evans' work. Her paintings are very different from my work...it was fun to visit with the manager about the Amy Evans' and the mix-ups...even more interesting is that there is still another Amy Evans in MS...a graphic designer...and to make things even stranger, they are both from Houston, TX, where I was born. So...there are now 3 Amy Evans and we all have had ties to Houston, TX. Wow. So...how do I ensure that I am not confused with the other Amy Evans'? I had to clear the confusion up with some friends and relatives who thought I was now represented in MS...that was done one on one.