NEWS

Studio News

It's been three years since beginning life full-time in Dixon, New Mexico, and the studio continues to delight me with its spaciousness, light, and expansive sky and mountain views. I welcome potential collectors by appointment, and once again this fall I'll be participating in the annual Dixon Studio Tour which brings hundreds of visitors from all over NM and surrounding states to our little town. The 2024 tour will be November 2-3, 2024.

I will be returning to Ballinglen Art Foundation in County Mayo, Ireland in August 2024 for my twelfth residency since 2013. Focused studio time, walks along the dramatic coastline and the quiet boglands, and the valuable associations with the other artists in residence at Ballinglen have long fed my painting ideas.

During my last residency, in April-May, 2023, in addition to completing a series of works on paper, I taught a week-long advanced level workshop for artists working in oil and cold wax medium. My paintings on paper were small, spontaneous pieces done with drawing materials, gouache, charcoal, ink, and acrylic. I enjoyed this shift from my typical multi-layered paintings in oil and wax, and felt I was able to capture some of the character of the land and sea in that environment.

Foundation Obras

In October, 2022, I was in residence for three weeks at Foundation Obras near Estremoz, Portugal. The residency is located in a beautiful region of marble quarries, cork trees, and savannah-like landscape, located two hours east of Lisbon. It was a refreshing time of quiet days in my studio and enjoyable interactions with the other artists there. I met not only other visual artists, but also musicians and writers who were also in residence. I worked on paper with water-based media including ink, gouache, acrylic, and drawing materials.
http://www.obras-art.org/

In September 2023, Jerry McLaughlin and I co-taught a week-long advanced cold wax workshop in the charming French village of Sauveterre-de- Béarn, hosted by Magdalena Groszek of BeArtz. This was be my first visit to France, and following the workshop I spent a wonderful week in Paris soaking up art and its iconic sights.

I had a solo exhibit, Contemplative Spaces, at Winterowd Fine Art in the Santa Fe, New Mexico in August of 2023. The body of work I exhibited (Contemplative Spaces) are paintings that reflect my experiences in the New Mexico landscape--so dramatic yet subtle in its shapes, textures, and colors. A highlight of this show is my largest single panel work to date, Traversing, 48” x 96.”

My September 2022 exhibit, Place to Place, at Slate Gray Gallery South (formerly Telluride Gallery of Fine Art) in Telluride, CO included paintings from my Place to Place Series as well as several works on paper from the Memory Vessel series that I started while on residency at Ballinglen. It is always a pleasure to show in Telluride and I very much appreciate my collectors there who continue to support my work.

Jerry McLaughlin and I are pleased to be entering our fourth year of online instruction as Cold Wax Academy. With an international membership of nearly 600 artists, we continue to offer top quality instruction, painting clinics, guest speakers, and member critiques covering a wide range of topics. Most of what we offer is not strictly tied to painting with cold wax so painters in any media are welcome to join. Please visit our website for complete information, or to order our custom tools and book, Cold Wax Medium: Techniques, Concepts & Conversations (Squeegee Press, 2017.)

We are also excited to introduce Casa Clavel, a beautiful, modern house and studio in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, that we established in 2022 as an artist retreat and home base for exploring the many cultural wonders of San Miguel. Please visit our new website, Espacio - https://www.espacioart.org/, to learn more about this project. We are currently almost fully booked for 2023 but please inquire via the site about any openings this year, and to schedule a stay in 2024.

Podcast: The Messy Studio

“The podcast at the intersection of art, travel, business, philosophy, and life in general.”

 Since 2018, The Messy Studio Podcast has allowed me to share with listeners an eclectic mix of ideas, information, and anecdotes that other artists may find helpful in their work and careers. Along with my co-host, my son Ross Ticknor, we have covered such topics as Intuition, Excellence Vs. Perfection, and The Importance of Drawing. With nearly 100,000 downloads of our episodes, we are proud to have brought this content to our many listeners over the years.

At the end of 2023, we made the difficult decision to stop production of the weekly episodes due to Ross's work schedule and our generally busy lives. We will still record now and then as we are able, and all previous sessions are on our website. Just click on the Episodes button, and there is also a search function by topic. 

If you appreciate the podcast, we would love for you to use our Blick Art Materials affiliate link whenever you order your art supplies. It costs you nothing, and the podcast receives a 10% kickback from your purchase amount, which helps us a lot with our ongoing expenses and the time involved in producing the podcast. We suggest that you bookmark this link so you'll have it handy: Dick Blick affiliate link

Visit these links to listen to the most recent podcasts or browse the archive: