Plein air at First Light

I got up early and went to the ranch as the sun was rising. Actually, sunrise really isn't that early anymore. The light was beautiful - hitting the trees - making them appear as if they were stained glass.

I had an audience as I painted early in the morning- they really were a pretty quiet bunch until they decided to take off and thrash through the willows...

Plein Air at the Ranch

Fall is winding down along the river and the leaves are slowly making their way to the ground. I wanted to get just a few paintings done before it gets too bleak outside so I headed over to the ranch to do a view in the trees. It was truly a beautiful day and so I tried to enjoy it as I know from now on I will be pulling out the old down coat that I purchased used on ebay and my Elmer Fudd hat for those cold winter days.

A Large Plein Air

I decided to go to the ranch and try something new- a large plein air. I decided to try a 20x24 because I actually had a canvas that size and it was toned a nice purple color so I was off... The beginning layout - just blocked in

I started to work on the mountain and tried to establish where my center of focus would be.

I worked on the trees to the left of the canvas- trying to show light shining through the trunks and I worked on water and reflections.

The final result. The sky was very interesting as there was major turbulance as I painted but there was no wind until I was about finished - then it started to kick in. The cows were pretty good at posing for me but there were so many that I was able to get any view I wanted -

A Short Fall

12x16

This was painted on one of the two days that the leaves were on the trees and colorful. I was glad that I took the time to paint this tree in my front yard a couple of weeks ago because sadly the freeze and winds shortened the color display tremendously. The mountains in the background are the Sangres - I painted them with as few strokes as possible- the light changed pretty quickly so I was moving fast.


I was planning on painting the Crestone paintout today but am feeling under the weather and as my son is home with the flu, I know better than to push it. Hopefully I will be able to get into the studio soon as I plan to have an open house around the 3rd week in November and need to get some paintings hung and would like to get some small pieces painted.

More Plein Air workshop pictures

A picture of my workshop girls- Front row from left- Rosey Steffens, Heidi Algrim. Top row from left, Dee Bartee, Margaret Jones, Carol Watson, Gina Quintana, Boots Rogers, and Josie Perea

The last day of the workshop- sadly the weather reacted on us again and so the day was spent in the studio- painting from pictures. We had a good day however and the paintings were very well done. We had a critique on the last day and talked about the paintings - above.

This little guy was hoping for handouts while we were out at the La Garita Church.

Workshop fun

I have participated in a number of workshops and always enjoyed them. I've taken workshops from some of the best names in plein air, Matt Smith, Kevin MacPherson, Ralph Oberg, Tom Lockhart, but, I had never taught a workshop until this last week. It truly was an enjoyable time with one exception-- the weather! The first day I had planned on lecture in the morning and painting at the ranch in the afternoon, but we ended up in the studio painting from pictures because the wind was blowing horribly. I felt fortunate to have a studio large enough to house all of the easels and painters. The second day was beautiful! Above is a picture of everyone painting some trees up the La Garita road - I had planned on them painting the La Garita Church in the morning, eating at the La Garita store for lunch and then driving to Poso campground for that afternoon. Everything worked just as planned until we went to Poso campground. All of the leaves had blown off the aspen and so it was rather dead looking- especially compared to how it had looked the week before. That explains why everyone is standing on the side of the road painting- it was the only area where aspens that were still pretty.

This is the La Garita Church - the weather held out for us at this little church- I think that everyone enjoyed painting it although it was a challenge.

Color Studies

The other morning, the clouds to the north were so dark greyish blue and provided such a beauitiful back drop for the golden trees in my front yard- I had to paint them- I had just rained so I added some water reflections- they were perfect complements so...

I decided to do a study of complements in red and green- this is what I came up with- the color on this painting is a little of with my photographt....

I then decided to do a yellow and violet study -just for fun.