Moving On

My website, which I have had for around 9 months has a blog integrated into it. I have been trying to post things in both places, but that is getting to be a lot trouble and very time consuming, different passwords, etc.  Sometimes I post something in one place and forget or don't have time to put it in the other place. It's going to be easier to permanently move my blog into the one on the website. I planned on doing this from the beginning but never got around to doing it. This blog will no longer have any new posts.  Hope you all move there to the new space. Thanks for watching. I hope it's been interesting.

http://kathreilly.com/blog

Eastern Storm

Next morning, I went back to try a sunrise again. The sky had a continuous band of storm clouds all along the horizon off to the east. Somewhere in eastern Colorado someone was getting some morning rain, but not us.  The sun took it's time climbing above the cloud bank, giving me more time to work without having to squint into the sun or having to put up the umbrella.
Eastern Storm, 8 x 10

Gray Clouds

 I went back to my favorite spot for looking at skies and painted another end-of-day painting.  This was a  little early before sunset, so there wasn't a lot of color but the clouds were very dramatic, and I liked the gray mixed with the back-lit edges.
 Gray Clouds, 8 x 10.

Night Sky

One day last week I wanted to go paint somewhere but it got late and was really too dark to set out. It seemed like a good opportunity to try doing a nocturne painting. I set up in the front yard next to the driveway and looked down the street toward the remains of the evening light. There was a quarter moon and Jupiter that seemed like they should go into the picture too.   It was a real problem trying to get a good scan of this painting and the one I got was the best I could get after much fooling. I used a lot of medium on this and it dries kind of shiny, unfortunately wreaking havoc with the scanner, especially in dark and black areas.
 Street Lights and Sky lights, 9 x 12.

Orange Sunset

Once again attempting to paint more sunsets, I went back another evening to the same place where I get a good view of the western sky.  This time there were plenty of clouds and a lot of color, unlike the stormy sunset of the other day. I set up in approximately the same location as the last time, but with a little different emphasis on the scene I painted. I worked on many sunrises last summer and fall and recently someone asked, "why don't you do some sunsets?"  They are a little trickier to paint in some ways because the sky keeps getting darker and finally the light goes completely. I plan to try some more of them.  Orange Sky, 9 x 12.

Stormy Afternoon

Returning another day late in the afternoon to Peschell Open Space I hoped once again to get a nice red sunset. There's a great view of the western sky from this spot. No luck - this particular sunset turned out to be a stormy one. The clouds were coming in pretty thick and rain was falling off in the distant west. But I liked how it looked with the dark clouds so I decided to paint it anyway. By the time I got back home it was starting to rain here. The red sunset will have to be another day. Afternoon Storm,  8 x 10.

Morning Clouds

Next morning I decided to go paint a sunrise for a change. The sun comes up so early (5:35) it's hard to get up, get there, and be ready to paint before the sun makes its appearance, so of course I didn't make it quite on time. I got there around 5:45 and the sun was already over the horizon so I painted facing south toward some interesting looking purple clouds.  The clouds steadily began to fill in until the sun was blotted out and indeed it became a sort of cloudy rainy day. But it was nice while I was there and here is the painting I finished.  I didn't take any pictures at the scene with this one - forgot.
Morning Clouds, 10 x 8.

Sunset

The sunset was so lovely the other day when I was trying to paint the nonexistent moon that I went back to try to paint a sunset. No lovely pink clouds this day, but instead a glaring golden sky. But it was pretty interesting looking like that too. We had a lot of haze in the sky from west coast forest fires which made the mountains more etherial looking.  Sunset at Peschell, 8 x 10.

Here's what it looked like as I was packing up.

Waiting for Moonrise

On June 18th we were set to have a full moon and I decided to go and try to paint it rising in the east. If all went well I would have the moon rising in a sunset-sort of sky while the it was still light out. Everything was going well except a band of ever growing clouds on the east materialized blocking any view of the rising moon. In fact I finally gave up on the moon as the sun was setting. Great sunset but not what I had come for.  Also a picture of the scene as I started and me painting.
Waiting for moonrise, 9 x 12.

At Hall Ranch Again

Here is the second painting I did at Hall Ranch. The sun was moving quickly and I wanted to have more time looking at the shadows so I came back a week later for another try.  Here are both of them. Already the green grasses of mid June have started turning into the golden browns of summer in just a week's time.
 Morning Shadows #2, 9 x 12

Morning Shadows #3, 8 x 10.

Here's a picture of the place I was painting, taken the first week after I had finished painting.

At Hall Ranch

Last Saturday I painted at Hall Ranch, got there very early hoping to catch the shadows on the mesas before they retreated for the heat of the day. I worked on two paintings and left before it got too hot.   I didn't run into any rattlesnakes, so that was good. It's still fairly green there, the browns of summer haven't set in yet. Here's the first one, also a picture of the scene as it was when I finished. All those cool shadows were gone.  Morning Shadows, 8 x 10. 

Why Not Niwot

Each year Niwot has an art contest/exhibition. The idea is to do a piece that is representative of Niwot, a small artsy village near here with lots of historical buildings, antique stores and interesting stuff.

Last year I entered this and won the grand prize. This year I did a different sort of piece,  a mostly black and white block print, completely different from last year's entry and much to my surprise won it again. The winning piece gets printed onto wine bottle labels, cards and posters. This year the wines chosen were two Italian wines, one red, one white.
Here's a picture of my winning 2016 piece as a wine label.

White peonies

Back to flowers again, something I haven't done a lot of and need to do more. We have some white peonies - they were just about finished and had a few blooms left so I thought I'd better paint them while there were a few flowers left. Here they are, in a Japanese cup that we have. The surface for the painting was really textured, I'd painted over an old painting.

White peonies, 10 x 8.

Afternoon Glow

It's been record-breaking hot here for the last couple days. Nevertheless I decided to go paint one late afternoon. I found myself a shaded spot behind a small grove of willow trees and set up painting, looking westward toward the city and the mountains off in the distance. The skies are murky these days, polluted from forest fire smoke from California and points west, so no blue skies, just a hot golden glow.

A redwing blackbird sat on a nearby tree giving off alarm cries and complaining bitterly the whole time I was there.  It was a bit buggy but not too bad working in the shade.
Afternoon Glow, 8 x 10, sold.

Telephone Poles

After finishing up the last painting at Peschel  ( On the Lookout) I did a few painting sketches on paper before I packed up. This is one of them.  Telephone Poles, 5 x 7.

On the Lookout

Last weekend I went to Peschell Open Space looking for something different to paint. I have been there so many times. This time I opted for the fallen tree as my subject. I remember painting under this tree several times two years ago, but then when I came back last summer I found it toppled to the ground.  A fortuitous bird alighted on a branch top while I was painting.

Here's the scene and the setup.  Below is a picture of the painting.
On the Lookout, 9 x 12.

Oil on paper

Trying some new materials - always fun. This is on Cobra water based oil paints and Huile oil paper.  I tried them out at the local pond the other day. The paper works well and I like the texture it has. It seems to dry pretty quickly also.

Study 1, 5 x 7, oil.

Purple Iris

The iris are all in full bloom now. These purple ones are especially stunning. So once again I decided to try my hand at flower painting, a new endeavor for me. I'm in a learn-new-things, paint-new-things, try-new-stuff  type of mode right now,  and this fits the bill.

This flower is tucked away in a cut glass creamer that we received as a wedding present years ago and never really had any use for, not being the sort of formal dinner-party type of people who might use one regularly.  But it makes a good temporary vase.

Purple Iris, 10 x 8.

Doing plein air watercolor.

To those who like to paint in watercolor there's a great blog I know by an artist who recently expounded on her equipment for plein air watercolor, and recently took a mountain biking trip with her watercolor stuff along. It's an interesting read. Jessica Lanan is a book illustrator but also likes to go plein air painting (or free range painting as she calls it). Here's her latest post.

Equipment for a Free Range Artist Part 2

Trip West

This is from a recent road trip we took to Nevada. I wanted to do more paintings along the way but we were pressed for time and it's a long way to go. But I did get one painting done at sunset in Utah, looking toward the cliffs of Bryce Canyon.  We found a camping spot on the road to Cedar Breaks heading west. It was late in the day and we had already eaten when we set up camp. So without the cooking to deal with I had enough time before sunset to try a small painting. Across the valley the sun was lighting up the cliffs of Bryce Canyon off to the east. I had to paint this in fast before the sun set dropping everything into shadow. Later as dark set in the full moon came up over the mountains. Fabulous place! Here's that small plein air painting.  Utah Cliffs, 6 x 8.

White Iris

Here are some more flowers from the yard. The white iris are blooming. This was done all prima as a still life, all in one sitting. I have other flowers about to bloom so maybe I will try some more iris.
White Iris, 10 x 8.

Lilacs

The lilacs have been glorious this year so I thought I'd have a go at painting them before they start to fade. They are tricky with all those tiny flowers - obviously you can't go about it by painting each little flower. But you want it to have the look of a bunch of little flowers.  Also there's all that luscious purple and lilac to paint - not colors I get use in great quantities usually.  Here's my take on it.  Lilacs, 10 x 8.

Spring Greens

I got out to paint early Sunday morning on a really overcast day although there was a strip of pink sky near the horizon. By later in the day it was pouring rain. Things are starting to look a lot greener around here.

This open space called Peschel is one of the many Boulder County Open Space properties. Every other year or so the county has a Plein Air Paintout exhibit. The rules state that the paintings entered have to be painted plein air on one of the open space properties. We have from now to the beginning of August to go out and see what we can do, and then enter our best. I did it the last time they had the paintout and it was fun. So here's the first of many (I am sure) paintings I will do this summer on open space properties, hoping to come up with some good ones by August, when I'll choose my four favorites and enter them in the contest. Here's a link to the Plein Air Paintout:  http://www.bouldercounty.org/os/events/pages/paintout.aspx

This painting, Spring at Peschel, 9 x 12.

Mothers Day Flowers

I received this giant bouquet of red and pink peonies and thought it was not only great to look at but also a great chance to try painting it. So here's a painting of the flowers. I had fun with jar, the petals are pretty tricky.

Mother's Day, 10 x 8

Spring hillside

It's a great time of year to go outside and paint. Green is starting to show up in the countryside now and I liked the look of this hillside with the new grasses starting to fill in amidst last year's skeletal remains of old mullein plants and patches of raw earth in the early morning sun.

Mullein Hillside, 9 x 12.

Nevada Sky #2

Here is another painting influenced by a trip to Nevada last spring.  The skies while we were there were amazing, especially around sunset.  Here we have the layers of mountains off to the west with lowering clouds, which looked like they were going to produce some rain. But this is dry Nevada and  even though we were hoping, it didn't happen. They eventually faded away as the sun went down.

Nevada Sky #2

Nevada Sky

This painting was influenced by a trip I took through Nevada last year. The skies and sunsets were impressive and it made me want to do some paintings on that theme.  This is one of them which I recently finished. I am working on a second one.  Nevada Sky #1, 16 x 20.

Spring Greens

Here's a painting from last week. The wheat fields are starting to sprout and the varying shades of green caught my eye as I was wandering around trying to decide where to paint. This is a scene from the south-east edge of town where the city breaks away into agricultural land. I had to climb a little rise next to a bridge embankment on a local 4-lane highway to get this view.
Green Fields, 9 x 12.

Red Rocks at Hall Ranch

I went here to paint last week. It's still pretty wintry looking out in the country away from planted fields and suburban yards and flowerbeds. The wild plants are still reluctant to succumb to spring weather. I really like the red rock cliffs at Hall Ranch and found this view that I liked - the way the gully snakes up to the cleft in the cliff, the gray/purple shrubbery, the red rocks, and the gold/green grass.  Red Cliffs, 9 x 12.

Spring Grove

Spring is certainly here in my back yard  with flowers and some green grass, but out in the countryside it's still not looking too green yet. One sign of spring is that the willows along the rivers and wet areas start to turn red before they bud. I went out to paint near the river the other day and was struck by the red willows, the pale bare branches of the cottonwoods and the pale green that was beginning to show in the fields between the tufts of last years golden grass. This is the painting I did, Spring Grove, 9 x 12.