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Moved to Montana in 2017 and lived in Butte till 2023.  My Husband managed the build of the Freedom Ranch for Heroes in Wise River which moved us to Montana.  It is a property built just for Vets to experience Fly Fishing on the Big Hole River and also horse back ride in the valley as well.  I was living in Butte in an historical building and had my gallery there as well and now I am in a make shift set up until I have a new studio in Stevensville MT this year 2024.  Lots of moving around but still the experience of living here close to nature and more remote is amazing.  I remain in The Dana Gallery in Missoula MT but have pulled out of my Texas and Telluride Galleries. Still painting Indians and hope to start painting more landscapes once settled.  

We live in a very unusual yet amazing time and my art is still the thing that settles me into gratitude.

Sending lots of love to those who might still be on my website...I am presently reacquainting myself with my website and have decided to do more with it and change things around.

Love to all and may your life open to things unexpected and beautiful.

I look forward to seeing you at this Art Walk May 6th in a new gallery  in Fredericksburg....Eleven Squared Venue located at 408 N. Llano St. 512 547-9506. Owned by Lee Ann Graff who also does framing and Art Appraisals.  My work will show there throughout the summer, as well as Slate Gray Gallery in Kerrville, Texas and Telluride, CO.

"Slate Gray Gallery" in Kerrville is having a wonderful party Thursday Dec. 3rd from 5-7.  If you missed the last one, it was well attended and entertaining.  This show will feature myself, Katherine Lott and four more artists.  I've narrowed my work down to just American Indians.  If you can't make it you can always go to my website to see what is new. The Holidays are upon us and a piece of Art can make a surprising and exciting gift.  Hope to see you there......Happy Holidays. 

Looking forward to Opening Night"  Nov.20th 5-9.  235 Earl Garrett St., Kerrville, Texas.

Katherine Lott and I will have many new works for you to see.  The weather will be warmer and the evening will be Magical...See you there.

Tis that time of year when all good things are remembered and all lessons are learned.....hopefully. :-)

 Lee and I will stay here in the Hill country and weather the cold days and be thankful we are not where it is even colder....The ice storms that we have been having render a certian kind of beauty.  The first ice storm we had, I was driving home in the evening up the hills and got to expereince first hand as the plant life turned white and bent over...like something out of a movie.  All the red leaves had a frost of white sugar covering them and the dying trees looked like white stars glistening in the sunset.  Magical...I wish I could say that I had taken a great photograph. But for me, the witnessing was more than enough.

That is how the wonder of art is to me.  To be still and take in the beauty that only you can experience...without words or attention, it just transforms you.

I hope that I will always have this wonder and bring it to my art.  If I can share but a portion of that to others, then that is enough for me.

Bless you all and may your moments be precious and magical long after the ice has melted.

Love Deborah

In the making of a portrait, there are many schools of thought. One is that it should only be painted from life and the other is by using just the photograph.  In all my years of doing commissions, I have found that both are equally important.

The most important thing is to meet the client, spend time with them in order to get a sense of who they are and their tendencies. I often ask there birth date to get a reading on whether they are Fire, Water, Air or Earth.  I take many photos, and as they start to loosen up, their character begins to come through. With children, I take photos of them playing and separate them from their parents so they can be free and gain my trust.  Finding that one shot that captures them in a natural posture takes patience and time.  

I have found that when a client just sits for me, they somehow loose that character and become stiff and stale.

Lighting is alway the key.  That is why I take the photograph.  I have clients wanting to have a painting done that looks like one that I have all ready painted, not knowing what went into the capturing that one moment. Anyway, that moment was of that portrait. I want to find that thing that is special and unique in each client.

The portrait never begins at the photograph, rather it comes from years of drawing and painting from life.  Life drawing is a must to understand the body and the muscles and positions that make for a good piece of art.

Years spent in drawing classes with wonderful models and endless sketches.  That is the "Must" to portrait work. Once you get to the point where you are not thinking about it being a person, but rather a configuration of shapes, temperatures, values all in correct relationship to one another. In all forms of art, the portrait must really balance the shapes in order to portray the subject in the most exact manner.  You can leave a tree out or change a position in a landscape, where you must say things correctly as they are in a portrait. 

I will follow up this blog with more insights into portrait work.

Thanks for being apart of my Blog.  I hope you are having a great summer and staying cool.  You know where I will be...cool and in my studio.

There is still space available for "The Beiginners Plein Aire" workshop, July 27th and 28th from 9-12 each day.  To sign up, just go to "TheGoodArtCompany.com" and click on "classes" and go to my name and click on. It will give you the tools you need to get out there and paint. I look forward to seeing you there.

After many years of pushing the boundaries of my work, it feels even better returning to portrait work.  After being around so many talented artists here in Fredericksburg, I wanted to paint as many things as I could imagine to see what would do well in the Gallery scene.  Painting Indians for a while was really wonderful because I could use my portrait skills and do something that any one could buy without it being personal.  I had fun exploring the world of Indian communities and going to Pow Wows.  I had my turn at revisiting more abstract work and layering my paintings which evolved over time from one thing to another.

I could understand the great artists like Picasso who went from formal realism to majorly abstract concepts pushing the edges of art.  I'm not that adventurous, but I have had my fun at trying new things.

It was at the OPA Show in Fredericksburg earlier this year that one of the speakers talked about being passionate about what you paint.  That was the key to success that really mattered above all else.

I took a hard look at my life, and figured I had 20 good years ahead, God willing, that I could devote to my art....So what was it that I loved the most.....The face, the portrait, the likeness of each individual in their own uniqueness.  That's what I love the most.

Once I decided that's what I wanted to devote myself to, the universe lined up.  It always amazes me how simple it all is, once we get out of the way.

At the present I'm working on three commissions and a fourth one is starting to come into being.  My trip to Jackson Hole this August will be about my portrait work as well.  My childhood friend who I am staying with and have done several portraits for, is having a party for me to meet her friends who might be interested in a portrait.

For me, I think the searching is good in that it strengthens your skills and brings me back to the things that I love most, hopefully a little better.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful summer and are doing what you love, for that is life's key to happiness.  We have no control over the big picture, but we do have control over what we think about, thus manifesting into reality beautiful thoughts.

Love and abundance....Deborah 

It was so wonderful to see old friends and make new friends this past week at the OPA juried event.  I especially enjoyed meeting John Michael Carter a Master Painter in OPA, a beautiful portrait and figurative painter.  My friend Adele was his model for the demo on Friday and I learned so much.  If anyone is wondering if it is worth joining such an organization,  

the answer is "YES".  The energy level was all time high and the visual enjoyment of seeing so much incrediable art can only enhance and enrich one's own life and artist process.

To all my new friends....a warm Hello.  I look forward to further gatherings and paint outs before the summer gets too hot.

After my last show at "The Good Art Company" of more abstract horses...I am returning to my love of the figure, namely the "child".  For so many years I have done commission portraits and have now decided to turn towards figurative.  How are they different? Just a turn of the head away from a straight on view.  I have sorted through my many photos of children that I have done portraits of over the years, and come up with a collection in studies that could be anyones child.  At the present I have 7 paintings that I am working on.  When the collection is complete, it should be fun to see if the child is recognized or not.  I will keep you posted, or you can look at my site and follow along.