The Launch of A New Mexico Cloudscape (Part I)

This week I embark on a journey to create the largest oil painting I've attempted to date.

Am I ready? Yes. Feeling some trepidation? Um, yeah. Curious to see what happens next? You bet!

Here are some shots of me prepping the raw birch panel for conversion into a big, beautiful, cloud-filled Aeroscape.

The Source: An Afternoon of Dynamic Clouds Over Santa Fe

Sanding the 47" x 70" birch panel that will be the foundation for Aero No. 28.

Applying the final coat of tinted Liquitex Gesso to the panel.

Primed and on the wall. The beginning of Aero No. 28 (Santa Fe Cloudscape)

A little grid help to help keep the drawing on point. I am pretty precise with the prep, the drawing, the paint color mixing, BUT…once the paint starts to hit the panel, it becomes an expressive, liberating free-for-all.

The New HQ for Reyes Fine Art Is Here!

Never thought I'd be living in the house at the end of the cul-de-sac, but here we are! We're incredibly grateful and proud to call this "Home".

After nearly 12 years in Los Angeles, Rachel and I purchased a home in Santa Fe, NM that has a studio for her inside and a detached garage that has been converted into my very own workspace. It's been a labor of love getting here, prepping the space, repainting, hanging lights, building custom art and tool storage. But every second has been worth it…and I even got back to making art to celebrate and christen the new HQ of Reyes Fine Art. Come inside…

"Barcelona No. 1" is on the easel. It got started in LA, and will be finished here in Santa Fe.

Our boys, Giaco (short for "Giacometti") and Buddy the Beagle, trying out the studio accommodations. Buddy came with us from California and Giaco is a mini-schnauzer/terrier pup we adopted from the Santa Fe Animal Shelter in May.

I built this table in my first live/work loft in downtown LA in 2004. It's served me well as evidenced by the pic to the left. It made the journey to New Mexico and I felt it appropriate to give it a second life as I get a fresh start here as well.

"Thunderhead (Albuquerque)" Pastel and graphite on paper 18 x 36"

"Aero No. 12 (Spanish Descent I)" to the left, and "Aero No. 13 (Spanish Descent II)". Both are acrylic paint on canvas panel and each is 20 x 10."

While these are not the first pieces of art I've made in New Mexico (having traveled and painted here regularly since 2008), they are the first drawings and paintings created in my new studio and as an official resident of this great place.