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.