In for the Evening

     This scene is up at a beautiful area called Trout Lake.  I was waiting for the full moon to rise and looked across the lake and saw this.  The people living there had just started their fire and the smoke was just starting to hang about the tops of the trees.

La Plata Waterfall

     This is a plein air that I had to go back three times to get.  My first one was okay but I wasn't happy with the composition and reworked a new one to get it the way I wanted.

Nap Time

    This is a friend of mines dog named, appropriately, Fluffers.  I was captivated by this scene and painted a quick one on the spot, this is a larger version of that.

How about me?

     This is another airport sketch.  I was lucky enough to get this girl with her dog sitting across from me.  She was eating her sandwich and had her dogs total attention.  This dog had an odd way of laying with it legs splayed.  I wish they made this color of paper thicker for watercolor.   If I painted any bigger it would warp the paper terribly from the water.

Sketching at the airport

One thing I really like to do to pass the time while traveling is to sketch.  I highly recommend that if you want to develop your art you need to sketch from life.  These are fleeting glimpses of everyday life.  I sketch quickly to get the essence of the scene.  The gentleman at the top was looking at his iPad and he didn't stay there long.  I liked this position and try to keep that image in my head as he shuffled into different positions.  It is tricky but with practice it becomes easier.  The lower image is a man sitting with arms behind his head.  I was studying how to draw that and the light that illuminated him.  I really like the Strathmore Toned Gray sketch pads for these.  I saw some sketches that Thomas Moran did, he worked on a blue watercolor paper using white guache to show snow.  I have seen works by Turner and Whistler using a toned watercolor paper too.   Just a suggestion.

50% Chance of Rain

    This was a little later and a bit to the left of the last post.

Building storm

     We are having a wonderful amount of rain around this dry part of the world.  The clouds were so lovely hanging on Mesa Verde, I decided to try and paint them.  The combination of greens, grey/violets and red earth were captivating.