Art Journal

I did this painting for the Boulder Art Association  (BAA)  show  which stars in December. They got the idea to have everyone do an 8x8 sheep painting in honor of the BAA so this is my sheep painting, in addition to the painting I am entering in the show. I went to photograph sheep at a local farm in Berthoud. The sheep all looked at me wonderingly and all hung about lurking and watching me. I though they were curious. But the owner told me they have been getting halloween pumpkins brought to their pen by the neighbors,  which they love to eat, and that they are all pregnant and hungry all the time.  So all the time they were wondering when I was going to dump in the pumpkins. Alas no pumpkins from me, so I called this :  Who are YOU and where's the food?, 8 x 8, SOLD

Another trip to Hamms Pond to paint, this time on October 19th. We still had some color left in the trees by then and this red bush caught my eye. Autumn Color, 8 x 10

Had a little time left and another smaller board with me so I did this quick sketch looking the opposite direction at Union Reservoir.

Union Reservoir, 6 x 8

I liked the look of Pella Crossing with it's fall colors so much that I went back again and did another painting of the bank next to the pond. The snow and ice were gone by then. This was a little later in the morning so the light was slightly different. I no longer had the bright lights of the snow and ice to deal with.

Pella Midmorning, 8 x 10.

This one is from a painting trip to Pella Crossing a day or two after a snowfall. I got there fairly early so the sun was still low. I particularly liked how the light was hitting parts of the frozen pond and the dark areas of the bank right next to it. There was a lot of contrast. I tried to keep it in three value levels with the dark of the bank, the white of the snow and everything else in between. I know this is kind of a weird composition but there was something enchanting about the whole scene and I think there are good possibilities there for a larger painting as soon as I can figure it out what I need to do to it.

Pella Morning, 9 x 12

So on October 15th the Boulder PAAC group headed to Munson Farms to paint pumpkins at the height of the Halloween season. After looking and walking around the farm, instead of painting the fields or the farm stands as I did in other years, I decided to paint a few pumpkins laying out in the field, as parents and little kids wandered by with their wagons looking for the ideal pumpkin.I particularly liked the dead vines and scraggly leaves still remaining, as we had had a large snow and frost by then.

Pumpkin Farm, 9 x 12

There was a fundraiser for the Boulder open Studios group which involved a bunch of us painting plein air at the Coal Creek Golf Course in October in Louisville CO. I am not sure what hole this was but I painted a group of golfers off in the distance finishing up their games at this, one of the last holes, under a gorgeously colored crabapple tree. No one bought it so I still have this golfing painting. Alas, I know nothing about golfing.

Here's the painting, Under the Crabapple, 9 x 12.

I went up to the Walker Ranch Open Space Park with the Boulder PAAC group  to paint on October 1st.  There are mountains and rocky cliffs and pine trees and such, but also the group of ranch buildings huddling in the valley below the parking area and that is what I decided to paint. The perspective was a little challenging but actually the most challenging thing was the background and how to deal with it. It was fun though.

Walker Ranch, 8 x 16

Well this painting has been around for a little while now, but I never got around to posting it, and in fact haven't posted anything for a while. On the 21st of September when we were still in the throes of the intense fires here in Colorado I got up early and headed over to Hamms Pond to paint a sunrise, which  I haven't done in a long time. We still had a lot of smoke in the sky and I wanted to see that amazing red sun come up.  Here's what I ended up painting.

Smoky Sunrise, 8 x 10

It's been so dry this year. Most of Colorado has been at severe drought status this whole summer. When I was at Boulder Valley Ranch looking for some plein air inspiration one of the things I was drawn to was the area around a small lake surrounded by cattails at the bottom of the trail, one of the few places with anything that was actually green.  Cattails are beautiful in fall, turning all sorts of different shades of green, yellow and orange depending on how much water they have.

That's where I set up and began to paint.  I thought the painting came out kind of dark so I did another one of the same scene when I got home using this first painting as a reference.  Here they both are.  Cattail Oasis, 8 x 10.

This second painting has a weird texture because I did it on a scrap of board that I  gessoed using an experimental method.  Somehow the surface has an almost lizard-like texture. Not a method I will use in the future. The texture really reflects the light and makes it almost impossible to get a decent photo of the work.  But I liked how the painting came out so here it is.  Cattail Colors, also 8 x 10.