Another Sunrise

The local city-wide Studio Tour was last weekend so my studio was open on Saturday and Sunday, and I had no time to paint, but did sell 3 paintings.  I went again last Thursday and painted. It's getting downright civilized -  I only had to get up at 6 AM which isn't too bad. The only painting panel I had ready (I am in the process of making more) was a 12x12 so I used it. I liked working on the square format so perhaps I will do more in that size. This one is called Warm Sunrise, not because it was especially warm it (it wasn't- I'm starting to dig out the base layer clothing for early morning forays) but because the sky had a really warm look to it.

More Changes

After reading an article about making an art website work better (and theoretically sell more paintings) I decided to change the template of my new site to get more pictures of paintings up front.

According to Alyson Stanfield in her Art Biz Coach blog, http://www.artbizblog.com/2015/09/website-no-sales.html, it's important to not make people click multiple times to get to see the art. So I've changed my template to one that shows more art upfront. And I adjusted this blog also to sort of match. Which is actually kind of fun to do. But I have started the new blog on the website, and I will be phasing this one out in a bit. Here is the new website/blog.

Mountains

We went up to see the aspens in their fall color, and I intended to paint some aspens. We were near Brainard Lake, which we haven't visited in a while. There were many great views of the mountains surrounding the lake and I ended up painting the mountains instead of the aspens. It was a beautiful afternoon but there was a stiff wind gust now and then so I had to keep a grip on the tripod just in case. I'll have to try painting aspens another day. Mountain Lake, 9 x 12.

Painting at Sunset

Since I have been doing so many sunrise paintings I thought I'd try a sunset painting.Here's one from on top of a hill at Sandstone Ranch looking west toward the city and the mountains. I think it's a bit harder to paint a sunset than a sunrise. The sky stays relatively the same until all of a sudden it really changes quite rapidly as the sun gets closer to the horizon.  Colors change rapidly and it gets darker. You want to change all the parts you've already painted, change the colors, but there's no time, light is fading.  It's a race.  Evening Glow, 9 x 12.

A Rainbow-Colored Morning

I was back at the lake again for another morning paint session. This was a dramatic sunrise, very impressive with the clouds and all. It is so nice in the mornings - very peaceful and quiet, the sunrise is always interesting and different each time and it's getting cooler in the mornings. This time I painted toward the southwest partially behind a duck blind, hoping to keep the bright sunlight as it came up to my left out of my eyes and not falling on my painting. I don't usually bring my umbrella with me in the mornings.

 As a new experiment I started with an orange toned board figuring it would work with what I usually see at sunrise. Its often kind of dark when I start and although I know where my colors are on the palette, it's often more of a values sort of painting at first, where I am not exactly sure what color I am putting down, because there's not enough light to tell yet. In the semi-dark, alizarin looks exactly like burnt sienna,  and sap green looks identical to ultramarine.

 As it gets slowly brighter from the sunrise the colors I put on the canvas are revealed to me. Sometimes they aren't what I expected; an orange can end up being more pink or more yellow, a dark area can end up being dark purple or dark brown or dark blue-black. Then I have to work with what's there, either going with it or changing it as I paint in the other parts.  I kind of like how it turned out.  Rainbow Dawn, 9 x 12.

Red Hills

While travelling across Nevada we camped among these red hills. I worked from photos on this painting, photos that I took early in the morning before packing up the camp. The arroyos and rocky gullies were fun to hike around in, as long as you kept an eye out for rattlesnakes.

 This place is a rock collector's dream.  There are a lot of small shale-like rock slabs strewn everywhere, around an inch thick, and when walked through, they sound very porcelain-like, like kicked shards of broken pottery might sound. We found that if we gathered up various sizes and tapped them we could make a virtual rock xylophone, producing ringing tones of various pitches and playing simple tunes almost. That was our evening campfire amusement.

 In the morning it was very pretty. Cactus were just starting to bloom here and there and one could come across an occasional yellow or pink bloom while hiking around.  Red Hills, 10 x 14.

New website

I have the new website set up and here is the link for it. It's one of the FASO sites.
http://kathreilly.com/

I still have not set up the blog part, but when I have it up and running my blog will transfer to the new site also. I'll let this one run for a while to make sure the transfer goes well. Meantime I've changed it around a bit to sort of match my website.

Morning Lights

I liked the last sunrise and the spot I chose for painting so I thought it was worth going back to the same spot and doing another with a slightly different view. The weather conditions were similar, the lack of wind,  quantity of clouds and so forth so I went for it. Here's the resulting picture from this second trip. When I get there, the lights in the distance are usually still on, people getting up early for work in the morning darkness, car headlights travelling up roads, distant traffic signals seen through the trees. By the time I am halfway through the painting and the sun is starting to come up, the lights go out one by one. So I called it Morning Lights, 9 x 12.

Web site

I am working on a website which should be ready in a couple days. It will have a blog attached. Once that is all set up I will probably transfer over to the new blog. I'll leave some links here when it is ready to go.

Painting the Big Tree

I went painting last Saturday but couldn't get out till later in the afternoon. It was one of those days when inspiration was missing - too many other things vying for attention over a weekend holiday, too much going on, and I debated about going out at all. The garden was desperate for weeding, I had to deal with a bunch of produce, etc., etc. But I went eventually, figuring a late start with any painting is better than no painting. I originally thought of doing something along the river but nothing I saw there inspired me. After wandering around Sandstone Ranch I chose to setup next to this tree with the bent-down limbs. A startled blue heron flew off after I started setting up, complaining at me. The park was quiet, dark clouds slowly forming in the west, not many people around - all off at their labor day weekend picnics whatever. Here's what I ended up painting. Bending Low, 9 x 12.

Moon Over Nevada

Here's a studio painting I just finished that was done from reference photos I took when I travelled through Nevada in early May. We had camped out near a dried salt lake next to an old ghost town and the ghost town's old cemetery, when the full moon rose over the mountains to the east just as the sun was setting. It was quite spectacular, scenery-wise. I had a few 16 x 20 canvases handy and decided to try using one of them, so it is a bit larger than the plein air ones I have been doing lately.
 Moon Over Nevada, 16 x 20.

Cottonwood Reflections

I went back to Hamm's Pond again at sunrise and painted on the other side of the water.  I set up next to a decorative duck blind they have there and faced toward the rising sun. The cottonwoods across the water provided a nice screen against the brilliance of the sun as it rose, at least for a while. The reflections were very nice. I'll have to go back to that spot again and try another picture another day. The sun is now rising around 6:30 and that's not too awful early. I see lots of dog walkers and joggers out and about.  Cottonwood Reflections, 9 x 12.

Rocks along a stream

Decided to take a break from dawn paintings and went to Heil Ranch, a local county open space property, and tried painting the rocks in the stream. The light changed dramatically while I worked, rocks going from shadow to light and the reflections changed completely in color.  Here's the resulting picture.  Streamside, 9 x 12.

Another morning painting

I went back again on Thursday. The smoke has switched direction for a couple days so the sky was back to normal this morning with pastel colors in the sky and a golden sun as it rose, no longer an ominous red ball. Here's the latest painting. Purple Dawn, 9 x 12

Another Red Morning

Sunrise is a full 30 minutes later than it used to be earlier this summer when I first started doing this early morning painting routine. So - I get to sleep a bit later.  Getting up at 5:45 is way better than 5:15.

The smoke from the west coast continued to fill our skies throughout the weekend.
On Monday I went out to paint again and the sky was really dark - the smoke makes it darker than it ought to look in it's pre-dawn state. When the sun did come up, like the last time, it was a fiery red ball emerging from the horizon. This time since I had a view of the lake it was quite spectacular with the sun reflections and all.  Mondays aren't the best time to go there I found out - all the sprinklers are in full force so I got a little wet navigating around the sprinklers trying to find a place to setup that had a view I liked.  Red Sunrise, 9 x 12.

A Smoky Dawn

Friday smoke moved in from the distant California fires and the sky has been murky ever since. I went out to paint on Friday morning not knowing what to expect from the dawn. The sky stayed rather dark, not getting light and pastel colored like it usually does before the sun appears. Suddenly the blood red sun rose in a purple sky. There were no clouds and the light cast an orange glow. It looked rather unworldly. Here's my take on the subject - Red Dawn, 9 x 12.

Sandstone Cliffs

After breakfast I went to Sandstone Ranch, my favorite and close place to paint. This place has a lot of varied terrain, everything from farm buildings and fields,  to rocky cliffs, to ponds, to the river and a small bit of woods. The light was good on the cliffs so I worked on that and set up near a pond. The sun hadn't come around to light up the cliffs yet so they were partially in shadow.
Sandstone cliffs, 12 x 9. 

Morning Glow

Here's a painting from last Friday morning. There were very few clouds on this particular dawn so I knew the sun was going to be excessively brilliant when it rose into view. I decided to position myself behind some trees that would give me some cover from looking toward the sun as I painted the sky. It worked out well and I particularly liked how the light looked as it began peeking around the trees and spreading across the grass. Morning Glow, 9 x 12.  Painting seems to go in spurts with me - I'll do a few I don't really like and then go through painting a few I do like so I never know what I am going to get. Since this one worked out well I decided to go out again after breakfast and do another. I'll post that one tomorrow.

Sunrise

Back to Hamm's Pond again on Friday - there is such a great view of the horizon, and so close to home. This time I got there pretty early - it's easier since the sun is coming up later in the morning. It was still fairly dark when I was setting up so I got a good start before the sun actually jumped above the horizon. That's the trick in these dawn pictures - get it all laid out, get some colors mixed and when the sky hits that point that you want it at, hurry up and get it in there before it changes or gets too bright. Then fill in the ground and foreground last. An occasional early morning dog walker comes by now and then but it's mostly quiet and uninterrupted.
Sunrise, 9 x 12.

Farm Buildings at Dawn

Going out at dawn to paint is so nice I am continuing to do it a couple times a week. It does involve a little sleep deprivation  which I have to make up somehow with naps or sometimes even going back to bed after painting. I usually get done around 6:45 or 7 so it's easy to get back to sleep again.

I went back to Hamm's Pond which has a pretty good view of the eastern horizon with a patch of Union Reservoir and painted an old farm building that sits along the road. Sometimes when there is no cloud cover in the direct spot where the sun is coming up it's way too brilliant to paint or look that way so that was the case this day - instead I focused on the view to the southeast.
Dawn Highlight, 9 x 12.

Paintout

The PAAC ( plein air artist of colorado) paint-out was last Thursday at a local place called Coot lake which has lots of water/pond scenery,  and also some views of the Flatirons looking toward Boulder. It was followed by a painting demonstration by Marc Hanson and critique of the paint-out paintings. I couldn't get there early in the morning when it started and missed most of the critiques but did get to do a quick painting and watch the demonstration, which was very informative. Here's my painting from the day.  That building is a dam control building.  The dam is just off to the right and below the horizon. Flatirons, 12 x 9, sold.

Also here's the painting I did a week earlier at Rabbit Mountain. House with a View, 9 x 12.

Saturday painting

I didn't have time to go too far - too many things to get done on Saturday so I did this at a nearby park. Afternoon Shade, 9 x 12.

Dawn at the Lake

Here's a painting from last Friday - another early  morning trip out to paint. The sun is rising slightly later now so I can get out there a little sooner before the sun comes up completely. I had odd piece of board I covered with canvas and decided to use this long narrow panel for a change.
Dawn at the Lake, 6 x 12.

Sugar Mill

After doing a bunch of dawn paintings, I happened to pass the old sugar mill the other night around sunset and thought it might be fun to paint an evening picture. So Friday I went back at 7:30 and started painting, finishing around 8:15 when I started losing the sunlight behind a low cloud bank. It's kind of odd - I found myself painting things in a reverse order from the morning paintings. In the morning one has to get the sky pretty quick before anything else because it changes so fast, then go on to the foreground.  In the evening I found I left the sky till last - waiting to see what it was going to look like as the sky turned more like a sunset, and putting in the mill and landscape first. Here's the result. I decided to trim this picture down to a different format - now square.  Sugar Mill, 8 x 8, sold.

Dawn at Union Reservoir

I went back out again last Thursday early and painted. I liked how it looked the other day as I passed it on one of my other morning excursions so I decided to go back there specifically. There was a heavy band of dark clouds and I was not sure it was going to clear up enough but the clouds started to dissipate and a band of sunlight broke through silhouetting the trees against the strip of water.

 Artists involved in the local Studio Tour are supposed to donate a small painting to a fundraising event to help pay for the tour publicity. Everyone was given a small 8 x 10 canvas. This is what I did on mine.  It's been donated and the auction is on August 22.   Dawn Light, 8 x 10, sold.

Evening Storm

I saw this scene while hiking at a nearby open space park called Hall Ranch. We had started hiking around 2:30 in the afternoon and took a trail we hadn't taken before. It ended up being a very long hike and we didn't get back to the parking area till almost 8 PM. The sun was setting and a storm was moving in with lightening and thunder at the same time making for some dramatic scenery. I took a few pictures and worked on this in the studio.  Evening Storm, 10 x 20.

High Country

This is a studio painting I recently finished based on photos I took this spring on a trip west. We were heading south toward Mono Lake along the California border after having just camped over the border in Nevada. It was a beautiful clear morning. The mountains I believe are actually on the back side of Yosemite Park. The passes to the park were still closed for the winter. By using Google Earth I tried to figure out what mountain this actually is. It might be Dunderberg Peak.  But I am still not sure. I wish I had time to paint there but we were running late and had many miles to drive. High Country Spring, 11 x 14.

Cloudy Dawn

Last Friday it looked pretty cloudy and I wasn't sure it was a good idea to go out and paint but I went anyway and it turned out fine. It is soooo hard to get up at 5 and go off to paint. But once I got there I was glad I had dragged myself out of bed. This was looking east at Sandstone Ranch on the hilltop.
The clouds burned off as the sun came up and it turned out being a great morning to paint. Lots of bunnies were out and about but not too much else was around. Cloudy Dawn, 8 x 10.

Aspen

Everyone paints pictures of aspen, especially in the fall when they turn yellow and orange. I haven't done any paintings of aspen, fall or any other time of year.  We were camping near the Buffalo Peaks wilderness area over the 4th of July in an area surrounded by aspen so I thought it was time to try painting them. The flowers there were spectacular and the scenery was amazing. I wish I could have stayed there all day painting everything.  Here are the aspens I did get to paint, down the dirt road from our tent.  Aspen at Buffalo Peaks, 10 x 8.

Sunrise at Sandstone Ranch

Painting super early in the morning is pretty nice so I did it again on Saturday. I got there around 5:45 - a little later than I would have liked but it worked out okay. I had to block in the shadows really fast before the sun rose any higher. The sun was just starting to come over the low hillsides making for some nice lights and darks. I set up painting next to the dirt road looking south. Morning Hillside, 9 x 12.