Same place

I 've painted at the same locations, different times of day, different seasons, and they've all come out a little different, and the last painting I posted was one of them. Also my plein air style has gotten looser. Cold weather and the added pressure of a quick moving sunrise are some of the reasons that has happened. The choice is work fast or lose the scene. Just thought it might be interesting to compare a couple from the same general location.  These three were at Peschel Open Space, slightly different vantage points, different seasons. Here they are: Overcast Dawn, 2014, sold;  Late Afternoon at Peschel, 2014;  Warning, 2015.

Dark Skies

It warmed up a bit ( low of 29 ) so it was warm enough to go out again at dawn and paint. The sky had a heavy band of dark clouds with a glowing red stripe below along the horizon.  I had a short time to get it painted before the sun emerged and the dark clouds faded to white.  I named it after the old adage " Red sky at morning, sailors take warning".  Later that day a cold weather front moved in and we've been having a little snow each day since last Wednesday.Warning, 9 x 12.

It's looking more like winter.

We had a little snow last week and this latest plein air painting shows some of that. It was a bit too cold to paint at dawn,  so the morning after the snowfall I went for a walk at sunrise and took my camera - a gorgeous morning with the new snow. Maybe some of those photos will end up being reference for later paintings.

On Sunday it warmed up a bit I went out a little later and did some plein air painting. Thus this painting - "Frozen over", 9 x 12.  Most of the snow is melted by now but more is forecast for tonight - a Thanksgiving present.

Actually I am pretty thankful that I've had a great year of experiences painting outside, many, many nice mornings. I have become especially enamored with sunrises - which is pretty amazing since I tend to gravitate to staying up late and sleeping late. Now I can't wait to get out there and paint, even when it is freezing. The infinite variety of sky and color is just amazing. The changeability that occurs at such a rapid pace during sunrises and sunsets is a real challenge to catch. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to get faster at painting outdoors.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Lakeshore

Here's a studio painting I finished this week done from reference photos I took at Brainard Lake. This is a high country lake up near the peaks, and not too far from the tree line, but fairly easy to reach. The road in was closed for the last two miles so we had to hike in.  They had a couple snowfalls up there, and several more since I visited, so the lake edge was patched with remnants of the snowfalls, and the first set of winter ice around the edges was starting to form. I liked how the beach looked with the dark trees in the background.  Lakeshore, 12 x 16.

I managed to get in a pair of plein air paintings but didn't like how they turned out. You'll see them in the future with something else painted over them.

Cold Morning

It was a cold morning last Tuesday when I was out painting at sunrise. I didn't have much time so I didn't go far - just back to Hamms Pond.  This might be one of the last actual sunrises I paint in the rest of 2015 since temperatures are starting to hit the low twenties in the pre-dawn hour. I have a lot of difficulty keeping my fingers working right, without smothering them in big clumsy gloves that can't open paint tubes, etc.  I don't know what the current great famous plein air people do to keep their hands warm, I guess I ought to ask some of them. If anyone has some suggestions, let me know. Meanwhile, here's the painting - Cold Morning, 8 x 10, sold.

Waning Afternoon

Here's a painting from last weekend, the last bits of autumn color still clinging to some of the trees and bushes, done at Sandstone Ranch. It's amazing how fast the afternoon fades away. I left home around 2 to go paint and as I finished up the sun was dropping behind the mountains already. Even so, I started another but it started getting too dark too fast, so I'll have to finish it another day. Perfect weather for painting. Waning Afternoon, 9 x 12.

Autumn Sunset

Here's a painting I have been working on in the studio from some sunset photos I have taken. It gets dark so early and I don't usually have time to go out at sunset and paint, much as I'd like to. Now that the weather is getting colder plein air is getting a bit more difficult, or at least takes more planning to be prepared. There's a trail we like to walk on that's still partly closed from the flood two years ago, but you can see some great sunsets from there and this was one of them.  Autumn Sunset, 12 x 16. 

Painting last Friday

So, last Friday I painted near some small lakes. It was a scheduled paint out with a local plein air group. The morning dawned chilly and with a small sprinkling of rain. I decided to go anyway thinking the rain would probably clear up, and although it wouldn't be sunny, it might be a good morning to paint. A lot of the trees are turned color and with the water and reflections it might be very nice. Nobody showed up. Don't know if they thought it was too wet, or too cold or too dark? But it was fine, the rain quit by the time I got there. But here's the thing. There are 4 outcomes that could happen when painting.

 1. You feel like you are on a roll - the painting pours out of you and comes out fine, pretty good. You are pleased with it.

2.  You are not sure/don't feel like you should be painting that day, but you get into it and the painting turns out pretty good. You are pleased with it.

 3. You are not sure you should be painting that day, and the painting turns out awful.  You wipe it off later. You figure it was good practice and are glad you at least got out to paint.

 4. You are really into painting, happy to be there painting, but little by little the painting goes downhill, turning out awful. You give up, go home and wipe it off later. You think - what went wrong?  You figure it was good practice and are glad you at least got out to paint.

This was a number 4 day. Nice scene, nice morning, weather okay, but not so good outcome. You never know what you're going to get.

Hunter's Moon

Last Tuesday was the October full moon, sometimes nicknamed the "hunter's moon".  I wanted to paint the moon as it was setting in the morning so I went early to Hamms Pond and got a good view of the moon over the city heading towards moonset over the mountains. The mountain in the background is Long's Peak which conveniently sits over the city and now has a new coat of snow on it. Hunter's Moon, 8 x 10.

Distant Trees.

So last Sunday morning, I went down very early near the river and painted. It was still fairly dark when I got there, and it was a cloudy morning also, which made it even darker.  I set up quickly and started painting, getting the shapes in and the composition established. I was working on canvas mounted on gator board, toned tan. This particular gator board had a tan back also. As the light got a little brighter it suddenly became obvious that I was working on the wrong side of the panel. Somehow in the dark I had set up the panel backwards and never noticed, color being pretty much the same. So, that was that. I pulled out a different panel and started over, choosing a slightly different view. Actually I like the second picture better anyway.  So maybe it was a good thing.  I wiped the back of the old one clean and will use it another day.
Distant Trees, 9 x 12.

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.