This is the painting i did during the Canyon Road Paint Out Oct.18. I had a great time, so many other great artists and appreciative audience with live music! To see a photo taken of me painting go to www.giacabbefritzfineart.com and click on the black and white image of a painter at his easel outdoors...I'm standing with my back to the camera, white hat and shirt, with a good view of the painting in it's early stage.

Great weather here, though a hard freeze turned too many of the deep yellow-gold leaves brown over night...I'd only gotten a few of my favorite places recorded on my camera before the batteries went. I'm dividing my time between studio work and yard work to get ready for the winter.

The Yin and Yang of Canyon Road 20" x 16" oil on canvas

4 more of my plein-air works sold yesterday....

I sold this plein-aire gem yesterday. Letting go of some art can be a bit bittersweet, but I know this painting is going to a good home. I painted a year or so ago, on the southside of Santa Fe, looking up-river, just days before the river flow was shut off (to keep the reservoir full). I felt it was a very good painting.

Santa Fe River 16" x 12" oil on canvas framed in traditional gold foiled frame. sold

My apologies for not posting for the past few weeks. I was so busy finishing commissions and getting everything organized for my show of plien-aire at Aura Dez Fine Art on Canyon Road in Santa Fe along with the paint-out the next day ( this past Friday and Saturday). Everything was just lovely and I reconnected with many old friends and fellow painters as well as making new friends...great fun; the weather was perfect, there was live music and lots of interested and interesting people walking Canyon Road to view all the artists working.

This oil I did last spring just down the road from my house/studio. Only 6' x 8", I sat in my car with a small paint box and painted the view out the open door. Green is often a disliked color among artists but I embraced it here...the lush and intense new growth after a long winter.

Spring Field 6' X 8" oil on canvas sold

This small work on paper sold over the weekend along with an earlier posting; to several women who had taken a balloon flight during the first day of the Albuquerque Balloon Festival and these paintings reminded them of their experience. Apropos since the first imagery in this style came from my own experience ballooning in rural France in 1996. All those wonderful patterns viewed from above; the footprint of humankind on the face of nature.

Untitled Valley View 14" x 11" oil over gesso on paper

A more detailed and involved (than I've done to date) fly over based image. I worked a long time building up layers of color and adjusting patterns. One of the things I like most of this series is how very abstracted I can take the compositions as well as "playing" with the patterns within.

Untitled Fly Over 20" x 26" oil on canvas

This little gem of a painting sold yesterday, to other creative people; which always makes me feel so honored. Oil over a gesso base on paper; it's part of my continuing exploration of the Valley View concept.

Untitled Valley View (10-01-08) mixed media on paper 14" x 11"

I've been working on some paintings in the style of Abstracted Farm Fields post 9-14-08. Related to Valley Views this perspective is as though I'm flying directly over and looking directly down. I'm particularly happy with the possibilities of this series for my "play" with pattern, color and texture. Look for more works in this style.

Untitled Fly Over, Farm Fields 20" x 22" oil on canvas

I took this painting into Aura Dez Fine Art yeasterday; starting to pull art together for the show opening Oct. 17. This in oil and unfortunatly the photo has a bit of glare off the varnish but I think you may still get an idea of it. Diffenatly inspired by some of the red rock canyons I've hiked through here in the southwest.

Canyonland 26" x 20" oil on canvas $2,200.

The newest Valley View. I worked this one in primarily acrylics. Winters coming and with the cold and closed windows; even working with a very good air purifier I'd rather not be living with those oil paint fumes... Working with acrylics (instead of oils) actually takes longer to create the "feeling" but it is do-able. I love the oils, and may try the water based oil paints. Finished 4 Valley Views and 3 Fly Overs today!

Untitled Valley View 18" x 18" acrylic on paper, available through Aura Dez Fine Art Santa Fe