Plans Gone Wrong.

I have been dying to go out painting all week but one thing after another messed up my plans. Yesterday I had planned to paint in the mountains along a very scenic stream that still had banks of snow. It looked great. I was excited. The sky was blue, the light was perfect. There was a slight breeze gusting occasionally but I didn't think it was that bad. Suddenly it picked up and blew away one of my paper towels.  I can't be letting paper towels blowing around littering up the mountains of course so I went after it. Well, while I was chasing the paper, my whole setup blew over, landing my paint in the dirt and emptying out my whole container of solvent. So that was that.  Lesson learned - always take along a small can of back-up solvent in the car.  Also weigh down the tripod with rocks or something.  But I did take a lot of pictures so I may do a studio painting from my shots.

So, since that didn't go well, I went out again today, just locally, to a different place along the river here in town. Grass is starting to green up a little bit. The willows turn very red in spring before they start budding. Greening, 8 x 10.

A Surprise

So this morning I went painting. It's a sunny warm morning and I finished my painting around 10:30 and began walking back up the dirt road toward my car - about a quarter mile away. It's kind of a steep road and I was wearing my big brimmed hat and kind of looking down at the road as I walked.  So I couldn't see too far ahead, maybe 4 feet or so.  Suddenly I realized there was a black object hurtling toward me down the road, just a few feet away. First thought: What's a cat doing out here in the middle of nowhere? Second thought OMG it's a SKUNK.

 It stopped right in front of me looking menacing. I backed up immediately, pretty fast I might add. It turned away and went racing on down the road the way I had come, vanishing around a corner, as fast as ever. What was it doing out in the middle of the day? And why was it racing around?   There are some rabid animals in the wild here and there, foxes, skunks,  maybe it was one of them. If so I was glad it continued on it's way without harming me. But it was really amazing to see up close.

Here's the painting I did last Sunday right before sunset. Red Willows, 8 x 10.

Rocks

Here's the other painting from last weekend. We hiked up into the foothills, a warm day but still lots of snow in the shadowed hillsides and I painted this painting. Snowy Outcrop, 8 x 10. I am still working on some large paintings for an upcoming April show so I may not be getting a chance to do many plein air paintings in the near future. I did do one yesterday and will put that up after it gets a chance to dry a bit. Weather is definitely turning spring-like so I am looking forward to more outdoor painting later this spring and summer.

Break in the Weather, at last.

Yay! Daylight savings has started and the 2 weeks of cold and snow have finally passed, and the weather is getting more spring-like. I went out this Saturday and painted a couple pictures. Here is the first one. I have been busy working on several large paintings for an upcoming show in April so I haven't had much time to do small paintings outdoors, and the blizzard-like conditions were a definite deterrent. Am looking forward to light in the evenings again.
 Icy Banks, 8 x 10. 

Overcast Winter Day

I finished this painting this last weekend also. Once again I painted from reference photos, since the weather has not really cleared up yet. I am not really good at painting outdoors in cold snowy weather, especially if it is windy. This is from a local hike near where I live. The day was pretty cold, the aftermath of the snow storm, but the sun was starting to come through.
Winter Sun, 8 x 10.

More from the Mountains

A big Arctic front moved in on Friday so all that balmy weather we have been having all winter is gone and now we've got the kind of weather that the East Coast has been experiencing. So my plans to go out painting this weekend were put on hold. I sat in Saturday while the blizzard was swirling outside, painting from my reference photos. I took a lot of photos of ice and frozen streams and have always liked the look of the mountain streams with the rocks and ice and pools of water. This is a painting I started earlier this week and finished yesterday, one of those rocky streams we hiked along.
River Rocks, 9 x 12.

Mountains and Shadows

I was at Rocky Mountain Park last weekend and hiked around taking pictures. We got there in the morning, just an hour drive away for us, and wandered around looking at the ice in the rivers and taking photos. Here's a painting I did from one of my photos. It was a relatively warm beautiful day for February. Out of the Shadows, 8 x 10. I just updated the photo for this one, since I was able to scan it.

Pink Sky

Here's a painting I've been working on for a few weeks.  It hasn't turned out exactly like I wanted it to be but it was sort of an educational experience. I wanted to do this picture with the foreground in shadow but wasn't sure exactly how dark it should be. My first attempt was not dark enough, still not sure if it is really dark enough now but didn't want to lose all the detail in the dark areas. Still - it's time to go onto other projects so I am going to stop here and maybe try another picture like this again some other time. It's a view off of Rabbit Mountain looking toward the southwest. Pink Sky, 12 x 16.

Heading Down

Here's a painting I did this weekend of a place in the foothills about 8 miles away. The foothills are layers of red sandstone sediment that were pushed up millions of years ago by the uplift of the Rocky Mountains. The mountains are pretty abrupt here. The plains abut right up to the mountains with these sandstone cliffs and hills where they meet. While hiking around in the foothills at one of these places (many have been designated as open space/county parks) the trail passes this place where you can look down one of the stream courses toward the plains. It's relatively dry and the vegetation likes to grow where the water goes. It's one of my favorite views in this particular park. I painted it once before a couple years ago and things have changed a bit so I decided to try it again. I really liked the different colors of the shrubs and grasses.  Heading Down, 9 x 12.

Also I updated the photos for the pitcher and the curved road in recent posts. I was finally able to scan them, so the picture colors should look a little more accurate now.

Down by the river

Yesterday was another super abnormally warm day for February and it just happened to be the day of the weekly paint-out by the PAAC ( Plein air artists of Colorado) which I recently joined, so I decided to head out and go painting. It just happened that the meetup place for the week was a place where I often go to paint and is close by so that was pretty handy.

I got there first and no one was around but little by little they trickled in, and by the time I finished up around 14 artists were there. Here is my painting for the morning. River Thicket, 9 x 12.

This spot was just upriver from a new beaver dam. The banks of the river are still piled with flood debris from the catastrophe in the fall of 2013. Mountains are far distant in the background.

Sagebrush

Here's another painting done from reference photos from California. This was from a little earlier in the evening before the sage was completely drenched in the shadows by the sunset. The location was similar to the scenes I painted in two earlier pictures.  Since this is still very wet and can't be scanned yet, it's a photo.  Shadowed Sage, 9 x 12.

Curve in the Road

While driving around west of town on the way back from a winter hiking trip I passed this scene. The sun was close to setting and there was still a little snow here and there in the shadows. The road was covered with tracks from a muddy dirt side road, in fact, the one I had just driven up. As I turned onto the paved road the view was very striking and I decided I had to paint it.

I have been working on this off and on for a few weeks also and it is pretty much done except for the drying. I was using some glazes on it and they are taking longer to dry than I expected.
Curve Ahead, 12 x 24, Sold.

This is finally dry so here is a scanned version of the painting.

Morning Shadows

Every year in January the sun comes in my kitchen window and makes interesting shadows. It doesn't happen any other months since the sun angle changes and trees get in the way. Every year I try to do a picture using the shadows in some interesting way if I can.  This painting is my take on this year's shadows. I used a tarnished silver pitcher that I have that originally belonged to one of my older relatives. It needs a good polishing, but I didn't mind all the colors and streaks.
This is finally dry so here is a scanned version of the painting.
Tarnished Pitcher, 12 x 16

Twilight Coming

Here's another painting I just finished based on photos I took while I was in California and Nevada at Christmas time. It's a view looking in the opposite direction from the painting called Last Light I did a few days back. The mountains were very abrupt and pretty steep and the sunset light was hitting them full on while we and the valley were already in the shadow. This was also near the old corral and the salt bed were were hiking around.  It was a pretty spectacular sunset evening.
Twilight Coming, 12 x 16.

Back to the River Again

Sunday afternoon was really unseasonably warm so I packed everything up and headed for the river again. No ice is left anymore so I found a place where the sun was shining on a little sandbar and really lighting up some pale grass along the river. Here is my resulting painting from this trip.
Winter Thaw, 9 x 12. 

It was 75 degrees here yesterday - very abnormal. If it keeps up I may do a lot more outdoor painting this January than I ever imagined would be possible.

Last sunlight

I did this painting last night. It's another scene from my recent trip to California and Nevada. The setting sun was providing quite a show on the mountains and the valley as it progressed towards sunset. We were wandering around an old corral down near a salt lake nestled in a wide swath of sagebrush,  and I took many photos.
Last Light, 8 x 10, Sold.

Backwater Ice

The weather continued to be nice so I painted again. Here's the result from this session. I had an 8 x 8 board from this summer that I had never used so I decided to try a square shape for a change. It was kind of windy and I got a lot of grit and grass chaff on the painting.
Backwater Ice, 8 x 8.

Sandstone Road again

The weather is still holding fairly nice so I went painting again on Wednesday, went back to the scene I painted before in the spring along the road into Sandstone and gave it another try. It would be interesting to paint this place every month and see how it changes. Maybe I'll try it next month.
There's still a little snow in shady patches here and there. The day was slightly overcast and colors were muted. I painted again this afternoon too, a little gusty today though but a warm sunny day around 50. It's really nice to be out painting, with geese flying overhead, hawks and eagles circling and an occasional deer wandering about.

I'm getting a little faster at this painting outdoors thing and it is getting easier. January Sandstone Road,  9 x 12.

January Hills

It finally got warm enough to go out and paint here last Saturday. I've been wanting to paint while there is still some snow on the ground and when the light is bright. In particular I wanted to paint a set of rocks and have been waiting for the right conditions - bright sun and shadows, some snow on the rocks, a southwest facing slope. But it got so warm, so quick, that the snow melted right off before I could get there.  I gave up on the rocks and found this to paint instead. The rocks will have to wait for a later date. The weather was in the forties so it all went well without getting too cold. This is still wet so I had to photograph it - will do a scanned better version after it dries.
January Hills, 8 x 10

Ranch Fenceline

Here's the second painting I did on the trip - this one of a windbreak line of trees along a fenced field on the ranch where I was staying. The weather was changing as I painted so it was a bit of a challenge standing there in the wind. Some people really love painting outside in all sorts of weather - me I am not so used to it yet.  Wind and cold are hard to deal with. I know a painter who goes out in subzero weather and paints regularly. I'd freeze to death. Ranch Fenceline, 8 x 10, sold.

Mouth of the Canyon

I went away over the holidays to a place near the Nevada/California border. I was hoping to get a little more painting done but the weather didn't cooperate. But I did get to do two paintings. Here's the first.  We went off hiking up a remote set of canyons with rugged volcanic ash and rock sediments, and colorful rocks and petrified wood. We hiked far up the canyons looking at petrified wood chunks and exploring the rock formations. As the afternoon wore on, and we finished hiking around and eating lunch, I set up to do a painting just around the bend at the mouth of one of the canyons. The light was highly contrasted and brilliant as the dark shadows crept across the sandy stream bed. Soon the wind picked up and I had to work fast to finish up before freezing. Mouth of the Canyon, 8 x 10.

An Old Farm

A new bike path was constructed near a large park where I often paint, leading to a bike underpass coming out near an old farmstead. I took advantage of another warm day to check out the new bike trail and paint the view from a previously unavailable vantage. The farm is boarded up - I think it may get sold and soon be gone. Barn & Sheds, 8 x 10.

Hamm's Pond reflections

I did this painting later in the afternoon from the previous painting. It was starting to get colder and the sky was starting to overcast - looking more like a winter sky.  Winter Sky, 8 x 10.

Willows along an irrigation stream

We had a warm morning and I went out to paint and found this scene. The meandering of the stream, the colors in the reflections and the faded autumn leaf remnants caught my eye. Willows, 10 x 8.

Moonrise

Another painting inspired by walks at sunset near the river. This was a spectacular autumn evening with the full moon rising over the wetlands.  Moonrise, 12 x 16, Sold.

At Sunset

We've been taking walks around sunset this fall and there have been many inspiring scenes. Here's a painting I did resulting from one of those walks.  Sunset Fields, 12x16.

Pumpkins

I have a bunch of these from the garden and decided to paint them - took everything in because of the upcoming hard freeze ( down to -5 one night). The apples are from our tree too. I loved all the colors with the Polish placemat. I've been doing more indoor painting since the weather got really cold. Pumpkins, 8 x 10, sold.

Indoor painting

With the weather changing a bit and some last remnants from the garden I thought I'd do a couple indoor paintings. Here's one I called Linden, 8 x 10. I didn't want to get tied up in details so I did it really fast and loose. I was more interested in all the varied colors of my heirloom tomatoes contrasted with the yellow linden leaves and dark background.

Finished

I went back to the same area and painted another view, this time of a large tree, most of it's leaves gone for the season. Finished, 9 x 12. The weather was great - a lovely day to be out painting.

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.