Breckenridge poster entry

This painting (18x24) was done this summer as my entry into the Bach, Beethoven and Breckenridge poster contest. These poppies are found growing everywhere in Breckenridge in the summertime. Many are in gardens and I suspect others are escapees that naturalized. I did not win this year (I did have a painting selected a couple of years ago) but it was fun doing it and I enjoyed hearing the comments about it. Most people seemed to like it. The one that was selected was also flowers, but it was columbine in front of aspen tree trunks, and was a great painting. I actually voted for it myself :)

I don't have this piece in a gallery yet, but am waiting for summer to come back so that people will see it while the flowers are blooming. We have a long wait yet as winter has not yet really taken hold here in the mountains of Colorado.

Stalking fly fishermen

I spent the fall trying to photograph fly fishermen so that I would have reference to use for paintings during the winter. I think some of the guys were wondering what I was up to as I photographed them over and over. Every so often I had to turn the camera away and get a shot up the river so they wouldn't think I was stalking them (I was!). No one called the police on me and I got lots of photos. This is the first painting I did from this year's crop of photos. It is 16x20 and I enjoyed working a little larger than I usually do. I have just started experimenting with adding figures to my landscapes and I am having a great time doing it!

A dog commission

I loved painting this little guy. A friend of mine sent me a photo of her dog and asked me to paint him. Unfortunately, the photo was not very good. It was really hard to see his eyes. I an told that is a common problem with commissions, and my sister suggested I go online and find a photo of the same breed of dog and use his eyes, which I did. The owner of the dog was pleased with it, and so was I. It was a good solution, without violating any copyright issues.

Begging

I have had the photo reference for this for some time, and finally painted it. The dog belongs to a friend of mine that we hike with sometimes. He likes nothing more than to roll in the snow banks that are left under trees in the spring time as we hike. A lab through and through; he even likes frozen water!

My favorite of the summer plein air paintings

Winter has arrived in my part of Colorado, and it is nice to have a little fall color hanging on the wall! We are supposed to get 4 to 10" of snow tonight. I know that is a large amount for many of you, but I live in ski country and we like it. Some of the ski areas are already open and others open later this week. Copper Mountain and Keystone both open on November 4th, although terrain will be limited to where they have snowmaking for a while. We need a lot more snow before there will be enough to ski on without any man made snow added to it. It will come; we don't have to worry about that!