Saturday painting

I got up early again and went down near the river, in time to catch the pink sky reflected in the river heading off into the distance. Having some old paintings that I no longer want,  I've thought about throwing them away or redoing them. I saved some to paint over and this is one of them. It gives a different texture to the paintings.   Rosy morning, 6 x 8.

Without the Fluff

So here's the painting from a few days ago without the fluff, none the worse for wear after falling in the dirt. This was another almost predawn painting. Waking Up, 8 x 10.

The White Shed

Another painting from last weekend done in a late morning session at Sandstone Ranch. The white shed really stood out like a spotlight in the morning sun, especially as it was surrounded by all the muted browns and greens of the barn and trees surrounding it.
White Shed, 8 x 10.

Fluff

So I went this morning to paint but wasn't quite prepared. I thought I was. I had all my gear, packed and ready the night before, checked off on everything, didn't forget my paper towels or rubber gloves. I was so anxious to get out there and get started that I neglected to step outside first and evaluate the weather. It was pretty close to freezing which I didn't expect since it's been so balmy, and I definitely needed more layers, and gloves would have been a big help.

Pond reflections looking west change pretty fast in the pre-dawn so I wanted to have time to get set up before the light started coming up. The chill started to settle in on me and by the time I was done painting an hour later, the sun was creeping over the east horizon creating a gorgeous dawn, and I was standing there frozen stiff hardly able to appreciate it. My numb fingers fumbled putting my stuff away and the painting went flying, flipped over and landed face down on the ground. It came up with dozens of little dandelion-type fluffs all over it and small clumps of dirt and a few tiny bugs. Here's me picking off the fluffs at home after I've warmed up (a hot shower helped a lot). It survived fairly well in spite of everything. I'll post it in a couple days after it's dry.

Looking the Other Way

Often on these morning paintings I paint facing east toward the sunrise. On this painting I looked west. You can see the mountains in the background catch the early morning light and the first bits of sun hitting the houses on the other side of the lake. A big cloud of noisy redwing blackbirds took flight and headed out away from the pond as I set up my gear.  I called this "First Light," 9 x 12.

The Sun is Back

Two days later - the rain had moved out and the early morning sun was back. A pale crescent moon was fading over the eastern sky as I started to paint. There were nice pastel colors in the sunrise that morning with a low cloud bank and a high cloud bank with turquoise sky in between. It was a challenge. I got there a bit later than I wanted and had to play catch up really fast before everything changed too much. I didn't have the luxury of time to make some color mixes at the beginning of my painting, but just had to start painting as quickly as possible.
Crescent Moon, 9 x 12.

A rainy dawn

This is from last Tuesday, a mostly overcast dawn. I hoped to be able to see the sun coming up but the horizon was too cloudy. I chose to paint looking north. The foggy trees in the distance looked interesting to paint. I did several paintings last week and they are all finally dry so I will be scanning them soon and writing about them here.  This one, 9 x 12 - Rainy Morning.

Aspen Season

The past two weeks were the "peak aspen season" here in the mountains when all the leaves turn gold before winter sets in, so we went up to Rocky Mountain Park hoping to catch some of the color. It was also elk bugling time which is very popular. Everybody from the Front Range seemed to be there and we faced a massive traffic jams getting out of the park at the end of the day. But the scenery was great. I brought along my painting gear and did one painting.
 R M aspens, 12 x 9. 

Back to Painting Again

October seems to be Breaking Appliance Month this year. We had a water heater decide to break so that took a lot of time to deal with but we finally got that fixed and out of the way, and then the oven broke. All these things take away from "painting time".  But  I managed to get out and paint two paintings.

The first was another dawn painting. I got there a bit early but a cold front with excessive clouds had moved in and the dawn was bleak and gray. Instead I painted the other direction, almost a nocturne painting of the lake looking west. Here's that painting -  Predawn, 8 x 10.

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.