I'm back!! Well kind of...

I'm still 100% in the new mommy fog, loving time spent nestling with baby Ean who turned 1 month on August 28th. But in the wee hours of morning, feeding Ean silently in the dark, about to fall back asleep myself, I saw behind my eyelids the paintings I need to create.

After our babymoon to Arizona this spring and two prior trips to the Southwest (New Mexico in 2015 and Arizona in 2016...such a lovely warm, Zika-free vacation area), I had known I wanted to paint the arid but also surprisingly lush environment there.

What struck me most about our most recent trip was the air. How it created a bit of a film. The word that immediately came to mind as we were in the cab from the airport to the hotel was "Bleached".

The sand, the very pale blue sky, the spiky palm leaves - washed out green - and the pink, purple and green cactus clusters. The sunsets were soft yellows and greys, not vibrant rainbows of color.

But then I started noticing the flowers - not big, but bright! Orange, red, purple, yellow. Drops of color strewn across twiggy branches.

In the early morning of that baby meditation, I saw the combinations of colors I wanted to pull together to create this Fall 2017 "Bleached" Collection of paintings. I also saw how I wanted to movement of the brush to feel - how the composition would come together.

For now I'll share some of my inspiration photos. I look forward to putting brush to canvas and sharing some "in process" work in the coming weeks. Forgive me if I'm slightly MIA, I'm preoccupied enjoying this baby oasis.