Trout Study

We were supposed to be on Spring Break but my son and I came down with, I think, food poisoning.  We were pretty sick for a couple of days but are now recovering.  Since I was around I went off to do "portrait Wednesday".  Well the model must have ate at the same place because she was out too.

Since that was not an option we went down to the river near the fish hatchery.  Though the intention was maybe some river scene we ended up mesmerized by the beautiful fish at the hatchery and worked there instead.

Spring Reflections

This is the oldest cabin in the county.  It is hard to imagine a family living in this, especially through winter!  The phrase "cabin fever" must have come from this sort of living arrangement.

The Old Barn

I have always had a love for old barns and spent much of my childhood playing in them.  This old barn is part of one of the oldest ranches in this area and a favorite of mine.

A Sudden Blizzard

This is a scene just outside of my studio.  A blizzard enveloped the area very quickly yesterday and stayed for a couple of hours.  As always, I am enamored with the softness of these kinds of scenes.

Model Study

I am taking a workshop this week at the Scottsdale Artists School with Aaron Westerberg.  He is a wonderful artist and teacher whom I highly recommend taking a class with.  Between class all day and open studios in the evenings, gallery walks and dinners with new friends, I haven't been able to post much.  This is from the Monday evening open studio portrait group here at the school.

Evening Color

This was done earlier but left the studio before I could get a picture of it.  Since it just came back I thought I would post it.

I am off to Scottsdale to attend a workshop by Aaron Allen Westerberg.  I will try and post what I can from that workshop.

Woman Reading

This is the second tonal sketch/painting of Mac from yesterday.

Woman Reading (Head Study)

It is portrait Wednesday again.  Today I brought my friend Mac to sit for us, a person I have long admired and wanted to paint.  She is a fiesty 91 year old that looks and acts much younger than her years.

Sun and Snow

Since it was a school holiday yesterday we went up to Telluride.  While the family went skiing I wandered down near the park where I could walk along a cleared trail to find something to paint.  Since the snow was up to the picnic table tops I decided to clear off a table top as my base of operations.  Wading out to the table was rather interesting with a backpack on. Although it was about 15ºF, the sun was warm and sitting out of the wind made it rather nice on my perch.  

Snowy Eve

It has been snowing and the softness of evening, with the snow muting the landscape, has a zen like calm that I love to paint.

Marianne

This is from portrait Wednesday.  This has a full body to it but I am not happy with the lower half so I will probably just crop it to just this much.  Last weeks effort got into an unfortunate accident and had to be wiped.

The Muddler Minnow

Well, I thought this was a Woolly Bugger for the longest time, but I stand corrected, it is a Muddler Minnow.  Love those names.

Wake Up Call

I saw this in an antique store a while back and really liked how unusual it was.  This is an old ringer box from an antique phone and somewhere in the 40's someone added a clock to it, hence the name.

David

It's portrait Wednesday again.  Today's model was David, a wonderful person and colorful character to boot!  I haven't finished it but wanted to post it anyway.

Scary Kewpie

I have been in a slump lately so I decided to do some small still life paintings to try and jump start myself.  I set up at least 3 different scenes but wasn't pleased with any of them...then I looked up.  There, staring down at me from the shelf above, lit from below like a horror flick was this Kewpie doll.  I figured it is good perspective practice, figure practice, lighting practice, plus a little fun.  This looks better in person, the photos I took just wouldn't cooperate.

Lost Canyon Light

This is a scene I have gone back to again and again, trying and capture it.  Yesterday morning was about 10ºF when I started and today was just a little better, at 20ºF.  I came up with a plan to park my car in such a way that I could sit, partially inside, with easel just outside the door.  Although my hands and knees took the brunt of it, I did fairly well cold wise.   Not the same for the rest of it.  Oil paint tends to get thicker when it's that cold and so did my medium.  It was a challenge, but just being there watching the morning light coming through the canyon illuminating this area was worth it in the end.

Learning the Ropes

This is an update from an earlier post.  I was unsure about the background and it made several changes before I was happy with it.  Anything that sets around the studio for a while runs the risk of being changed or scraped and repainted.

Mid Winter Shadows

It is an absolutely gorgeous day out today.  I got out a little late today and the mud was beginning to thaw out by the time I finished.  I aquired about an inch or two of muck stuck to the bottom of my boots which made it hard to walk, it was extra sticky mud too, grass, leaves, twigs, ugh!  This is one of my favorite old ranches in the area and I like the way the shadows fall across the hillside during winter.

Long View

This is a view from the front of my house.  I have painted it many times, but none ever really look the same.

Morning Glory

I have been away on vacation for a while.  I didn't paint as much as I wanted to, while I was gone, but I did get in some painting.   This is a scene that greeted me almost every morning.  Many people would come out to the beach and stand watching the sun rise.  It was very similar to the scene where the angels would stand and watch the sun rise in the movie "City of Angels".  This photo isn't the best because I had my small camera and had to shoot in the room.

A Dave Brown Tractor!

This is another commission.  The title describes the first words out of my mouth when I saw this tractor.  I must have led a sheltered life because I had never seen one of these before.  As I understand it, this was the leading tractor in the world during the early half of the last century.  They must be much loved too because there is even a club for people who are fond of these tractors.  Just a note: the umbrella was not a factory option!

Don and Howie

This is a commissioned piece for a friend.  When her neighbor is out working with his tractor, his buddy has to come along.  Of course, Howie prefers it best when he gets a front row seat.

Grizzly

I am working these small animal portraits up for a show opening at the Goodnight Trail Gallery on Dec. 16.  There are several pieces, animal and landscape that will be available, if you are interested please click on the link above to get the contact information the for gallery.

Big Horn

This one was a real challenge for me but that is why I thought I should try it. Although it looks washed out on the computer it is a little more colorful than what you see.  I experimented with a limited palette of yellow ochre, cad. red med., ult. marine blue, burnt umber and white.  This is a palette somewhat similar to what Anders Zorn used.  I really like the way it turned out, I just hope I still like it tomorrow!

Autumn

Today was portrait day in Durango.  I love doing people but it is soooo easy to get one thing out of place and everyone will notice, it is not for the feint of heart.  Still doing figure or portrait is a great way to practice.

Brown Trout Redeux

This is a colorized version of my Brown Trout sketch from a much earlier post.  I had always wanted to do a color version but just couldn't figure out how until now.  I had done this as a preliminary sketch for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources for their Salmon stamp back in 2005.  I had to change the final because the Michigan Lake run of Browns, I was informed, are not as colorful or spotted.  Wow, the things you learn doing this kind of work!

I offer this as an 8 x 10 giclee print for $45 USD.

Drum Raven

I haven't done any drawing in a long time and wanted to work on this idea for a painting.  This is another one of those ravens that hang around West Yellowstone, like the drawing Cold Raven that I did much earlier.

Quietude

This piece has been hanging around for at least a year in my studio.  It was running the risk of getting painted over until I went back to the site again, with similar conditions and got a new feel for it.  I was listening to some wonderful quiet piano music, which seemed to exemplify the quietness of this scene, hence the name.

Light in the Storm

This is a larger work than I ususally do.  I headed up to the pass to catch an early snowfall (what was I thinking, I have 5 more months of this!) and this is what I found.  I painted a smaller 10 x 12, plein air, to capture the color and essence of this scene.  It was about 38 degrees at that time with a good wind.  I used my SUV to block what wind I could and eventually ended up in the back end of the truck with just my easel outside.  I finally had to stop when I found my hands not working well and having a hard time thinking because I was so cold.  I have done a few touch ups since this picture but this is pretty close.

Incoming Fog

I went to a workshop a couple of weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting.  This is along the California coast and though I was excited about the fog, that sentiment wasn't shared by most of my colleagues.  I think it is mostly because I don't get to see that sort of thing very often where I live and I like the mystery that fog creates.

Mike Barr, a wonderful Australian painter, had taken a lovely coastal painting of his, and cropped it to make a better composition.  I thought that was a fabulous idea and I used that technique on my piece.