Aspen Trunks

Aspen Trunks
6x6
Daily Paintworks

Cattails at the Ranch

Fall is in the air and I went to the ranch to paint on Monday Afternoon.  I noticed that the cattails are turning a lovely deep red color and so I painted this scene looking towards the Rio Grande River. I have posted this on the Daily Paintworks site and put it up for auction starting at $75.00. All proceeds of this sale will go to the Help the Children of Africa fund.  The UN has said up to 400,000 children in the Horn of Africa could die without aid and up to 11 million people require food assistance. In March of this year, over 1,500 artists and buyers stepped up and sold and bought fine art, through our Help Japan Challenge, to help the people of Japan. We hope to create the same opportunity to help the children starving in the Horn of Africa due to the devistating dought. To make bid, click here

Cow Landscape

After Peg and I finished painting the first painting, she jumped right into another and me, being too lazy to move my easel, painted this scene right behind me.  Well I guess I did turn around.  I haven't painted too many cows but I do enjoy painting them when I take the time- they are just basically boxes with legs.  They must not have liked us painting them because right about the time we started, the whole herd took off to the north- what spoilsports.

Dancing Leaves

Dancing Leaves 16x20

This was painted up Pinos Creek Road - I was drawn to the color and was able to actually get off of the road to paint as well- an added bonus.  I had a hard time trying to keep my palette in the shade- something that I was determined to do- I know that had the sun been shining on my canvas, this painting would have been about 2 shades darker.  This is a large plein air for me so I moved rather quickly -

The Road to Pinos Creek

Pinos Creek View

14x18

I haven't been posting my paintings as well as I should so I will do some catching up here.  This painting was done at the beginning of fall, up Pinos Creek Road west of Del Norte, CO; the trees were just beginning to turn gold and although I was interested in painting aspen, I saw this scene and decided to pull over and paint.  This was done at about 4 in the afternoon and clouds were starting to boil in.  This was difficult to paint as the sun played peekaboo the whole time.

An Almost Fall Painting

Another painting from the Alamosa River Canyon.  This painting is a 16x20, a tad bit larger than I usually paint on location.  I was confused as to which direction was which and when the sun wasn't moving in the direction that I thought it should, I checked my compass in my Cruiser and found that I was 45 degrees off.  Oops.  Everything started to make sense after that and I finished this pretty quickly- larger plein air paintings can go as quickly as the smalls- just be ready to slap on large amounts of paint with a big brush - Stapleton Kearns was right- sometimes it's hard to miniaturize the world when painting.

In Pursuit of Fall

Rock Wall Up the Canyon

11x14

I headed up the Alamosa River Canyon with one thing on my mind " Fall Colors".  I was hoping that the colors would be changing up in the high country by now but, alas, the Aspens are for the most part just green- oh, there are a few golds here and there, but I will have to wait a few days and then try again. I saw this rock wall on the way up and have always thought about painting it and never have - until yesterday. The shadows were right and I dived in- it was a nice intimate scene and I was happy with the result.

The Best and the Brightest

My painting "The Last of the Leaves" was chosen for the juried art show - "The Best and Brightest" at Scottsdale Artists School and will also hang in the "Celebration of Fine Art" show in Scottsdale as the school will be hanging the paintings from the show in a rotating exhibit there as well. The Celebration of Fine Art reception will be on January 15 and the reception for the Best and Brightest show will be on February 18.

Meanwhile, I have been just vegging out around the house doing absolutely nothing!! I have eaten way too much and feel miserable- it's time to go painting and burn off some calories- I do believe that one could burn off quite a few calories by just trying to stay warm while painting although it has been rather mild this Christmas- thank goodness. I hope it stays that way.

Before the Snow

It has been snowing quite a bit lately- the days are interesting- one day it will be below freezing and the next day it will be close to 60. I have been trying to get prepared for my show- invitations out, hanging MORE track lighting- just tying up loose ends and I really haven't been that efficient. I walk into my studio and I just start to walk around in circles , not getting much of anything done. The painting above was painted at the ranch right before the first snow- the day after I painted this it was cold and windy and started to snow that morning- I have lost a brush which I believe is over there but still have yet to retrieve it. I hope that I can get a little more excited to paint in the snow- I love the beautiful whites - I just don't like the cold- and inthe San Luis Valley- it does get COLD!

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.

Fall Color

11x14
This is a view to the west from my backyard painted on Sunday afternoon. There was a nasty looking storm which provided great color for the the backdrop of this stand of trees. Tomorrow I will be heading to the Colorado Mountain Plein Air festival to get Coni and my canvases stamped and hopefully a couple of good paintings done

Home with a Cold

I am trying very hard to stay at home and recover from SOMETHING- I'm not sure what it is- probably just a cold. But it is so windy outside - I wouldn't be painting anyway-- Hail to Spring in the San Luis Valley!!

Well, anyway, I decided to work on my blog for awhile so you will be noticing small and hopefully positive changes as I learn how to tweak it from Blogger Buster. I didn't start out that great though- I decided to try to minimize the amount of labels I had by using the edit posts section and under label action I used the command Delete and ended up deleting quite a few of my prior blogs- Bummer. And it was my own fault- I need to read directions better. Well, I learned alot from this and will definitely not do that again. I didn't have any posts from late so I am posting a painting that I did this fall and never posted.
This painting was en plein air very close to the Rio Grande River and is close to Joe Zinn's house- an incredible photographer friend of mine.

As I look outside and see dirt blowing everywhere; I'm thinking that maybe I will be painting inside for awhile which is alright as I need to try to get some paintings done before March 9 to submit to a DIA sand Dunes show that will be exhibiting September, 2009.

"Shaw Lake"

When the fall was at the height of it's glory I knew that I had to get outside and do some painting. I had been working rather hard on the studio but when the colors call I have no choice but to stop and paint. My mom and I went up to Shaw Lake- located above Big Meadows Reservoir and we painted this scene. What a glorious day it was! It seems even more glorious as it is now trying to spit snow outside my window. I've decided to start posting before and after pictures of the inside of the house so stay tuned. It's sad, instead of painting icy branches against a backdrop of soft dark evergreens, I am painting quarter round that will trim up my floors... yawn. But it is almost over!

The Conejos

I was FINALLY able to paint with Coni and the SLV painters down at Josie's house along the Conejos River - what a beautiful place! It was nice being able to get away and a welcome respite from being a "volleyball mom". This painting was completed right in the front of Josie's house and then she treated us to lunch-what an angel - and it was delicious. This painting was done mainly for the sake of reflections- I also wanted the colors to stay mainly green and purple.