"Y" is for Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow - A to Z Challenge

We are nearing the end of the A to Z Challenge which has brought new energy and more paintings to my studio. The art exhibition works for Farrah Ferand, the heroine of Evening of the Dragonfly, are almost completed. Farrah's Show, planned to accompany some of my book signings, should be interesting. I need a title for it. Perhaps it should be "Farrah's Evening of the Dragonfly" or something less obvious. In the book, her show is called, "The Awakening".

For today's work, Farrah had a troublesome time.Yesterday, a painting that included the Chapel of the Holy Cross was planned and started. It simply did not work, so this morning, time was spent in paint overs and new beginnings. The resulting canvas is now a painting in progress that will be finished for the final posting tomorrow. Hopefully, it will work as a diptych with the first Sedona painting.

Although 19 paintings have been created, there is much more work to be done to have them all ready for a show. That's why "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" is so appropriate for the "Y" post. Once a painting is completed, the sides (if it's gallery-wrapped) must be painted or finished in some way. The watercolors need to be sprayed with workable fixative, then one or more coatings of a polymer finish will be applied. The acrylics must have a UV coating. Then, screws and wires need to be attached to the back. As you can see, to complete the project, several "tomorrows" will be involved.

What are your suggestions for a title for Farrah's exhibition? I would love to have ideas.

"Sedona 2" (detail) ©Mary Montague Sikes

This is not all of the canvas for today's painting, and the rocks will not be this orange in the finished piece. The total stretched, gallery-wrapped canvas is 36" x 18".

Reflecting on a Year Turned to Art - 2014

When I reflect on 2014, I realize it was a year that began and ended with art. Along the way, some lovely travel was sprinkled in.

Workshop students at GAMi ©Mary Montague Sikes

I love interaction with other artists, so what could be more satisfying than working with a group of adults teaching experimental painting. My workshop at Gloucester Arts on the Main was the first of many I taught or took during the year. I was happy to be part of Mary Anne Beckwith's class in Boone NC in August and, as always, enjoyed Karen Eide's encaustics class at West Point. In December, I taught my experimental painting class for Arts Alive in West Point.

Along came February-March and off we went to Palm Beach FL and Jupiter for St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training. We stayed two weeks and got to watch so many of the young rookies, including Oscar Taveras, the talented superstar of the future who later died in a tragic car accident in October. In the dugout photo below, Taveras is facing first baseman, Matt Adams, 32. Spring training is a special time when everyone is hoping and dreaming of going deep into the post season. The Cardinals came within one game of another trip to the World Series.

St. Louis Cardinals' Dugout Spring Training 2014 ©MMSikes

Late March, I put on my writer's hat and was guest speaker for the York River chapter of King's Daughters in Gloucester. In May, I enjoyed painting en plein air at Rosewell. For the event, I purchased a special French easel that I put to use again in September painting outside at New Town Art Gallery.

Painting at Rosewell ©Olen Sikes

In July and September, I participated in Pastel Society of Virginia art exhibitions. The first was at the Glen Allen Cultural Art Center.

In July we were treated to a trip to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, planned by our daughter, Allison. Our other daughters, Alicia and Amy, participated as well, making this a very special event. Because of their extreme interest in Aviation, we spent one day at the Aviation Museum near Portland.

Olen at Air and Space Museum ©MMSikes

During September, October, and November, I was excited to be a visiting artist at New Town Art Gallery in Williamsburg. It was fun to get to know most of the gallery artists and to participate in gallery events.

New Town Art Gallery at Night ©MMSikes

Enjoying the Tropical Setting ©Olen Sikes

 In September, we spent a week in Hilton Head SC and then a week in Puerto Rico. Those warm weather memories will help us through a cold Virginia winter.

November, we hung a huge art exhibition of 11 of my largest paintings at the new Ward Center for Contemporary Art in Petersburg. The opening night for that show will take place, February 13, 2015. We also flew out to Sedona AZ, landing in Flagstaff for the first time.

Ward Center Exhibition ©MMSikes

Sedona from Hillside restaurant ©MMSikes

In December, my dear friend, Mary Jane Tolley, hosted an art show open house for some of my work in her home. I loved meeting her friends and discussing my work with them.

Much more art than writing provided Notes Along the Way in 2014. Wonder what will happen in 2015 when my new book is released? We will soon see how the story of the artist in Evening of the Dragonfly will frame the new year.

Visiting the James Ratliff Gallery in Sedona

James Ratliff Art Gallery ©Mary Montague Sikes

When we were in Sedona earlier this month, we discovered the James Ratliff Art Gallery in Hillside Plaza. I loved the variety of the art found in this gallery, and I especially enjoyed meeting and talking with both Patricia and James Ratliff.

This year James Ratliff is celebrating 50 years in the art gallery business. In the 1960s he owned his first gallery on Main St. in Scottsdale. For the past 30 years, he has operated a gallery in Sedona.

During his career which began with a love of art as a kindergartner, Ratliff has developed an awareness and sensitivity for talented artists. He especially enjoys mentoring young artists like Greg Heil who has displayed his brightly-colored landscapes in the gallery for the past several years. I found a show of the work of Cary Henrie especially intriguing because his work has evolved from wall paintings to three-dimensional paintings on stands. The show has been quite popular with many sales in the first two weeks, Ratliff pointed out. The abstract paintings of Allen Dutton are among the contemporary artwork on prominent display in the gallery. There is much more and a story to go with each piece of art.

James and Patricia Ratliff ©Mary Montague Sikes

Patricia, Ratliff's wife of 48 years, is an educator, music teacher, painter, former restaurant owner, and more. She is co-owner of the gallery. Visiting the couple amidst their beautiful array of art made me a little sad I was not a permanent part of the Sedona art community and able to converse with them more often.

What a joy it is to view art in other parts of our special country. What a privilege it is to be an artist and see the world through a lens of color and light.

Sedona Features Timeless Beauty, Energy and Art

Rainbow Over Sedona Red Rocks ©Mary Montague Sikes

As visitors drive toward Sedona, Arizona, a sense of amazement is inevitable when all of a sudden the timeless red rocks rise up in the distance. The views are incredible. Clouds appear as angel images. A rainbow ascends from nowhere into the sky.

No matter how many times we visit this mystical mecca, it is never enough. So many art galleries, so many rock centers, so many spiritual retreats, so many trails to red rock formations--there is never time to see them all.

Bell Rock ©Mary Montague Sikes

We just returned from a week in Sedona. Although I planned to revisit Cathedral Rock, Airport Mesa, Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Tlaquepaque, and more, I didn't get to them. We drove by Bell Rock many times and felt the remarkable energy of that formation. We dined at Miley's where a huge new painting of Bell Rock dominates. We feasted on seafood omelets at the Golden Goose and enjoyed lunch at Shugrues above the Hillside shops. And we spent a lot of time with art.

Art and the energy are what drew us to Sedona the first time. During a two week visit a few years ago, I enjoyed a pastel workshop and then took a metaphysical workshop that I found fascinating.

Ever since that early visit, those red rock images have crept into my artwork. Red rocks along with energy have also stolen their way into my writing and my novel, Eagle Rising. 

Something special exists in the timeless landscape of Sedona. Something special pulls us back again and again.

Touching an Eagle in Sedona Inspires a Novel, Eagle Rising

Author touches a bronze eagle created by sculptor Lloyd Pinay

 From the moment I first saw those dramatic red rocks rising from the arid land that surrounds Sedona, Arizona, I was hooked. No wonder so many artists and writers have come for a visit and never wanted to leave. I first traveled to Sedona in the mid-1990s and since have returned again and again.

Onyx obelisk centers medicine wheel --MM Sikes

 Not only the terrain intrigues me but so does the spirituality that embraces the town and its inhabitants. Many of the shops are dedicated to New Age materials. One store, located across from the entrance to the Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village in Sedona, features a garden in the back complete with medicine wheel and onyx obelisk. The little garden overlooks picturesque Oak Creek.

An artist workshop and New Age seminars gave even more inspiration for my book, Eagle Rising. What if my heroine, Rachael Barker, witnesses the tragic death of her fiance in an airshow crash and comes to Sedona hoping to find recovery? My own jeep ride through the desert inspired some of the scenes in the book. The medicine wheels I found on journeys to the vortexes are part of the story. And then there is the eagle...

Here are reviews of Eagle Rising:

 Journalist Rachael Barker is sent to Sedona, Arizona by her editor in North Carolina to interview enigmatic novelist Arch Adamson and cover a lecture series he is conducting there in the red rock country. With little enthusiasm for the assignment and facing difficulties with Adamson, she does find stories to write and subjects to photograph while there. Former businessman Derek Ryder is in the area in search of a gold mine left him by his deceased grandfather and looking for a new life after a failed family relationship. As their paths cross after a chance meeting, emotions and responses of these seemingly regular people to extraordinary circumstances fascinate and hold the reader. Dreams, danger and adventure combine to keep the pages turning. Even though neither had been looking for a relationship, Barker or Derek become characters in this love story for the 21st century. This is a book not to miss by Mary Montague Sikes. -- --Jane Gerring, Richmond, Va. Author

"What delightful fun to pick up local writer and artist Mary "Monti" Montague Sikes's book, "Eagle Rising" and partake in  what I call a "good read." This prolific Tidewater, Virginia writer not only has written five books and many interesting articles that have appeared in local periodicals and magazines on the interesting lives of regional people, but she is also a very fine painter. The "eagle rising" thus becomes not only just the new title for her satisfying romantic mystery set in the American southwest, but symbolizes the creative spirit that rushes forth so naturally and in so many forms from this highly diversified artist."

Mary Wakefield Buxton

Urbanna

 

  Eagle Rising - Bargain Purchase from Oak Tree Books - Please scroll down. Books are listed alphabetically by title.
Available in print and e-book versions.

Has someplace especially inspired a piece of your writing? Do you have notes stashed away intending to use them for a book?

I love Sedona and am happy for the inspiration I gain with each new visit.

A to Z Blogfest, Around the World in 30 Days - New Age Locations

"Angel Over Sedona" MMSikes

The Passenger to Paradise is fascinated with anything "New Age", and what place is more "New Age" than Sedona, Arizona.? Sedona is one of the places she loves, so that's why she selected "New Age" for "N" in the A to Z Blogfest Challenge.

Last week, almost the first thing the Passenger saw while visiting Sedona was a angel in the sky. Of course, she yanked out her camera and snapped a photo.

"New Age Shop Rocks" MMSikes

There's something mystic and mysterious about Sedona. The Passenger first visited there in 1994 and was captivated by the Red Rock formations. She was also inspired by all the New Age shops with rows of advertisements for psychics along with lovely glowing rocks for sale. Nothing pleases the Passenger more than beautiful precious smooth rocks in heart shapes. To keep from buying more heart rocks for her collection, she raced outside to the backyard garden where fantastic trees, large crystals and other rock formations rose up from the ground.

There is a mysterious presence that fills the air of Sedona, and the Passenger enjoyed the quiet loveliness of this destination.

What do you think of her angel?

Have you ever visited Sedona?

"New Age Garden" MMSikes

Do you have another New Age destination you'd like to recommend?

"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.

More Shopping in Sedona

When we went back to Sedona last summer to check some of the places that made me write Eagle Rising, I went shopping again. This time at Chico's I found more wonderful jackets to use for book signings and other things as well. My favorite find was a pair of white jeans at a remarkable price and a gorgeous gold and silver belt. Yes, I have a real thing for belts. This is not quite as impressive as the unique belt with the beaded medallions I found last year, but it is impressive enough to be hidden away for special occasions.

I was disappointed to see that Sedona has crept ever closer to Bell Rock--the site so prominent in Eagle Rising. A shopping mall has grown up near by, and the special little restaurant with the stained glass window depicting Bell Rock is gone. It doesn't seem quite right for a place as unique and picturesque as Sedona to change.

Mary Montague Sikes, Author
Eagle Rising, Secrets by the Sea