Painting in the Zone
Lee McVey Fine Art
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3y ago
Every now and then, a painting feels like it's painting itself without conscious thinking from me. View to the Mountain is one of those paintings. This in the zone, painting without conscious thinking, doesn't happen every time I go out to paint. It's wonderful when it does happen and it feels meditative.   The view is of the Sandia Mountains from one of the Open Spaces in the Sandia foothills owned by the City of Albuquerque. I've painted there frequently over the years. Perhaps my familiarity with the area lended itself to my being in the zone.   I painted this in the spring on a ..read more
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Having Fun with Watercolor Underpainting
Lee McVey Fine Art
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3y ago
I'm surprising myself by having fun with watercolor underpainting. I resisted using watercolors for underpainting for quite a while. I preferred using pastel with alcohol or water. I had alcohol and water is easy so I didn't see the need to purchase watercolors just for underpainting.   At the last IAPS convention (International Association of Pastel Societies) I impulsively bought a small travel set of watercolors, La Petite Aquarelle by Sennelier. Instead of just the traditional colors of the color wheel, this set also includes cobalt blue, rose madder, intense deep green, and green ye ..read more
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Spring Goals and New Beginnings
Lee McVey Fine Art
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3y ago
Spring is definitely in the air--at least it is in the southwest. Flowering trees are blooming and the birds have increased their singing. It's a time for new growth and new beginnings.   That's how I feel about my art work and my goals. In January, I intended to write a blog post every week, but that didn't last long, unfortunately. I had plenty of ideas to write about, but other commitments with deadlines became a priority, so something had to give.   I was disappointed to let blogging slide, especially because I announced on my blog I would write weekly. I could have berated myse ..read more
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Refining a Painting
Lee McVey Fine Art
by
3y ago
The image for Storm Coming, shown to the left, is one that has been in my mind for several years since I first plein air painted at this scene in the Oro Valley next to Tucson, AZ. At that time, I had forgotten my camera, so I had no photographs to refer to later. I went back the next day with my camera, but of course the lighting was very different. A storm coming in over the Catalina mountains seemed to emphasize the blue and green color harmony.    I was very attracted to this light and color, and actually preferred it to the bright sunshine day when I had plein air painted ..read more
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Dropping the Ball in Art
Lee McVey Fine Art
by
3y ago
Many years ago I read an article about wildlife and landscape artist Ralph Oberg in Southwest Art magazine. I was impressed by a statement Ralph made about comparing painting to juggling. To paraphrase, he said a juggler can only juggle so many balls. When he keeps adding more balls, at some point he will drop one. Likewise, an artist needs to remember composition, value, color temperature, aerial and linear perspective, variation, edges, eye movement, and more. At some point, it's easy to drop one of these "balls" and the artist needs to pick it up again and continue.   I was reminded o ..read more
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Word of the Year
Lee McVey Fine Art
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3y ago
Christine Kane (founder of Uplevel You)  introduced me to the practice of choosing a word to guide your year. Instead of New Year's Resolutions which focus on Doing something, the word of the year focuses on how you want to Be. I've been choosing a word of the year for several years now. I also write intentions for what I want to be, do, and have for the coming year. For example, I want to be productive. (my 2018 word for the year) I want to do a lot of painting and marketing as well as eating well and exercising. I want to have good health, energy, motivation, and optimism. &n ..read more
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Committing to New Intentions
Lee McVey Fine Art
by
3y ago
It's hard to believe 2018 is here tomorrow. It's New Year's resolution time. I prefer to commit to intentions for the new year as this way, my intention is there, but since I have no control over outside interference or life circumstances, my intentions sometime get sidelined. I don't have the guilt with an intention that I do with a resolution if I don't stick to it.Plus,I can always start again. It seems a resolution is either a success or a failure, but intentions can be in progress and modified.   I had intended to continue my blog in 2017, but I confess 2017 was a difficult year for ..read more
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Making Changes to a Painting
Lee McVey Fine Art
by
3y ago
The painting above is a plein air painting that I later revised as a demo for a private student. The painting hung framed in my studio above my easel. I'd received many compliments on the yellow fall trees but something bothered me about the painting. Finally, I thought I knew what it was.   I took the painting out of its frame and showed my student how I would (hopefully) improve the painting by creating more of a focal point in the trees by increasing the contrast in the yellows and adding more eye movement among the foliage. I also extended the height of the trees on the left.   ..read more
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A Balancing Act: Aligning to a New Identity
Lee McVey Fine Art
by
3y ago
When I retired in 2003 after teaching public school art for 32 years, I expected to jump right into being an artist full time after my usual 2 weeks to decompress from the school year. After all, this is what I had done each year. School was out the 3rd week in June and I took a couple weeks to relax. The crazy school dreams I would have each June showed me how stressed I had been.   After the 4th of July holiday, I always began working on my painting for the summer months. So when I retired, I expected that summer to be the same. But it wasn't. My marketing/life coach (Aletta de Wal of ..read more
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Kids Need Art Classes21
Lee McVey Fine Art
by
3y ago
A few days ago, I judged a few panels of children's artwork created in a cooperative effort between ArtSmart (a program to bring art lessons to the schools) and Plein Air Painters of New Mexico's Santa Fe Plein Air Event. The photo to the left shows the panels of the children's art work. The students were in grades 5 -7.   I had not realized how infrequently a volunteer from ArtSmart gets to work with the children at two schools. The volunteer meets with the children just once a month and uses art supplies purchased by Art Smart. The schools do not have a certified art teacher and an art ..read more
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