I chose the word “hybrid” to describe my technique of drawing and painting in the same piece. I use a metal nib and a holder to draw with acrylic ink over an under-painting of Burnt Sienna and Payne’s Gray acrylic paint. I then use a #1 round brush to paint in the negative areas around the drawing, using again acrylic ink. Sometimes a large brush is used to work on fuzzy clouds where the ink shows off its watercolor qualities of blooming, spreading and spattering.
“Setting Seeds”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 24 inches
Last summer, after an excruciating period of drought and wildfires in northern NM, the rains came and stayed for months, leading to an explosion of “weeds” which seeds are nourishing the birds in the winter time. Some “weeds” are good foraging, so I pickled, froze and dried lots of them. The weather also produced a wonderful apple harvest!
“Wishing Well”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 36 inches. SOLD
I made this piece as a reaction to my 93 year old mother’s fall and subsequent hip replacement, followed by months of rehab in Germany. I wasn’t able to be at her side due to Covid, so I painted her into the piece I had already started. I wrapped her warmly in a blanket and put her securely into her life tree that still had a lush crown. My dad can be seen stumbling towards her, while his life tree is nearly bare and leaning heavily toward’s my mom’s tree. All kinds of people, family, neighbors, friends are sending her best wishes.
“Summer Joy”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 24 inches
I grew up in Germany where I never heard the slogan that education would “free me from slavery in the kitchen”. I always regarded cooking, baking and putting up food as an adventure with huge rewards for me and my family. Nowadays I have added growing my own veggies and keeping chickens. There are times when dealing with the harvest hardly allows me time to paint, but in the winter time I catch up and enjoy the food I grew myself.
“Spring Winds”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 36. SOLD
This piece shows how the Rio Hondo breaks through a basalt blockage where the former Hippie commune “New Buffalo” was located. Just a little bit downriver it joins the Rio Grande in the deep basalt gorge. The whole Hondo valley is embraced by foothills leading up to Lobo Peak.
“Snow White”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 24 inches. SOLD
In the winter I feed the stationary bird species, such as ravens, crows, magpies, scrub jays, Steller’s jays, juncos, evening grossbeaks and several other kinds of birds. They also gently fertilize my garden.
“Outing to Spanish Peaks”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 24 inches. SOLD
Sitting at daybreak on my host’s porch overlooking a valley leading to the Spanish Peaks in South-central Colorado, I memorized shapes, colors and the contours of the lava dikes. Back home I turned the visual memories into this painting.
“Our Choice”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 24 inches. SOLD
Only women work in this self-sustaining community that based its principles on permaculture’s tenets. It’s a dream of mine, only partially realized by now.
“Greeting Fall”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 24.
Out two old adobe buildings put side by side, enclosing the courtyard which sported uncounted sunflowers last year, growing in the middle of purple orach, cosmos, feverfew and other plants. Outside the courtyard the ancient apple trees are bearing huge loads of apples. During the day coyotes come into the orchard to load up on apples, even when the cows are around eating their own fill of apples.
“Awakening”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 24.
This is again the Arroyo Hondo Valley, just after the snow melted away in early spring.
“Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 24.
This piece is unusual: My ruminations about rather unhappy women thriving on dominating others in various ways, while other women are happily employed as “doers”, painting, throwing pots, canning or taking care of cows. My ruminating self is watching this all from a distance, sitting on a platform in a tree together with my dog Ellie. The general setting borrows of course from my property in lama. This piece reminds me of 16/17th Dutch landscape paintings that are brimming with small figures engaging in chores or recreation. I obviously can’t shake my cultural background.
“The Definition of Joy”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 60 by 30 inches. SOLD
This piece is a variation of “Greeting Fall” in terms of the abundant sunflowers, purple orach and lavender asters. Center stage, however, is taken by a new plant in my courtyard, the Maximilian’s sunflower, a native to this area! In addition to taking care of pets and birds, women are seen tying up bundles of onions from the garden which can then dry and cure on the porch. The middle ground is dedicated to trellises with huge spaghetti squashes before the eye travels again to the apple trees in their glory underneath Flag Mountain.
“Magpies and Apricots”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 24 by 36 inches.
A spring piece celebrating next door’s flowering apricot trees. In attendance are of course the ever-present magpies. I “transplanted” my plum orchard into the neighbor’s yard as they were blooming at the same time, while the apple trees in the back were still biding their time.
“Summer’s End”. acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 36.
Yes, my lovely courtyard again….
“Just Another Day”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 24. SOLD
This is another rather unusual piece: It depicts my life beginning with my teenage years on the left side of the mountain; on the right, all the lost loved ones of my friend Tonya are congregated in a room while she continues climbing the ladder of life. Higher up we join the same ladder, go back to school and finally are joyfully employed, me as an artist, she saving lives as a counselor.
“Keeping an Eye Out”. acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 24.
I painted this piece in reaction to the overturn of Roe versus Wade. I envisioned the ultimate goal of extremists wanting women poor and uneducated again, so they wouldn’t pose a threat to the ruling men. So in my mind I built a city to protect all kinds of working or professional women. There are holes in the wall for lookouts and the cute girl selling flowers is the warning outpost, ready to mobilize the warrior women hiding in the greenery and telling everybody else to go up the hill to hide in the caves
“Taking Care of the Birds”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 24 by 18 inches, SOLD
“Cradled”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 36. SOLD
Another piece depicting the Arroyo Hondo Valley with the Madre Acequia in the foreground, bringing water to the fields.
“Visiting a Neighbor”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 24 inches. SOLD
Drawing spent plants in the wintertime always gives me great pleasure in terms of their variety of patterns, emphasized by a thin layer of snow. It’s like an assignment I used to give my Basic Design students, to draw observed patterns and paying special attention to differing size, value, grouping, texture and rhythm. To get away from the buildings on my own property, I put the wonderful house and other structures of my neighbor into this piece.
“Fog Moving In”, acrylic ink over acrylic paint, 36 by 24 inches. SOLD
Again the neighbor’s house, me and my dog Ellie on one of our daily walks. Flag Mountain is hidden by low clouds, the lower hills getting obscured by thick, gray fog. Although I mix up elements, all individual elements such as the fog, the fence of dead branches and the still-red Gambel oaks are based on observations.