Art Journal

This painting was one of two plein air pieces I did for the Boulder Open Studios Plein air challenge. The assignment was to do a painting at Boulder Valley Ranch. I went on an exploratory hike around the place ahead of time seeing what I'd like to paint and saw this view as we were coming back to the parking area as the sun was beginning to set. So I came back late in the afternoon the next day and painted this painting. This is a view of the road out of the park back to the main highway. The paintings will be on display at the Bus Stop Gallery on Broadway in Boulder until the end of October. See my events page for details on gallery hours and address.

The Road Home, 11x14.

We went back up to the mountains to paint and bike ride one afternoon recently and ended up near the east portal of the Moffat Tunnel.  The railroad used to go over Rollins Pass with many switchbacks and small tunnels, but the pass, at 11,676 ft. was nearly impassible in winter. The railroad decided to build a tunnel in the late 1920's. The Moffat Tunnel is a six miles long, goes under the continental divide and hooks the train tracks from the Denver side of the mountains to Winter Park CO. Building it was a huge undertaking.  While it was being built, (Wikipedia) the railroad had a small settlement at each end where the workers lived during the project.  After it was finished the settlements were abandoned. Some of the old rundown houses and shacks are still there. This is what I painted on this plein air trip.

The abandoned rail route over the pass is now in the National Register of Historic Places because of the tremendous engineering involved in building the rail line over the mountains. It's now a trail and 4WD road along the old rail bed, but you can't go all the way because of a collapsed tunnel at the top.

The End of the Line, 8 x 10

We got some bad weather in September and the temperatures plummeted. This made for a couple gray days and even some rain and snow which melted pretty quickly. That meant a couple great days for painting with something other than blue skies. I always like going out to paint on gray days. So I headed over to Sandstone Ranch and set up next to one of the ponds. Foliage was just starting to get some autumn color.

Change in the Air, 9 x 12

The Open Studios sponsored a show still running for the month of October of plein air paintings of Boulder Valley Ranch. I have two paintings in this show, which can be seen at the Gallery at the Bus Stop Apartments, 4895 Broadway, Boulder.  Gallery hours are Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 2-6 PM through the month of October.

Here are the two paintings I entered in the show.

The Road Home, 11 x 14

Cattail Oasis, 8 x 10

Boulder Open Studios is currently exhibiting a show featuring one piece of art by each of the members of Boulder Open Studios Tour. The show is hanging at the Museum of Boulder, 2205 Broadway,  and  a closing  reception will be held from 4-7 PM  on Sunday October 18th. Tickets are required and can be gotten through the museum.

But till then the museum is open from 9-5 weekdays, (closed Tuesday) 10-5 weekends for anyone to visit.

Although the tour is mostly a virtual tour this year due to Covid we still managed to have the group show. 

Here's the piece I have in the show.

Winter Light, 20 x 24.

I had to go over to Macintosh Lake a couple times in the afternoon and noticed the view across the water.  Normally I wouldn't want to go painting in the early afternoon due to the light, but it looked interesting so I came back the next day and painted in the afternoon.

The view was pretty far away,  but I liked how the mountains were slightly atmospheric. I probably should have made them even lighter in value. Maybe I'll try it again another day.

Across the Lake, 9 x 12

We had a large dying Siberian elm tree outside the studio window and finally got around to having it taken down. So on September 2, the date of the full moon,  for the first time it was possible to see a view of the moon coming up over a neighboring street. So I decided to paint it looking out the window. This is that painting.

Sage Place Moonrise, 8 x 10.

That's something we've been having now since the middle of August and it hasn't let up yet, with several big fires going on the the Colorado mountains west of here. The Cameron Peak fire is up to 120000 acres or so and still only 42% contained. That's a little north and west of here.  Anyway I did this one evening, a quick little plein air of the sunset.

Sunset with telephone poles, 9 x 12.