"X" is for X-Factor (Not TV) - A to Z Challenge

"Red Rock Country" ©Mary Montague Sikes

"X" is for X-Factor, and I don't mean the hit TV series. As an artist, I consider the X-Factor as something completely different. It is the incomprehensible element sometimes found in art we've come to love. I don't know what it is; I can't touch nor explain it, but when it's there you know it.

The X-Factor is the special element that Farrah Ferand, the heroine in Evening of the Dragonfly, is seeking in the final pieces of work she's completing for her art exhibition. "Red Rock Country" features Farrah's love for a place she's never seen. With juicy Golden fluid acrylic paints, she uses her Colorism technique to describe the beauty and serenity of the West. This painting is 36" x 18" and could become half of a diptych, if Farrah decides to go in that direction.

Yesterday, you saw a detail from this painting that was in an horizontal format. The completed painting is vertical. Which way do you like it better?

Where Should Artists Promote Their Work? Only at Home?

Mary Montague Sikes in Cielo Bella Art Gallery with her meditation paintings

Recently, someone asked me why I had come all the way across the country to Sedona, Arizona to promote my art work. That is a really good question and it started me thinking. Weren't there plenty of venues in Virginia where I live?

Yes and no.

When I first visited Sedona in the early 1990s, I was both stunned and captivated by the scenery. No wonder so many of the old western movies used the Red Rock Country as a background. I loved the "feel" of the area. I enjoyed snapping photos--actually mostly 35 mm color slides at that time. I liked the New Age atmosphere all around me.

Over the years, we've returned many times. The Hotel El Tovar is part of my coffee table book, Hotels to Remember. Side stories and many photos in the book relate to Sedona and the area. I've taken art classes there, and I set my novel, Eagle Rising, in and around Sedona. What better place to visit and promote my art?

That's why I returned to Cielo Bella Art Gallery in the Village of Oak Creek to sign books and to talk about my new Master's Meditation Paintings and Soul Songs that accompany them. The gallery is also featuring my Giclee prints from Hotels to Remember, and I plan to ship some of the original paintings from the book for display there.

On this trip, it made me sad to know that the Grand Canyon National Park was closed. The El Tovar is located inside the park, so that historic edifice, along with many other famous tourist stops, is closed as well. I cannot imagine the disappointment of planning all year long for a special trip to the Canyon and being stopped by the antics of foolish politicians from visiting it. I wanted to go and sit along the edge, take more photos, sketch, and muse about my writing as well as imagine new paintings I would like to create.

The wonder of the Grand Canyon, the New Age essence, the vortexes hidden among the Red Rocks, and so much more beckon me to cross the country and show my art somewhere different where visions align with my own.

I love Virginia, but my breath catches as soon as the Red Rocks come into view. The artist and the writer within me are both torn. No wonder Mark Twain loved to travel.

(The art work behind me in the photograph is the work of other gallery artists. The art pieces on the table are paintings in progress from the Master's Meditation series.)

Eagle Rising - Painting A Day

A to Z Challenge

Today the Blog Challenge is the letter "E". I chose an eagle for my Painting of the Day subject. Using photos I took in Sedona, Arizona while I was working on my novel Eagle Rising, I created my painting for today. The beauty and serenity of the Red Rock Country inspires me every time I see it. This painting is smaller than the last two, 14" x 11" and is acrylic on stretched canvas.

"Eagle Rising" acrylic painting ©Mary Montague Sikes

Since I was taking an all-day printmaking workshop on Thursday, I did not have time to catch up with my A to Z blogger friends. I promise to make up for it today. Thank you everyone who has visited my blog. A painting a day is a challenge, but it's fun as well!

Mary Montague Sikes

"S" Is For Sedona

"Stormy Rocks" MM Sikes

The Passenger to Paradise has found that exotic destinations inspire the creative spirit. As a child I dreamed of travel to far away places, and I read everything I could find with picturesque settings. As an adult I still crave the discovery of magic destinations and am delighted when I find the unforgettable like the amazing Red Rock Country of Sedona, Arizona.

In the early 1990s we made our first trip to Sedona. It was amazing to drive through the awesome scenery I had viewed only in movies as a child. With my 35 mm Minolta dangling from my neck, I trudged over dusty trails searching for medicine wheels along the way. Then, I viewed with reverence those that I found, and I watched, entranced, as a few fellow wanderers chanted softly into the quiet calm of vortex sites.

The rock formations such as Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock, Courthouse Rock and other fascinating views rose high against a clear blue sky, and we took amazing photographs that I used later to create paintings. Just being in the midst of the vortexes and on the sacred land was a spiritual experience. Although we did not see the flying saucers others have claimed to view over Bell Rock, the sight of that magic formation did inspire a fantasy print I created of saucer images above a rocky landscape. It also inspired my novel, Eagle Rising.

In addition to the "S" for Sedona, I have to claim also the "S" for my novel, Secrets by the Sea. Characters in that book have been revived and are part the book I'm now writing--Jungle Jeopardy. It's fun to be caught up in all sorts of discoveries related to the ancient Maya as I travel with my characters through the jungles of Central America.