Meander

Here's a painting from last Sunday - went to a local park. Autumn colors are starting to fade now. It was a beautiful morning with great weather.  Meander, 9 x 12.

Mt.Oyster Club

One of my paintings was accepted into the 45th annual Mt. Oyster Club show of western art, held every year in Tucson. I am excited about this. Here is a copy of the picture that is in the show. The show will run from Nov 23 to the first week of January.
Here is a link to the show website. The website has an online gallery that shows all the paintings in the show.

Hall Ranch Wash, 12 x 16, Sold at Mt. Oyster Show.

Waiting

I like to scan my pictures rather than take photos of them. Somehow the colors never come out right in the photographs. The scanner does pretty well with the color and I can get a good resolution and it is always in focus.

That being said, you can't scan them till they are dry. I now have paintings from three different painting sessions that are still in the process of drying. As soon as the weather got cooler everything is just taking longer to dry.  In one picture particularly where I have a patch of thick almost-white paint it is still wet after a week and a half. The titanium white especially seems very slow drying. I will start trying some fast-drying alkyd white for outdoor painting.

This one is finally dry enough.  This was the painting I was working when my blog profile picture was taken. Sandbar Sunset, 9 x 12, sold.

Autumn Scenes

I went out painting near the river again yesterday and did two paintings. Here's the first one of them. The grasses and leaves are definitely losing their green and settling into autumn. I attempted to paint at sunset on the second picture - a real challenge as the sky and light are so changeable. I will post that one later, but here's the first one from earlier in the afternoon. I'll get a better picture of it after it dries. Autumn Light, 9 x 12. Maybe I'll put this one in the Paintworks challenge since the topic is Autumn.

River Turns and Trees turning

Here's my latest plein air painted near the river from last Friday. The massive flood we had last year washed through this area forming new channels and side channels and making a whole new landscape. Fall is starting to set in - saw two bald eagles perched in a snag, several herons and egrets and flocks of redwing blackbirds wheeling back and forth. It's a beautiful place -we were here at sunset the day before and it was wonderful.  Turnings, 8 x 10, sold.

Breaking Through

This is a studio painting I did from a beautiful scene I saw this summer on a trip in the mountains. It was stormy all day and then towards sunset the clouds opened up letting a brilliant backlit setting sun hit the landscape. There was no time to paint it - it lasted only a few minutes and then it was gone. I was lucky enough to see it while it lasted.  I've revised this several times so here it is in it's latest reincarnation.  Breaking Through 2, 11 x 14.

Changing Seasons

I've been out painting several times lately, a few times interrupted by rainstorms, but last weekend the weather cooperated and I was able to finish up my painting. It was a very beautiful and peaceful morning - lots of birds around flocking up. Leaves are just starting to turn color. Early Autumn, 8 x 10.

Rocky Cliff revisited

I went back last Friday to the rocky cliff where I'd painted on a rainy day in August and made another stab at it. This time the light stayed fairly good until the end when, as it has done all summer, it clouded over and began to rain. I did have time to finish the picture before I had to pack up and hurry out of there. Old Quarry, 8 x 10.

Reflections

Here's a painting I did a couple weeks ago. The light was constantly changing with clouds forming and breaking, finally culminating in a big thunderstorm. So, the water was a real challenge and kept changing from dark to light and back again to something in between. The algae went from fluorescent green to orange to brown, from bright to dark.  I had to decide how I wanted it. While I was painting it I took pictures so I have photos of the pond in it's various phases. Walden Reflections, 9 x 12, sold. This has been the rainiest summer ever.

Boulder Open Space

All four of my entries were accepted into the show so that's exciting. The show will go up in October at the Great Frameup gallery. I painted this morning - a nice sunny morning to start with. But clouds kept forming and by the time I was finishing it looked like rain was imminent. Drops began to fall a few minutes after I got home so I was lucky this time. I got one picture done, no time for a second one. We sure have had a very abnormally rainy summer this year. Three of these pictures sold at the show.

Placid Morning on the river

I painted this on the same morning as the picture of the large tree from a previous entry, but did not finish and had to go back on a morning with similar weather. Both pictures were painted from the same place. This time there was a fawn under the tree, still wearing it's spots. It was a little wary of me but then got more curious and came closer. After a while it decided I was harmless,  lost interest and began grazing until it was lost to view in the brush. It was really cute. Here's a photos of this painting, Placid River, 8 x 10.  No pictures of the fawn. I forgot to bring my camera that day.

Boulder Open Space Plein Air Show

The deadline for entering was this week. The open space areas I used were Rabbit Mountain, Cattail Pond and Peschell Open Space.  I hope they all get in, but don't expect it. I have another I would have liked to put in but the limit was 4.

Sandstone Quarry

Down the gravel road at Sandstone are the cliffs where they used to quarry the rock long ago. This is a painting from that place done last Saturday afternoon as it was getting toward sunset. It was hot and buggy but I had the shade under a large tree.  Sandstone Quarry, 9 x 12.

After the Rain

This scene is from Hall Ranch. It rained off and on for three days and finally I went out to Hall Ranch at the end of the afternoon where I could paint under the shelter where it was dry. The rain finally stopped and the sky began to clear up a bit.  After the Rain, 8 x 10.  

Afternoon Painting

Here's one I did last week on a very hot afternoon. I started at 5 and stayed painting till 7, all the while being harassed by a pack of mosquitos. The view was similar to one I did the other morning, same lake and trees, slightly different location.  There are not a lot of trees there where I was setup so I was under the only tree big enough to give me shade.  Late Afternoon at Peschel, 8 x 10. 

More Rocks

I wanted to work on painting rocks for this session so I ended up going to Hall Ranch, a very rocky place. It was a very hot morning but I found a shaded area with a large tree I could work under.  Someday I'll get a plein air umbrella but until then a large shady tree is very welcome. Here's the painting of a group of rocks in a dry gully. Rocks at Hall Ranch, 8 x 10.

Morning at the River

Here's the second painting I did that morning. This is the place that is filled with mosquitos.  They've been spraying for West Nile Fever infected mosquitos around here. I just hope the ones that bit me didn't have it. It was a beautiful place. Morning at the River, 8 x 10.

Overcast Dawn

Here's a place, part of Boulder County Open Space  along the river. The whole section was flooded out, with new river channels now and cutoff pools of water and sand bars. There's not a lot there but it's a gorgeous place especially early in the morning. I got there around 7 and did two paintings. Here's the first one. Overcast Dawn, 8 x 10, sold.

Rocky Slope at Rabbit Mountain

Here's the painting I did while being bombarded by grasshoppers. It was a very hot morning and the bright sun was a challenge. But I really wanted to try working on rocks and this is a good place for looking at rocks. We've hiked down this draw many a time on winter hikes. Rocky Slope at Rabbit Mountain, 8 x 10, sold.

Bugs!

When I'm painting outside it always seems that bugs can't resist flying onto the canvas and getting stuck in the paint. Yesterday I had three of them attach themselves on a couple different pictures. I scraped each one off but more came along and got stuck. Sometimes it's just easier to pry them off after the painting has dried for a day or two. Other pests are the grasshoppers who seem to think they have to climb up and traipse around the palette a bit - maybe it's an adventure to them. And when they weren't hiking across the paint they were springing back and forth in front of my face from all directions. And don't get me started on the mosquitos.  Today I went to Hall ranch where I had large horseflies coming to my painting, but happily they moved on.

I'll post copies of these paintings after they are dry and I can scan them.

Cattail Pond

I painted here a couple weeks ago with the plein air group and wasn't happy with how the picture came out so I decided to go back to this place last week and try again on my own. It was pretty empty and peaceful there except for a lot of complaining Canada geese. I guess I was in their home turf and they didn't like it. It was a somewhat overcast day and at one point I got caught in a short but heavy shower of rain. I had to shake the rain drops off my palette before I could finish the painting.
Swallows at Cattail Pond, 10 x 8, sold.

SAWHILL POND

The local plein air group went to this location a few weeks ago but I couldn't go that day. I had never been there so I made a trip last Friday and painted there. A very nice set of ponds.
Sawhill Pond, 8 x 10, sold.

Painting on a hot afternoon

Here's a relatively quick painting from the top of the hill at sandstone. The day was extremely hot and I set up in the shade of the restroom building. An interesting storm was building
over the mountains and by the time I was done it had clouded over and a few rain drops were falling.
Advancing Rain, 8 x 10, sold

Flowers at Sandstone

I haven'y painted flowers much at all and thought I ought to work on that. Here's the third painting from Sandstone done on the 4th of July. This one, 8 x 10.

Painting on the 4th

I did a couple paintings back at Sandstone on the 4th of July. Here's one of them.  It was a very bright day with intense light.  It's a small paintings, 6 x 8.  Just trying to keep it to the basics, no time to get bogged in details. Next I'll try it on larger  8 x 10 panels.

Agricultural Center

This is one I did on my own a couple weeks ago. A southern view of the farmhouse and kitchen garden. 8 x 10. I really like the 8 x 10 size - it's just small enough to get finished before the light changes too much. Farmhouse, 8 x 10.

At Mac Lake

Workshop at Macintosh Lake. We had a big wind/rain storm come through in the middle of the afternoon. The weather began to deteriorate rapidly. Heavy rain and lots of lightening and thunder too.  8x10.

painting at Sandstone

Here's my second picture from the day at Sandstone - the old ice-house. 8 x 10.

workshop paintings

A few pictures from a workshop I took are going to get posted here. These first are from

Hall Ranch on a very foggy overcast morning. I did another but light kept changing and I didn't save it.

The first, 8 x 10, second one 12 x 9.

Melting Snow

Someone asked me about this painting last night so I thought I'd post a picture of it. It doesn't appear in my previous posts.  I painted this in 2009 and it's been shown several times around town. The scene was a winter view along highway 36 between Boulder and Lyons. Melting Snow,  18 x 22, sold.