Giants Among Us

Another for the Sedona Plein Air Festival 2020, "Year of the Woman".  This was during the early winter storm that brought snow to the mountains here.  I have painted this area several times and never get tired of it.  It was 12ºF out that day, the paint became stiff and I pushed it with a palette knife.  I think I like the effect! 

High Country Springtime

     I went up to the pass to paint.  At over 10,000 feet in height, spring is just starting to show up.  The red in the field is a small scrubby willow that hasn't leafed out yet.  Many flowers are pushing up to take advantage of the short season.

Cascade of Spring

     I was out plein air painting with one of my good painting buddies.  I was supposed to meet her at this stream but she didn't explain to follow the yellow ribbons.  Our social distancing was excellent since we didn't find each other until later.  This is a seasonal stream that was too fun to pass up.

Incoming Storm II

     This was one of those days up at the pass, where I just couldn't paint fast enough.  I got 4 paintings done in 3 hours, it was all happening so fast!

Reverence

     One of the earlier aspen paintings I did, before the fall color.  I caught sight for this crooked little tree among the straighter big aspens.  I wanted to catch the feeling of the light filtering down and the depth of the forrest.  This was done plein air on location.  I am now doing a larger version of this.

Babble of Spring

     This is up LaPlata canyon.  It has been very dry this last year and this would be the amount of water that would be towards the end of summer.  I wanted to do a study looking into the water and the contrast between rocks sticking out of the water and those submerged in the water.  I also wanted to work on how to paint the water falls and how it affects the pool.  It was an interesting challenge and would like to try more of these.

A Winter's Tale

     This was done up at the pass with a pretty good storm coming through.  The layers of trees and mountain side are what drew me to this scene.

The Long View

     This is a scene I have always liked.  It is a road going to a trail head but when looking back you get this long view of the valley.

Winter Woods

     I have been visiting the home where I grew up these last couple of weeks.  I was lucky enough to catch both a nice snowfall and fog while I was there.  Sneaking away from obligations, I was able to catch this nice scene.

The Lookout

     I have always liked this scene of the tree in my back yard when it is shadowed by the house with the lit hill in the background with its red soil and junipers.  Usually every morning there is a magpie on top looking for leftover goodies I have thrown out for them.  I enjoy these gregarious birds and their antics.  I had put out my son's left over pizza slices...deep dish.  I watched one work very hard at trying to pick up a slice and make off with it.  It finally got a good hold on the slice, he laboriously flew up on top of the closest fence, readjusted his load, then took off for the next fence.  Upon taking off, he immediately dropped, heavily, and with much effort, flapped to the next fence.  This labor was repeated again when he took off from that fence to a tree and so on.  They are incredibly smart...and determined.

Kickin' Up the Dust

This big guy lives down the road from me and was nice enough to hang around so I could get some photos and sketches of him.  Like most bulls they have to bellow, rub and kick up some dust to show how tough they are this time of year.

I am working on a larger version of this and needed to work out a few details so I painted this one.