Gold Reflections.

The mornings are warmer so I have gotten out to do a few early morning paintings. This was a particularly nice sunrise although I got there a bit later than I would have liked. The important thing in these early morning paintings is to try to get there and lay out the composition and the placement of the darks before the colors in the sky get to the point where I'd like them to be. Then when the color happens I am ready to go with that.  On this one I kind of had to play catchup.

 It is so hard to drag out of bed especially since the time changed. I guess I am not really used to it yet. Gold Reflections, 8 x 10.

Indoor Painting

I've been working on finishing a painting ready for a competition and haven't gotten out to go  painting very often at all in the whole month of March. I did do a few though and here's one of them, an indoor painting, some things that happened to be sitting on the table in the morning sunshine. In the sun, 6 x 6.

Winter Trees

Here is a scene I first painted back in early February.  The sun was hitting a snow covered hill behind some trees and I really liked how it looked.  The light rapidly changed and I didn't like how the painting was coming out - it didn't have the feel that I wanted. I took photos though while I was there. So I started doing this painting in the studio trying to get it to look the way I remembered. I finally finished it this week. It's pretty close to what I wanted.  Winter Trees, 11 x 14.

Sunset

Here's the painting I did later in the day.  On my way home from the first painting I stopped at this place which gives a great view of the mountains in the west, hoping to do a sunset painting. This is the result - Peschel Sunset, 8 x 10.

Looking West

I went back last weekend to the place where I saw the mink hoping to get a glimpse of it - no luck though. Instead I painted looking off toward the west, away from the trees.  The fields are all still pretty brown but here and there there's a hint that spring might be starting to come. The weather was balmy and the afternoon started out cloudy but patchy sun came out after a while.
Looking West, 8 x 10.

Back to sunrise

It's finally getting warm enough at dawn that I thought I'd go out and try another sunrise again.  Here's another one - same place I've painted many times before since it's handy to where I live. The water is now melted. There were no clouds at all. Clouds make each dawn interesting - the colors always change, the clouds are always different from day to day. This one had none of those features - pure high pressure sky.
 Rising, 8 x 10

Wildlife

One of the really great things about plein air painting is the wildlife. There are things you might never never see when you are out hiking. I suspect most of the animals go into hiding as you trample by. But I've run into a skunk, several flocks of wild turkeys and even a faun while painting, not to mention many interesting birds. Since you're standing quietly in one place for an hour or two the wildlife starts to ignore you and comes out of hiding.

The other morning I was painting in a shadowed and secluded irrigation ditch, down inside a canopy of trees, alongside the partially frozen water. All around were dry sunny open fields where the snow was long gone. But down in the ditch it was still winter with patches of snow and ice shadowed by large overhanging trees. I was there for a while and was surprised by a small furry animal that at first stopped to look at me and then went on about it's usual business unalarmed, foraging in the dead leaves, running up and down the banks, swimming under the thin ice. It then began what looked like nest-making, taking many trips to bring material and dead leaves into its burrow under a large cottonwood near the water.  When I packed up and left it peered out at me rather unconcerned. It was a real treat to watch. I wasn't sure what it was - I had to look it up to make sure - it was a mink.  First wild one I've seen in my life. The picture didn't come out that great - I was too busy watching the mink.  But I'll put it here so you can see what the place looked like. Tucked Away, 8x10.

Fog at the River

Here is the painting I did on a foggy February morning a couple weeks ago.  The fog continued to hold on all through the morning and lasted almost till noon, maybe because I was down in the valley at the lowest elevation and next to the river. We'd had a recent snow and most of it was melting off leaving patches here and there.  I was hoping the fog would hold out long enough for me to get a painting finished and I got my wish. I really loved painting in the fog - I wish we got a lot more days like that. But Colorado is a fairly dry place and foggy days don't happen too often.
Fog Along the River, 8 x 10.

Winter Fields

This was from a couple weeks ago - finally dry. Winter Fields. I had done one painting,  finished it up, turned around and saw this scene and decided to paint it also. I ended up not keeping the first one. Winter Fields, 8 x 10.

Old Pumphouse

There's an old run-down irrigation pumphouse on an abandoned farm near here. It's right next to one of the parks where I often go to paint. There's an old barn and some other falling-down buildings which I've painted before but this time I decided to paint the pumphouse. I liked the fading paint and the look of the weathered boards.  Old Pumphouse, 10 x 8.

Spring Grazing along the Yampa River

While travelling last May and coming back through northern Colorado we passed through Steamboat Springs. Along the way I took pictures. This painting is done from something I took along that stretch of Route 40. The pastures were starting to green up, although there were patches of snow higher up. It looked awfully pretty. I couldn't stop to paint - we had to get home by evening. I did this painting all in one sitting - kind of an alla prima sort of indoor plein air. I started working from the photo as though I were on location. I didn't really plan it out too much ahead of time. It was kind of an experiment.
Spring Grazing, 10 x 20.

House on the hilltop

Last Saturday was a really foggy morning and I thought it would be great to go and paint that. I did one 8x10 down by the river. It went well, and I decided I had time to do another. I had a smaller 6 x 8 with me and painted this small painting of a house on the hill. The sky was still fairly foggy and began to lift as I was finishing up. The first painting is still drying, the second one I am posting here.
Hilltop House, 6 x 8.

New Paintings

I have them - but gee - they are taking FOREVER to dry in this winter weather. I've got 3 sitting here just waiting for those last patches to be dry enough to scan.  Maybe tomorrow.

Contrails

I saw this scene while driving to Boulder one evening. I was on my way to something, had no camera with me or painting gear. I noted the time and came back the next day at sunset to take some pictures. The site is right next to a busy divided highway with no real safe place to park or setup, I'd be a little afraid to paint there, so I took a lot of pictures and worked on this at home. I particularly liked how the partially melting ponds and random snow patches added to the view.
Contrails, 9 x 12.

Painting at NCAR

NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) sits on top of a hill in Boulder. The PAAC plein air group of Boulder went there last Thursday to paint. There are great views all around looking south, east and north, and west if you want to paint the building or the mountains behind it. We all set up mostly on the south side of the hilltop. The weather was pretty great and the sweeping views to the south looked pretty fantastic. I chose to paint this partly still snow-covered ravine off in the distance. Below is a picture of NCAR that I borrowed from their website  https://ncar.ucar.edu/.  (Hope you don't mind the picture borrowing, NCAR).   Great place to visit, exhibits for visitors, etc.
The Ravine, 9 x 12.

Gourds

Another of my "plein indoor" paintings done on a cold dark evening when I was wishing I could be outside and painting in the sun. We have a bunch of gourds leftover from the summer garden, kept around for decoration.  I threw a few of these outside afterwards and watched the squirrels tear them apart the next morning to eat the seeds.  Gourds, 6 x 6.

The Frozen Lake

Hamms Pond is surrounded by large swaths of cattails. Here's an early morning painting I did there. I had to go back a second day to finish it - there were things I wanted to change and had to see it again to do so. Luckily it was pretty much the same weather.
Frozen Lake, 8 x 10.

New Work

I have posted nothing in a while.  Doesn't mean I haven't been painting. Sure the weather's been pretty cold, so I haven't painted outside too many times. I have a couple of paintings here waiting to dry and be scanned, and when they are, I'll post them. I've hit one of those spells where I don't much like some of the paintings I have been making.  Either I've done a bunch of not-so-good paintings or I have been getting more selective and discriminating in my taste.  I like to think it's that... or maybe it's both. I've been taking a critique class - it's getting me to see things I hadn't thought about in my work. I highly recommend it.

Today I went and painted - I took a painting back out to the original location and worked on it again. It was one of those situations where the painting looks fine at the time but once it's home,  I start to see what's wrong, or think about what I'd like to change. "Fixing" it in the studio is never a good idea for me. I've tried it in the past - it always came out badly. I have learned it's something for me to best avoid.

 Today was a very similar morning, weather-wise so I took the painting back to the original location.  In a few minutes I had adjusted a few things and it's looking much better, and was easy to do when I could actually see the trees, the sky the mountains, the water, the actual colors again.  It was so much easier than trying to do it in the studio. Definitely an improvement.  With that finished up I then worked on a new painting. So far, so good. I see how I like it tomorrow.

Salt & Pepper

Another indoor painting of my salt & pepper shakers. They looked good on the red holiday tablecloth. I've been busy preparing canvas panels for future paintings and have a couple odd pieces left including these 6x6 panels, so have decided to do more indoor paintings on them.  Salt & Pepper, 6 x 6.

Toaster

Well it's so cold outside that it been "going in to paint" rather than "going outside to paint" around here. Here's from the other night, a little portrait of my toaster in the warm glow of the under counter lights. It was fun so I'm going to do some more.

Toaster, 6 x 6.

Winter Plein Air along the River

A heavy snow fell last week and it's been relatively cold, so a lot of it is still around. On Tuesday the 22nd it was a beautiful sunny day and most of my Christmas stuff was finished up so I went out late morning to paint. I wanted to work on snow and winter foliage.

 I chose a spot near the river and found this old cottonwood along an old river channel. I learned that it is essential to have your painting umbrella along on a sunny snowy day. The glare can be amazing.  Luckily I brought mine along. Should have brought sunglasses too.  Some artists carry those fold-up windshield dash covers to help shield their palettes, an item that would have been very useful too, but I did not have. Probably a good thing to add to my plein air kit. It's also helpful to bring some kind of lightweight waterproof ground cloth to set my gear /backpack on while I am painting. I also bring along a camera. Extra batteries kept inside my coat would have been a help. The cold made my rechargeable battery go dead really fast as I was out about 3 hours or so.

Snow is fun to paint - there are many different colors in the shadows reflected back by nearby objects. I really enjoy painting snow.  Here's the painting.  Old River Channel, 9 x 12.

Winter Watch

Here's another studio painting I've wanted to try for a long time.  I took the original photos a couple years ago and every now and then I'd run across them looking for something else and finally decided now was the time to work on this painting. I love how these foothills look when the tops are covered in frost and snow but the low areas have melted off.

Unlike the east coast that's suffering under a heat wave, we have more normal weather and recently had a 10 inch snowfall and then a little dusting yesterday so I am in the mood to paint snow.

 Well - back to getting Christmas ready - have a great holiday!
 Edit - I have since changed this painting - it's new look below. I thought the hills were too dark and didn't look snowy enough, needed to have more contrast between the buildings and the hills.

Winter Watch, 11 x 14, sold.

Same #3

Now that winter has set in, working on studio paintings is often my only option, the sun setting so early and the days filled with getting ready for the holidays. Also - I'm just a wimp when it comes to painting outside in temperatures lower than 25F or so.

So here's another set of painting all done in approximately the same place looking at the same things.
Looking east at Hamm's Pond. Top to bottom: Dawn at the Lake, Morning Glow, Red Sunrise, Purple Dawn.

Break in the Weather

It did warm up enough last week to go paint at dawn so I went last Tuesday. It was kind of an overcast morning.  Winter skies have a different look to them than the summer sunrises. Good thing I went painting, because we have since had a couple snowfalls and around 10 inches of snow this week.  I am looking forward to Christmas week time off to get out there in winter sunshine sun and maybe do some painting. Here's the last painting,  Icy Edges, 9 x 12.

Framed paintings

Someone asked recently about what the paintings look like when they are framed, since they are listed as framed on my website.  Here are two of them in frames. I use the black frame with gold liners but also use gold frames sometimes.  If the painting is really dark the gold frame might be the better choice although I prefer the black ones generally.
Rainbow Dawn  and Predawn in frames:

Same #2

I thought I'd post another "same" post. Here are a couple paintings I did from almost the same location, different days, weather. This time the location is at Hamm's pond, looking across the lake towards the mountains in the west. They are top to bottom,  Waking Up, First Light, PreDawn, and Winter Sky.

A City Farmhouse

Here's the studio painting I just finished, worked from photos I took walking around one early morning after a light snowfall. I've always been interested in painting this house that sits near the top of a nearby hill not far from a busy intersection. The house and its small farm are now surrounded by housing developments -  a little island of rural in a suburban area.  The light on the snow covered roof and the long blue shadows in the fields with the golden morning sky looked pretty spectacular at the time.   I moved a few of the outbuildings closer together to get it all in the picture.
9th & Pace, 12 x 16.

Goose Hunt

Wednesday it warmed up during the day but the early morning was still a bit chill - around 14 degrees when I got up to go out. It's not so bad painting in the cold if the sun is shining on you, but really frigid out there before the sun is up.  I still wanted to go but knew I'd freeze if I tried to stand out in the cold and paint, so I took some backup stuff. Armed with some oil pastels and a pad I hunkered down in the car and drew. I don't like them as much as paint, but they worked in the super cold. This was an experiment - maybe I'll try it with pastels also.

 When I got there geese hunters were just about finished setting up dozens of oversized goose decoys in the nearby field and getting ready to ambush the Canada Geese and they begin to fly toward the lake in the morning. So the "geese" in this picture aren't real.
After the sun rose, flocks of geese starting flying in, but none went near the decoys while I was there. I finished and left before the shooting began.

Geese at Sunrise, 7 x 9, on watercolor paper.

Same place

I 've painted at the same locations, different times of day, different seasons, and they've all come out a little different, and the last painting I posted was one of them. Also my plein air style has gotten looser. Cold weather and the added pressure of a quick moving sunrise are some of the reasons that has happened. The choice is work fast or lose the scene. Just thought it might be interesting to compare a couple from the same general location.  These three were at Peschel Open Space, slightly different vantage points, different seasons. Here they are: Overcast Dawn, 2014, sold;  Late Afternoon at Peschel, 2014;  Warning, 2015.

Dark Skies

It warmed up a bit ( low of 29 ) so it was warm enough to go out again at dawn and paint. The sky had a heavy band of dark clouds with a glowing red stripe below along the horizon.  I had a short time to get it painted before the sun emerged and the dark clouds faded to white.  I named it after the old adage " Red sky at morning, sailors take warning".  Later that day a cold weather front moved in and we've been having a little snow each day since last Wednesday.Warning, 9 x 12.