Art Journal

Here's a painting from Monday morning at Stephen Day Park looking east toward the farm buildings over near Union Reservoir. I particularly liked the backlit aspect of the scene with the white metal roofs reflecting in the morning sunlight. These are actually in another county as the borderline runs right in front of these houses. Beyond them is the reservoir which you cannot see from this location.

County Farms, 8 x 10

It seems like I have painted more trees this summer than anything else.   There are so many shades of green, and each view seems to be using a different set of green colors. And it won't be long before the leaves are gone. Here's one of the latest paintings of trees. This is the same scene I've painted before in Sandstone Ranch of a line of trees along the stream. (Actually an irrigation ditch)  You can't see the water, only the fields in the background.  The late summer colors of the dry grasses combined with the fresh monsoonal greens of some of the other shrubbery is what appealed to me. Wish I'd taken a photo of this scene, but I forgot to do it.

I've called it On the Edge, 8 x 10

Here's the one I did two years ago of the same place, Sandstone Pathway.

Here's a scene I saw coming back home at sunset the other day. The clouds were spectacular and gave me the idea of doing a painting of what I saw. This is a drawing of a possible composition I might use  - not sure yet how I will do this. Also below a small color sketch I did trying to figure out how I want to paint this.

On the Road, 11 x 14, and a gouache sketch

Here's a painting from Buckingham Park, a small natural area in Left Hand Canyon. Once again I was trying to get the character of the rocks and water reflections. I keep painting here off and on, hoping I'll be able to pull off a brilliant water painting some day.

Left Hand Rocks, 8 x 10

Here's photo of the scene.

So here's a painting where I  changed how I painted the water at least 5 times. The wind picked up and then calmed, the sky changed, the water changed color, everything changed. I tried to keep to the original look it had when it started but without seeing that again I could not get it to look right. So I went with how it looked at the end of the morning. Water is tricky for sure.

Eastern Quiet, 9 x 12

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

Here are some shots of a demo I did recently. It starts with a photo of the scene, goes to the three value sketch I made, then the underpainting, then a b/w photo of the underpainting to check the values, the final painting.

Here's a painting from a visit to a local herb and flower farm. The flowers were of every color ranging from red hot pokers, blue bachelor buttons, golden black eyed susans, sweet williams of several colors, plus  sunflowers and  multicolored zinnias. Lots of fun mixing all those colors on a cloudy rain-threatening morning which actually turned out fine.

The Flower Farm, 8 x 10

The scene as I was finishing up.

I spent one morning last week painting near the cliffs at Sandstone Ranch. It had rained the night before so there was a lot of moisture in the air and plenty of morning atmosphere giving everything in the distance a soft misty look which I really liked. Here's that painting. And here's the scene.

At the Cliffs, 9 x 12.

Here's a painting from Sawhill Ponds recently done on one of the PAAC painting trips. This tree is struggling to stay alive, a victim of our meager rainfall these days and the hotter summers we are enduring. It's away from a water source and not doing well. I saw it perched up on a little hill and decided to paint it.

The Struggling Tree, 10 x 8