Art Journal

Over the last year I've done several paintings of scenes from rooftops, all inspired by views from a local parking garage. This is the ninth painting I've done on this theme and this one is in the Governor's show this year. Basically everything, AC units, heaters, swamp coolers etc, on top of the local roofs that I have seen are colored gray or variations of gray. The challenge is to play on that gray and accentuate the tendencies toward other colors that will make the painting more interesting. I like doing these because I can push the colors any way that I want to, and essentially they become color studies. Also the shadows are a lot of fun to deal with.

Rooftop #9, 16 x 16

Here's another painting that is part of the Governor's Show. We often take walks late in the afternoon and one day after a winter snowfall I saw this scene of the melting footsteps heading off in the distance. Something about it inspired me to make a painting .

Heading into Night, 20 x 24

Below  is the last of the four paintings I have put in the Governor's show. The inspiration for this was a plein air painting I did one January morning on a snowy day that I developed into a larger painting.

Snow in the Air, 16 x 20

And of course the last one, Vail Pass View, 16 x 20, which I already posted about.

The Governor's Show will open this coming Friday at the Loveland Art Museum in Loveland CO. I have four paintings entered in the show.  The opening for the public is Saturday May 11th.

One of my paintings in the show:

Vail Pass View, 16 x 20.

The show opened  on January 12th at the Great Frame Up Longmont and will be up until March 2nd.  Amazing  how fast this fall seemed to go by, Christmas over and now we are looking toward spring (although today it was -17 degrees this morning).

Anyway here are the two paintings I have in this show. Stop by if you want to see them in person and all the other work that's on display.

Greenway Sunrise (Winter Dawn), 12 x 12

Morning Shadows, 10 x 12,  a painting done on Guanella Pass this summer

This painting is done from an earlier plein air painting from near the Moffat Tunnel. I decided to make a larger version of my earlier painting and make a few changes, including adding more to the scene on the right  side of the painting. As mentioned in an earlier post these are the buildings built for the workers of the Moffat tunnel around a hundred years ago. At that time the railroad tracks ended at the mountain and building the tunnel connected the tracks through to Winter Park and the western side of the mountains. This painting will be in the Governor's Show at the Loveland Museum in Loveland CO, opening on Saturday May 6.

Long View, Short Track, 9 x 12

Here's the original, End of the Line, 8 x 10

This painting is at the Governor's Show in Loveland CO, at the Loveland Museum. It was inspired by the view from a parking garage in Boulder. For a description of the process in making this painting see a previous post of mine.

The show opening for the public will be on Saturday May 6.

Rooftop, 16 x 16

This painting, Fenceline, 20 x 20, Is one of my paintings featured at the Governor's Show in Loveland Colorado at the loveland Museum. The show will open to the public on Saturday May 6.

This painting was inspired by some photos I took one day while out plein air painting in January of last year. It was blowing light snow and I ended up painting in my car. Although this was not the scene I ended up painting that day,  it was the view I had from the car looking in another direction. The view always intrigued me and I finally got to work painting it this winter.

I was driving in the mountains last summer and it was one of those beautiful days with clear blue skies and massive cumulus promising the possibility of rain later in the day. The colors were so brilliant and the sky so blue. This painting was about those clouds hovering over the slopes.

Summer Sky, 16 x 20. This one is at the Governor's Show in Loveland Colorado opening on Saturday May 6, at the Loveland Museum.

The Show opens officially with a gala opening on Friday May 5th and it opens to the public on Saturday May 6th. Hope to see you there. I have four paintings in this show.

The annual Governor's Show in Loveland Colorado accepted my entry this year so I've been busy making new paintings for the show which opens on May 5th. Add in the super miserable cold winter we had this year and I have not been doing any plein air painting, but a lot of studio work.

Here's a notice for the Governor's Show

Open Studios is sponsoring a new holiday gallery open from now till December 31 in the old historic Feed and Grain building in Niwot CO. The gallery will be open from Thursday through Sunday until December 31 from noon to 6 PM. 

I have a selection of items on sale at the gallery so stop by if you are in the area. 

This coming Friday night is Niwot's Enchanted Evening, a big holiday celebration from 6-9 . See their website . For all the activities, including Santa arriving on a sleigh, community tree lighting and holiday carols. Should be a fun night.

The Plein Air Artists Of Colorado annual show will be running at Mary Williams Gallery in Boulder CO until December 31. Check the gallery website  for hours. It's a great show.

The Address is 5311 Western Avenue, Unit 112. Hope to see you there.

Together, 12 x 9, in the show

I've had two pieces accepted into the 25thAnnual National PAAC show to be held at Mary Willilams Gallery in Boulder CO. The show will run from November 10th to December 31st. Here are the two paintings that will be in that show.  Check back later for info on the opening.

Walden Sunset, 12 x 9

Together, 10 x 8

Coming up this Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 5PM  at 4949 N. Broadway, Boulder CO, studio #280 on the second floor.  Hope to see you there. Here are a few of the paintings on display.

The Plein Air Painters of New Mexico's 14th National Juried Members Show annual show will be going up  from  October  28 to November 10 at Wild Sage Gallery in Taos NM. The show will be plein air paintings produced by members of the group. The Wild Sage Gallery is located at 129 Kit Carson Road. Below is the painting accepted into that show which I will soon be shipping to NM. Stop in at the Wild Sage Gallery if you are in Taos in late October. It will be a great show.

Still Fighting, 9 x 12, is about a willow tree that fell over some years back when the river changed course but somehow it is still alive, even though the main trunk is dead. New shoots keep coming up from the roots. I painted this in January on a warmish sort of day, snow patches around but melting off.

The Studio Tour started today and will continue tomorrow from noon to 5. Here's one of the gouache paintings I had available at the tour.  I did this one last week on a rainy morning. It was too wet to paint outside so I worked on it inside the car. It's getting to be that time of year where outdoor painting isn't always ideal, or even possible where rain and water media are concerned.

A rainy view looking east toward Union Reservoir:

  Rainy Day, 7 x 9 approx., sold today.

Stop by if you're in the neighborhood for the tour this Sunday or Oct 15 and 16. Address here

 The Boulder Studio Tour preview show opens tonight at the Boulder Museum, 2206 Broadway in Boulder,  Friday September 30th from 5:30 to 8 PM  and features work from every person on the tour. Here's a chance to see a sample of everyone's art and plan which studios you'd like to visit.  Hope to see you there. Should be a great show.

Here's a piece I'll have on display during the tour and used in the brochure map.

After the Rain, 16 x 16.

Save a place in your schedule for the Boulder Studio Tour preview show which will be up until October 17th.  The Boulder Studio Tour will be hosting the show at the Boulder Museum, 2206 Broadway in Boulder. The opening will be on Friday September 30th from 5:30 to 8 PM featuring work from every person on the tour. Here's a chance to see a sample of everyone's work and plan which studios you'd like to visit.  Hope to see you there. Should be a great show.

My painting is Season's End, 22 x 28.

The Boulder Studio Tour will start this weekend and I will be participating on the weekends of October 1-2 and 15-16.

I will be sharing the studio of Jessica Lanan, a book illustrator and watercolorist. Check out here website. Her studio is in North Boulder.

4949 N Broadway

Boulder 80304

go in door 190, proceed upstairs to studio 280

12 pm to 5 pm

Oct 1-2, Oct 15-16.

A sample of Jessica's work:

Thursday Aug 11 the OSMP (Art Inspired by the Land) show opened at the Boulder Library gallery. The show will be up until mid September.  My painting Farm Roads is in the show along with paintings by many other community members all celebrating Boulder Open space locations.  This painting was done at the Teller Farm north trailhead.

Farm Roads, 12 x 12

My artwork "Farm Roads" has been selected to be part of  “Art Inspired by the Land,” the upcoming City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks Department art show.  The show will be at the Boulder Public Library Canyon Gallery (1001 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder, CO 80302).  The Canyon Gallery is in the North part of the library, near Canyon and 9^th Ave. 

The exhibit will be on display from Friday August 5 – Sunday September 16, 2022.  The opening reception will take place on Thursday, July 11 from 5-7 PM. This year there will be a performance night for artists who will be presenting music, songs, poems, or videos. It will be on August 18 from 5:00 -7:00PM.

The show is described to be "a celebration of the beauty and healing powers of OSMP natural areas".

Farm Roads, 12 x 12.

  This painting was completed at the Teller Farms North Trailhead  and the scene portrays the trail as it heads north past some local farms.

This show is currently going on at the Great Frame Up in Longmont CO and will be there until August. I have two paintings in this show.

Closing Down, 16 x 20

Winter  Sunset, 16 x 20

On June 3rd I participated in the Loveland Plein Air event which is a fund raiser for a local charity. Artists are given a choice between painting at a local park or painting in the downtown area and I chose the park. The event finishes at the end of the day with an exhibit in which each artist gets to enter one painting and all the paintings are auctioned off.

I did two paintings and chose the second one for the auction.

Under the Bridge, 9 x 12, turned out to be time consuming and not the best thing to attempt for an event like this. I also wasn't sure anyone would want to buy the picture of the underside of a highway bridge.  Even though it was a very interesting scene with lots of nice color... So I did a second painting.

The second painting is below, Reflections, 8 x 10 which was auctioned off. I liked how it came out.

The only photo I have is the one taken by my phone at the auction. So the colors might not be right. It was done rapidly as I used up most of my time on the first painting.  There's a lesson that could be learned there in time management. Maybe someday I'll learn that lesson.

Here's the second piece of art I did at Jamestown, this time in oil,  for the Boulder Plein Air event. I did not enter this one. There was a small blue house perched on the edge of a cliff  with the racing clouds behind it and that became my topic. The wind picked up and occasional rain drops fell but I managed to finish this quick little painting. 

The Blue House, 10 x 8.

Cloud Drama at Jamestown,  the drawing I did there.

 The first day of the Boulder Plein Air event was a day at the Yellow Barn Farm. Here's my painting from that day, although I did not end up entering it as one of my three.

The Road Up, 12 x 9. The hillside behind this farm was burned out in the CalWood forest fire in fall of 2021 and these trees are pretty much dead now so the decision was: show them dead or show them alive? I had a discussion with another artist who told me of her experience. A local gallery received many complaints from customers that seeing dead tree paintings from the fire area was traumatizing which caused the gallery to remove the paintings. A lot of local people were directly affected by these fires and had their homes burned.  And then recently we had the terrible Marshall fire that burned up so many more homes. So fire-burned trees is a touchy subject these days.

On my second day of painting I got up at 5:30 and headed over to Stephen Day Park and the Spring Gulch Trail hoping to get some morning sky. It wasn't the sky I was hoping for but still was interesting. There was a large cloud bank hovering over everything in the east making for some interesting light.  It often happens that somehow I forget some important ingredient when I go to paint. One time I dumped over my solvent right at the beginning, so no solvent. One time I forgot my white paint, one time I forgot the blue.  One time I forgot to bring my canvas boards. So this trip I forgot to bring the paper towels. That meant I could not clean out my brushes or wipe them off. Not wanting to go back home and miss the chance, I decide to forge ahead using only the palette knife.  I had one measly paper towel sheet I found in the bottom of the pack and used it to wipe the blade occasionally. So as result this is a very textured painting, not exactly what I was planning but so it goes. This one I did put in the show.

Morning Clouds, 11 x 14

My show promotion postcards arrived today and I will be sending them out soon. The show is opening on May 21, 6-9 pm with a reception, and everyone is welcome to come. Hope to see you there.

We just returned from a trip to Arizona in the Chiricahua  Mountains. Here's one of the plein air paintings I did on the trip. The odd coexistence of the two different stairways together with the interesting light and shadows caught my eye.

Stairs, 10 x 8

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On another note, my show will be opening in a couple weeks on May 21. Here's a sample of one of the paintings in the show. 

Winter Waterway, 16 x 20

Tina Davis Studio Gallery will be hosting a show of my newest work in May and June titled Uncertain Passages. The opening reception of the show will be held on May 21 from 6-9 PM. All are welcome. Here's the announcement for the show, which I'm having printed and will be sent out. If anyone wants a postcard sent to them, just leave me a note in an email to:   [email protected]   and I'll mail one out. It should be a fun opening and hope to see you there.

The Boulder Art Association is having a show at the R Gallery in Boulder in May and the theme is trees. The show will open April 27- May 29th. The R Gallery is at 2027 Broadway, Boulder. Show opening is Thursday April 28, 6-8. Each artist has been charged with painting one or two 8x8 inch paintings on the tree theme. Here are my two.

Pink Sky, 8 x 8

Winter Trees, 8 x 8

Very pleased and thrilled to announce my painting Organic, 20 x 16 has won the Best of Show award at the BAA "Food for Thought" 2021 winter show. It was a real surprise to me as I thought this painting would not be something they were looking for but decided to enter it anyway.

The show is on display at the Bust Stop Gallery 4895 Broadway, Boulder on weekends until January 15th. Open 1st Friday  January 7, 2022, 6-9:00 pm and on Saturdays (12/4, 12/11, 12/18, and 1/8/22) from 10 am – 3:00 pm

The "Food for Thought" exhibit put on by the BAA in Boulder will go up on Wednesday with the official opening on Saturday afternoon December 4 from 1PM to 4 PM. The theme for the show is food-based. Each member artist can submit one large piece and one 8 x 8 on the idea of food. Below are the pieces that I'll be entering at the beginning of December. Bus Stop Gallery, 4895 North Broadway, Boulder CO.

 This larger painting is a view of the kitchen in the Boulder  County Open Space farmhouse on Hw 66 in Longmont. I was looking at the website about Emil Carlsen, a painter noted for his still life paintings from the early 20th century. I was able to visit the website only once and since then it appears to be broken so the link may not work.

Carlsen recommended using a certain palette for still life paintings which included the following colors: white, yellow ocher, something called "light red", Venetian red, raw sienna, burnt sienna, raw umber, and something called "permanent blue". The "light red"(Holbein) that I found is a type of red oxide. The "permanent blue" (Grumbacher) that I found turned out to be ultramarine blue. Of course, there's no way of knowing if these colors with the same name are actually the same pigments as the ones he used. Except for the blue, it's a very earth-color sort of palette. No bright oranges or greens with this palette. I decided to try using his colors since this is an old-time kitchen in order to give the painting an old time look. I'm glad my kitchen is a little more modern than this one.

Organic, 20 x 16

For the small painting I got a set of desserts at Whole Foods to use as models. We ate these after I painted them, and while they looked enticing they turned out to be all show and no taste. Except for the chocolate one in the upper right - that one tasted great. They were fun to paint though.

Anticipation, 8 x 8.

I went to this event for the first time this July in Georgetown CO. It's only a two day event, and involves 2-3 paintings plus a Quick Draw. The quick draw was set to start at 12:30 and sure enough at 12:30 it started to pour rain. My umbrella had broken in high winds the day before,  so besides that problem and the fact that my canvas was getting wet and the paint wouldn't stick I ended up moving to my car and figured I was out of it. However the view through the windshield with the rain running down and causing visual distortions intrigued me so I decided to paint the scene that way. The painting, called Caught in the rain, 8 x 10, ended up winning the Quick Draw. I sold both that one and another called the Yellow House, 9 x 12,  so it was a great event for me overall.

Here are three of the paintings.

Caught in the Rain, sold

The Yellow House, sold

This last one, Road to the Pass, 9 x 12, sold, was painted on the road to Guanella Pass, (still available) a gorgeous drive recommended to anyone especially in July when all the flowers are blooming.

Here are the two artworks that won prizes at the Boulder Plein Air Festival. The show is still on until July 3rd so stop in and see it.

11 AM and Heating Up, graphite on paper, 12 x 16, 1st Place Drawing. This was done at a farm on Highway 66 in Longmont .

Pastel Nightfall, 9 x 12, oil, Best Cityscape prize, sold.

This was painted at an overlook on the road to Flagstaff Mountain.

The Boulder Plein Air finished up with an opening on June 11 at Canyon Center in Boulder. The show is ongoing until July 5th, open on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 12 to 6.  I ended up submitting 6 pieces, 5 paintings and 1 drawing.  My painting Pastel Nightfall won the Best Cityscape award and my drawing, 11 AM and Heating Up won the 1st Place, Drawing award.

Here's some information on the show.

There will be a closing reception on Tuesday June 29th, requiring reservations.

If you want to come RSVP to [email protected].

The Boulder plein air event starts this week from June 5-11th and I'll be participating. A preview exhibition is now open at both the R Gallery on Broadway in Boulder and the Museum of Boulder, also on Broadway.  The week will be filled with paint-outs ending with a show at the Canyon Center, 1881 9th Street, Boulder. Please join me at the opening reception, June 11th 6-8:30 at the Canyon Center.

Here's a little sample of the art I have at the Boulder Museum for the preview show. Come and check it out, and see all the art at the Canyon Center next week.

These two paintings were recently in the BAA (Boulder Arts Association) show and both of them were sold. Wings is one of the largest paintings I have ever done. Very excited to sell it! 

The painting called Who are you went to the owners of the sheep that I painted. The little white lamb was their daughter's 4H project. The farm where these sheep lived is called Long Shadow Farm in Berthoud CO. They sell pork, lamb and eggs, and have some very curious sheep who like to know what's going on. 

Wings of Twilight, 16 x  40

Who are YOU and where's the food, 8 x 8

A small show of my Petrified Forest paintings just went up this week at the Great Frame Up, 430 Main Street Longmont. It will be up until Sept 5th. It includes a selection of some of the painting I did while at the Petrified Forest and also some paintings that I've done since based on reference from the trip. This particular painting is not in the show. I didn't have room for everything.

While at the Petrified Forest last fall we experienced an all-day rain, unusual for that time of year and a welcome break from the sun and heat. I have done several paintings based on that day and here is another one showing the valley floor after the rain, with many rivulets and streams appearing where only dry sand banks were visible the day before. The magical part was seeing how the streams reflected the sky making silvery ribbons on the valley floor below. By the next day there were only occasional muddy pits remaining. And the day after that it was mostly all dry again.  But I am sure the plants and animals were thrilled to get the rain.

Long Awaited, 8 x 16