New collage

It has been months since I posted. Life  moves so fast these days. These are new collages, email me to the address on my side bar if you have an interest in any of these. Happy Thanksgiving too. xoxo

Small Paintings on Paper

I am a very bad blogger these days, just not enough hours in a day, but here are photos of a few new, small works on paper. Mixed media. xoxo

New Painting

I have been playing with twine. This mixed media painting is 14"x 11". Go here to see more work.: http://anniecoesstudio.weebly.com/
xoxo

Mixed Media

New 20"x 16" mixed media painting. I took packing material and left over bits of paper plus Venetian plaster, walnut ink, gesso, graphite and cold wax on board. xoxo

New Drawings

Three new drawing/paintings, all available for a song, leave a comment or email me if you are interested. xoxo

CHANGE OF DATES for Second Workshop

  I am having a second workshop, I am very excited to be teaching how to work with Venetian plaster and collage elements, finding your own unique voice using this wonderful material. Saturday August 6Th and Sunday August 7Th, 10-4  with an hour for lunch. I will be having the workshop in Saint Francis plaza near the famous San Francisco De Asis church in the back of the wonderful shop, Velvet and Horns in Ranchos de Taos NM (4 miles from Taos, NM). There is room for  6 people, first come first serve, the last class filled up fast. I will provide cradle boards and the plaster, some paint and select bits of collage material. The price will be 95 a day, plus a 20 fee for supplies. Message me on FB or email me (address on sidebar) for more details if you need them and about payment. I hope to see you there. XOXO

WORKSHOP!!

LAST CALL FOR MY WORKSHOP! My first ever workshop will be on June 11Th and 12TH! I am very excited to be teaching how to work with Venetian plaster and collage elements, finding your own unique voice using this wonderful material. 10-5 both days with an hour for lunch. I will be having the workshop in Saint Francis plaza near the famous San Francisco De Asis church in the back of the wonderful shop, Velvet and Horns in Ranchos de Taos NM (4 miles from Taos, NM). There is room for 0 more, so first come first serve. I will provide cradle boards and the plaster, some paint and select bits of collage material. The price will be 180 for both days,  total due by June 1ST. This price is for the first workshop only. Message me on FB or email me (address on sidebar) for more details if you need them and about payment. I hope to see you there. XOXO * The workshop is now FULL.

My Pages in the Book Storytelling with Collage

I took a photo of my pages of the piece I did for Roxanne Evans Stout's book Storytelling with Collage.
I was very excited to get two pages. The other guest artists in the book are wonderful as are Roxanne's photos and her easy to understand instruction. You can buy this book on Amazon. XOXO

New Project Finished!

I have been working on this old type drawer for a few months and finished last week. It was great fun to do.
Did my best with the photos, took details, but if you click on images you will get a better view.
The top bit is packing paper and coffee, the middle section has rust drawings, sewed and burned teabags, rusty bits and an old root and wasp nest.
the bottom bits have Venetian plaster, coffee, and pen and graphite. Measures 32"x 17 1/4".
I loved doing this so much I am going to do another at some point.
I always love to hear from you.
Happy Easter.
XOXO

My collage in Storytelling with Collage

Roxanne Evans Stout wrote a book about collage and she asked me to create a piece for it, so many moons ago I did and I can finally share it! The book comes out March 10Th, go here to order:
Storytelling with Collage
This painting was done with vintage ledger paper, pen, graphite, various papers, thread, rust, oil and acrylic
paint, tea bags on cradle board, finished with cold wax. I am in the section about sewing. Thank you for including me Roxanne!
Titled: Future Archaeology
Congratulations  to Roxanne and all the artists included.
I always love to here what you think.
XOXO

Finally in the new year I finished my 40"x 40", three months in the making and 182 tea bags sewn and plastered with Venetian plaster, also graphite, oil paint and coffee. Finished with cold wax. Unfortunately I had a hard time photographing it as I had to take it outside and the snow on the ground caused a glare, the color between the teabags is much more coffee colored than this light grey it appears to be in the close ups.
Oh well as always my paintings are so much better and yummier in person. This painting is titled Grid # 6, (Colin's Habit) after my friend that provided me with all the teabags! I always love to hear your thoughts also as you know if you double click on the images they get larger. XOXO

Gratitude and Thoughts on being an Artist

With a new year come thoughts about life and where it is leading you/me. I have been on a path of gratitude for a long while, but I realized that I belly ache a lot about the tribulations of being an artist, maybe not a lot, but enough that I sometimes bore myself. Yes, it is sometimes hard and when there are no sales and the bank account is tiny it is easy to get frustrated. BUT the bottom line is I am so grateful for my life and the fact that I am an artist that I have to pinch myself daily to make sure I am not dreaming.
Making art is not about sales, it is not about galleries, or even people appreciating what I do, making art is about the awesome joy I feel everyday that I get to make art, that I am passionate about making art and also that I am passionate about art in general, other people's art, painting, books, movies, all the arts move me, sometimes to tears. I am one of the luckiest people in the world and I know that. Who cares if I can't travel and have no money, who cares if I can't afford a smart phone?! I am living a life of freedom and joy, a life most people would kill for if they even knew it existed. I just wanted to express my gratitude and wonder and love for the awesome life I get to live. I know many of you who make art have these same feelings and not just artists, anyone who has a passion for what they do, it does not matter what form it takes.
We are so lucky! So this year I will not belly ache, I will send kisses to the Gods daily that they gave me this passion. This life. Happy New Year!

Sneak Peek

As some of you know who read this blog I have been working on two large projects for months now, this one should be done by January. I sewed 183 tea bags and here are a couple details. When I am done I will post here, but it will likely be after the Holidays. This Painting is only 40" x 40", but with my labor intensive  process that is large. I have dreams of doing 100"x 100" paintings, but would need help with that, someday it will happen.
XOXO

Happy Thanksgiving

This is my favorite holiday, not because I like what we did to the Native Americans, which is shameful and not because of the food, though it is wonderful, I love this day because it puts a focus on gratitude.
I learned long ago how powerful and magical gratitude is and I make it a daily practice.
Today I give you a short list of what I am grateful for most:
My health
The health of those I love most
My family and friends
My furbabies
The obvious things like a roof over my head, food to eat, heat.
After all that the thing I am most grateful for is my talent and the fact that I am an artist,
I am grateful for having something in my life I am passionate about.
I am also grateful for good art which I am sorry to say is in short supply these days, but that makes it so much more wonderful when I do see some.
Taos Mountain and all of nature in all it's beauty and wonder.
Books
Movies
Cupcakes
Paris
Magic, which is every where you look.
A warm bed
A good cup of coffee
There is so much to be grateful for, feel free to add to my list.
xoxo

New Collage

In my last post I told you about my new table and my new collage practice that I am working on to give me a break from my big projects. I am still having fun and this is my latest finished collage. This collage is for sale, email me if you are interested and I can send more photos. $75 plus $16 shipping in the US. I will ship out of the US, but it is costly.
The last photo is my cat Max helping me as I work, he thinks the table is for him.
I am happily working on more collage today as it is rainy and windy out and threatening to snow.
Stay tuned.
XOXO

New Collage

A friend gave me a very large and long work table, it is great as it folds up and can be hidden away when not in use. Last week I got it out and set it up in the middle of my living room. It has plenty of space for tons of collage material to be spread out on and that is exactly what I did!
I have been working on two large and time consuming projects that I will share at some point, let me just say there is a lot of sewing going on with teabags. I needed something more immediate to work on for a break, so with the table as my inspiration I began making collage. Here is the first one for the week.
It is for sale if anyone is interested just email me and I will give you more information and photos.
The price is 90 plus 16 shipping in the US.
I always love to hear your thoughts.
Happy Fall!!! I am really loving it as it is my favorite and only lasts about 6 weeks in Taos.
xoxo

This is an Art Rant (Beware)

I just learned something that really shocked me, though it should not have now that I really think about it.
I thought it would be fun to look up the ten best female artists alive now, there was no list, but there were a bunch of lists about the best artists. I looked at one and what I found was indeed shocking.
Out of 100 men there were only two women, both dead, Frida Kahlo was #49 (49!!!!) and Georgia O'keeffe was #94 (94!!!!).
This is so amazing because I can think of many women who should be on this list that never even made it, where is Louise Nevelson and Louise Bourgeois?! Just to name two, I could fill this page up with names.
And what of the women alive today who are making great art?
I really never paid attention to this before, to me good art is made by both sexes, but I heard a female artist say they changed their name to be more male sounding because men got better prices for their work. This made me sit up and notice what was going on.
As a female artist this is so disappointing.
I don't make art for the money, if I did I would have stopped many years ago, but I do want the same pay and rewards that a man would get.
Do any of you find this shocking? Or have I had my head in the sand for too Long?
Please share. xoxo

New Mixed Media Painting

This is my new 16"x16" mixed media painting. I sewed the ends of tea bags that I cut off doing my bigger project (someday I will share) and used them in this piece to make the grid. As usual all the detail gets lost in the photos, but I included some detail shots to help a little also if you click on an image and then click again it lets you enlarge.
I always love to hear your thoughts.
XOXO

Great News

This beautiful book by Roxanne Evans Stout can now be pre ordered on Amazon.
I am honored to have one of my collage paintings included in the book.
It has been a long time coming and now the wait is almost over, not until December, but you can pre order it now, go HERE.
Happy Autumn! My favorite time of the year.XOXO

My Summer Hikes

I thought I would show you where I hiked this Summer. There is a road that goes along the Gorge river, full of all sorts of wild life, here there is a rabbit that is always there and also Big Horn Sheep, two of which were on the trail today, but they were too fast to get a photo. It is a beautiful hike and always leaves me full of wonder and inspires my work. XOXO