12x16
This was painted at Rock Creek - south of Monte Vista, Colorado. The colors will be changing soon so I decided it might be nice to get some summer paintings before it is too late. There were a few visitors to the area but I pretty much had the place to myself.

Approaching Autumn

6x8

The sun is changing it's direction, the air is cooler and fall is on it's way. I did this small painting from a picture I took last year. I am anticipating the beautiful fall foliage and the colors- my fave time to paint.

Plein Air View from Lobo Point

12x16

Today I went to my gallery in Pagosa to change out artwork. I had wanted to paint up the East Fork of the San Juan River on the way home but was detained by a very nice lady from the Forest Service. She told me that they were working on the road as there had been a horrible landslide in the winter of 2008 and they are currently fixing it. I am elated because that road has some beautiful views. She told me to try further up Wolf Creek pass to take photos- I don't think she realized that I was actually planning on painting on location. I ended up going to the summit of Wolf Creek Pass and there was a overlook on the north side of the road. Never having been up that road, I took it and was I glad I did. After driving 3 miles to the top-the views were beautiful - all 360 degrees of them. The wildlife was friendly and all the visitors that drove to the top, and believe me, there were plenty of them, mostly left me alone to paint. It was a good day.

A Dune Painting

I finally got back from taking my kids to college- one is excited about learning and the other is excited about setting up the satellite system for TV. I delivered Coni's and my paintings for the DIA Dunes exhibit which will start in September and culminate in January of 2010. I really truly enjoy painting the dunes- actually I love painting the Sand Dunes. The painting above is currently on exhibit at the Great Sand Dunes Visitor Center.

Plein Air Painting at the Snowy Range

Well, Coni and I took off to the Snowy Range and stayed the night in the cute little town of Centennial. This is a picture of Coni and I cleaning up to head out as the sun was lowering in the sky.

The Friendly Store is a cute little gas station and convenience store right next to our hotel in Centennial.

This is where we stayed in Centennial- The Old Corral- we really enjoyed this place - the rooms were perfect.

A Picture of Patrice Walker and I after a hard day's work. Patrice found us painting by Mirror Lake and we went painting up Brooklyn Lake road after that.

This is the painting completed up the Brooklyn Lake Road. The views were astounding- makes you want to start singing the theme to "The Sound of Music." Don't worry - I didn't.

Plein Air Painting in Chugwater, Wyoming

9x12

"Chugwater Bluffs"

The next day in Wyoming; Coni and I drove to Chugwater to paint. Rich Gallego told us it was a great little place with some cool grain elevators, bluffs and ranches. He was right . We left at close to 6 to get there for the "good" light and saw these beautiful bluffs. I painted it with a yellow sky- it just felt yellow to me.

12x16

Later the same morning, we set up on right in front of the grain elevator and I saw this charming ranch scene with a VW bug in the field. This is appropriately named "A Bug in the Field" Both of these paintings are at the Link Gallery in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

More Plein Air Paintings from Wyoming

The next day of the Wyoming Plein consisted of getting up very early in the morning and heading out to the Hereford Ranch, southeast of Cheyenne. The painting above is a painting of some of the buildings at the ranch - early morning. The painting on top is a sunset that was attempted by me again this year along highway 30- and it kicked my behind AGAIN!
Maybe next year...

Wyoming Plein Air- Day One

Wyoming Plein Air- Well it was fun and I was sad because I had to leave early and missed the show on Saturday but the painting was good and Coni and I had a great time. These are the paintings I completed on the first day of the show- the top was a train parked by the tracks - done in the afternoon - it was leaning to the left which helped create a sense of movement. The lower painting was the first of the trip- I started this at about 9:30 Sunday morning and was impressed with the shadows on the foreground buildings- I really enjoy painting down by the tracks in Cheyenne- so much history.

Art Show- Keeping the Rio Grande Grand

This is a plein air painting that I did from the overlook of the Headwaters of the Rio Grande above Creede- I painted this at 6:30 in the morning. It is 11x14

This is a plein air of The Alamosa River Canyon - this one was in the Nomadas Show in Santa Fe at Sage Creek Gallery. Size is 9x12

This is a studio painting of some aspen in the high country- I decided to make it more about design than realistic- Size is 24x30

This is a fun painting. I did this studio piece from a plein air I painted over in Sulphur Springs by La Veta- it is 24x24 and is called "A Colorado Vacation"

This is a big one- 24x36 called "Fall in the San Juans"- I was experimented with this one by starting with a dark background of purple and painting all of the negative shapes in light

I got back from Cheyenne, Wyoming yesterday and it was a good week- I will be posting pictures of paintings from that shortly. The Cheyenne show is not over yet though- the quick draw will be this morning and the art show will be tonight. I really hated to have to leave early and miss those events but I have another show in South Fork tonight - Keep the Rio Grande Grand to benefit land conservation.The paintings above will be in the show.

Cloudscapes

After Coni and I got back from Taos And after talking to Kemper about paint application, I did this painting for fun- the pic above is a closeup of the painting below. I piled it on quite thick and truly liked this approach to clouds- my clouds have always been so wimpy from too thin of an application of paint. Not this time!

Plein Air Painting from Santa Maria Reservoir

Coni and I were overwhelmed by (too many things to paint syndrome) We finally settled down to painting- I painted into the light which I tend to do often.- Coni painted some of the Beautiful cliffs to the north. The mountain to the right is Bristol Head Peak.

A Plein Air painting trip to Creede Colorado

Coni and I decided to go to Peggy Morgan Stenmark's show at the Creede repertory theatre. We also decided to turn it into a painting trip. This is a picture of the North Clear Creek Falls.

This is a picture of my cruiser sitting directly at the bottom of Bristol Mountain. I am standing at the edge of Santa Maria reservoir to take this.

Here is a picture of Sam Keith talking to Marsha and Tim Gallagher about art of course.

Peggy talking to a patron with her beautiful paintings in the background.

Another picture of Peggy- it was a very nice show. I love Peggy's ink resistant method in her paintings. Yes, we did paint and I will post that soon....

Headed to Wyoming

The Wrangler Building is a landmark in Cheyenne.

A picture of the Snowy Range Mountains - we will be heading there on Wednesday night.

I will be heading to Cheyenne, Wyoming for the 2nd annual plein air paint out so will have lots of fun paintings to post and stories to tell- I have posted several paintings on this site to show while I am gone - so enjoy.

A Plein Air of Evening Wheat Fields

I decided it might be beneficial to paint sunsets for awhile. It is almost Wyoming time and Coni and I plan to paint many sunsets and possibly a few nocturns. This was looking across our wheat fields . The wheat is slowly starting to ripen.

New Mexico Plein Air Painters Show

It was a very crowded atmosphere at the Wilder Nightingale gallery in Taos New Mexico for the New Mexico Plein Air Panters (NMPAP) show August 1. The Show was from 5 to 8 but people weren't ready to leave yet as this pic was taken around 8:30- just too much fun!

Here is a picture of Rob Wilder Nightingale- (white shirt) talking to patrons while Kemper Coley is in the foreground.

Kemper looks like he's having a good time.

Coni Grant and Allen Heuer looking a little surprised as I whipped the camara out on them!

All in all it was a fun show - any time I go to Wilder Nightingale for a show I know there is going to be a large crowd of patrons and artists and Coni and I get to catch up with friends on the newest scoop. We didn't sign up in time to actually participate in the paintout but there is always next year and my mouse will be warmed up and ready to strike as the next year paintout may fill up as quickly as this one.