Green Reflections

The weather finally did clear up a bit and we've had at least some partially sunny and partially dry days. I got out to paint on Saturday morning - not sunny but at least sort of dry. I found a nice spot at the edge of a pond and set to work. Lots of wildlife was around on this cool slightly foggy morning, bunnies everywhere, a somewhat unconcerned wild turkey wandering about, and several geese families alarmed at my presence, but slowly getting used to it, while herding small families of small yellow babies around the pond. During the recent unrelenting rain I made up a whole batch of boards with canvas mounted on gator board and this is the first one I've tried to use. It makes a rougher surface which I am not sure I like.  Have to get used to it I guess.
Here's the picture - Green Reflections, 8 x 10. Also a picture of the turkey.

Snowy Banks

This painting was done in the studio from photos I took back in March.  ( See Plans Gone Wrong from earlier post)  It was the Saturday I attempted to paint up in the mountains and had my whole setup blown over by a big wind gust, and spilled my solvent. I didn't take any backup solvent along so that was it for the day.  I did have my camera and took a lot of pictures and I painted this last week from my reference photos. We've been having record breaking rain day after day this month with only a few clear days in between. Many times I have wanted to go out but just don't have the heart to huddle under a shelter trying to paint with day-long drizzles or downpours around me. It's been pretty cold too. We even had snow last weekend. Things are looking a little better for later this week so maybe I can get out Friday or this coming weekend. Come on sun! At least it is super green out and everything is blooming.  Snowy Banks, 9 x 12.

Back to the hills

Last week I went back to the hills at Sandstone Ranch and painted another painting of the same general area where I painted 'January Hills" back in the winter. This time it looks a lot greener. The bushes are starting to sprout and grasses are starting to fill in around the rocks and shrubbery. Trees now have new leaves on them. There are no real flowers blooming yet. I plan to go back in the summer and fall and do 2 more paintings and get a full set in the different seasons. Here is May Hills, 8 x 10. It was a kind of an overcast day, threatening rain, but I managed to finish without getting wet. Below is the one from January also.

Out my Back Door

I recently read about Greg Summers, an artist in Kansas who set up a painting challenge. The goal was to paint something within 100 feet of your back door and send it to his Facebook page where he published the whole set. The deadline was Nov. 30th of last year and I just found out about it this week. But it sounded like a fun thing to try so I did it anyway just for the challenge. Here's what I came up with:  The Playhouse, 8 x 10, plein air.

Spring Planting

Here's a place I sometimes pass when I go out to paint. I really liked the way it looked earlier this spring with a cloudless sky reflecting the intense blue overhead of me, which faded to the pale blue near the mountain horizon. The fields were all different colors, some plowed, some already growing, other areas not planted, and I decided I wanted to make a painting of it. Here's the result.  Spring Planting, 8 x 10.

PAAC show

I just recently joined the PAAC (Plein Air Artists of Colorado) and entered the annual show and was not sure I'd get anything accepted into the show. Thought I'd give it a try anyway. But I got one picture accepted into the show so I am happy about that.  The show this year is in the Mary Williams Gallery in Boulder Colorado and I think it starts on July 30th. Here's that painting. Icy Banks.

Antelope Springs

Here's another painting I did on our trip west. I painted this on a cholla cactus and sage covered hillside looking across the valley toward a small salt lake, with the dark wall of mountains behind. The place where I was painting is a local spring, where a few trees manage to survive, but instead of painting them I painted the scene across the valley. There is actually an earthquake fault along the base of the mountains which caused the uplift sometime in the past and cut off the valley from outside drainage. All the water now flows into the small lake which evaporates off, having no outlet. The sun was pretty bright even though it is still only spring.   Antelope Springs, 8 x 10, sold.

More from Rabbit Mountain

The first painting ( last blog entry)  took most of the morning and I was hungry for lunch but I thought I still had time to do a second quick picture before packing up. I turned around my easel and started painting in the opposite direction, with the valley to my back and the hillside slope in front of me. Up ahead was one of the typical gnarled pine trees on the grassy slope that are common here and a partial view of the rocky hills behind. The morning calm gave way to a gusty afternoon and made me wonder if my easel was going to blow over. I painted this relatively quickly, hanging onto my easel with one hand, and then packed up and headed home.  I think of all things, wind is worse than rain or cold weather for painting. Looking North, 9 x 12.

At Rabbit Mountain

Saturday weather was great and I was way overdue for painting outdoors. I set up at Rabbit Mountain and painted two pictures. The greens on the trees are just starting to appear. It looked very spring-like in an austere Colorado sort of way, and sort of overcast. Rabbit Mountain used to be called Rattlesnake mountain long ago and it is not uncommon to run into one along the trails. So, I was particularly watchful when setting out through the grass, since the snakes are out of their winter dens now that it has warmed up.  I saw many people out enjoying the trails, lots of birds and prairie dogs, but no snakes. Two days later a woman was bitten by a rattlesnake while hiking this same trail just up the road a little farther. She had to be airlifted out.  I'm glad I didn't run into any. This first picture I faced south looking down the valley. Looking South, 9 x 12.

Spring Snow

The weather changed and we had one of our spring snowstorms come in late yesterday dropping almost two inches of snow,  most of which melted right away leaving an inch or so on the grass and trees this morning. It looked beautiful and I went out to paint at a nearby pond with a view of the mountains. The sun was out so I knew it wouldn't last long so it was a race against the sun in getting my picture done before it would all change color from white to brown again. By the time I got there things were already starting to melt off.  By 10:30 or so almost all of it was gone except for the shaded areas. My hands got really cold, around 40 degrees.  Spring Snow, 9 x 12

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.