Am I leaving landscapes for figures?

From my latest posts, one could conclude that I am turning into a figurative artist.  Not so, but I do enjoy doing them.  In fact, I entered three pieces into the WAOW show being held in Texas in November, and the two they accepted were figuratives.  So pehaps it is some reinforcement that I should keep painting them.  This was not entered as it wasn't finished in time for the deadline, but you will find the accepted two on this blog in the last 4 or 5 posts.   I am still not completely happy with this one, but I think it is the best I can do at this time.  Painting faces without detail is not easy! 

Another Happy Face

In my last post, I mentioned a dog painting I did that I called Happy Face.  This is it, although, I am afraid it is a little washed out from the original.  I wish I knew how ro adjust the color in photoshop to add more gold and tone down the blue a bit..  No matter, I am not selling it here....
It was fun to paint.  Have you ever seen a Golden Retriever without a happy face?  They are always smiling. 

One day I will take a Karin Jurick workshop!

I started out painting landscapes, mostly because it scared me to paint people, but now I really enjoy figurative work.  I would love to take a workshop from Karin Jurick or from Michelle Torrez.  One of these days! 
When we were in New Zealand in March and April, we visited an island bird sanctuary called Tiri Tiri Matangi.  Lots of schools take groups of kids there on field trips as they have a lot of native birds there that are very threatened.  As we were getting ready to leave on the ferry, these kids from Parnell school were killing time by "chucking stones into the sea".  I took lots of photos of them and was taken with this little boy as he seemed to be a bit left out by the older girls.  Note the school uniforms and the hats, a required part of the uniform.   New Zealand is right under the hole in the ozone layer and melanoma is a concern there. 

A figurative painting for a change

I have been going through the photos I took in New Zealand as I want to do a few pieces from there, but paintings that could be anywhere.  I watched several little kids with an eye to getting some good reference, and got some shots of this kid as he played with his boat in the water.  I was hoping no parents noticed as I didn't want to have to explain why I was photographing their kids!    It is just a little 6x8.  I really enjoy painting figurative work. 

For once, a painting without a lot of fall color!

Of course, there is fall color in it as that is what I do, but no aspen leaves this time. This is an interpretation of the view at the top of Lizard Head Pass, near Telluride. I was there in September when the leaves were at their peak, but the pass has a lot of pine trees too. I really liked the color of the distant trees and my goals were to get that color right and to make the foreground interesting, which is something I find difficult to do. This is a fairly large painting at 29x24.

There really is a South Park, Colorado

A "park" is a high mountain valley, and Colorado has three of them; North Park, Middle Park and the famous South Park. It isn't really famous for anything except the cartoon series named after it, but it is home to several small Colorado towns. The largest is Fairplay, and just north of there is a little town called Alma. An artist friend of mine, Cat Roberts, is opening a new gallery in Alma, and I will have some work hanging there. The River's Edge gallery is in a little historic building in a town where the largest store (if you don't count bars) is called Al-Mart. Alma is most known for having a cop car with a dummy sitting in it postitioned in different places in town during the summer, trying to get the tourists to slow down as they whiz through on their way to Breckenridge. Now it will be known for having a wonderful gallery too!

I thought it might be apt to have some river and fishing paintings in a gallery called River's Edge, so this will be one that goes there on Friday. It is 9x12, and an oil painting.

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.

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!

Summer time in Colorado

There is no better time than Summer in the Colorado high country. (except maybe winter if you are a skier!) The real estate office where I have my real job is just across the street from this scene in Frisco. I love the activity in the summer, as people walk, ride bikes and sight see. We also have fabulous flowers. Our season is so short (at most, three months) that everything blooms at once. The light at this altitude is clear and bright too.

This painting is a 12 x24 and I painted it for a show that I have coming up at the Buffalo Mountain Gallery in July.

Another Blue River painting

I have been painting with my sister Adele this week, and have been turning them out, which is good! Here is one of the best of the week so far. Two of my more favorite subjects together; the Blue River and fall colors. I took a lot of photos this fall so have plenty to work on over the winter. As my color laser printer is having some issues, I decided to get some of my digital photos printed. I tried WalMart, Walgreens and the local grocery store, but wasn't really happy with any of them. Most were too dark. Have any of you had any luck with other places?

Painting after Monet

I am taking a class at our local junior college called "Painting after Monet" and it is about painting in series. I tend to do that anyway, as I get stuck on one subject and like to really explore it. My subject for this series is Buffalo Mountain, a prominent landmark no matter where you are in the county. This one was actually done before the class started and I settled on a subject, but I enjoyed doing this so decided I would like to do more. I have aobuat 5 or 6 more to do!

Another river painting (or two)

This is just a little study I did in preparation for a bigger version of it. It is only 6x8 but it really helped me figure out what needed to be important for the 16x20 version (which sold this month. Yaaay!!) I find that doing a smaller one first helps me with composition, drawing, color and anything else I need to work out. The second time through I gave the river more of a curve and emphasized the fall colors. I may have already posted it here, but here it is again. Although the second one is probably the better of the two, I prefer the looseness and spontenatity of the first one.

More autumn scenery coming up with a new show

Jenn Cram, an excellent clay artist, and I have a show opening this weekend at the Breckenridge Theater Gallery. Titled "Transitions", the show will hang for a month or so. The show title works well with my pieces as so many of them are obviously in different seasons. I have a lot of landscapes with wildflowers in summer, snow in winter, melting snow in spring, and of course, my favorite season to paint with lots of color, autumn.

This scene is a beaver pond that I saw as I was driving home one day at the peak time for fall color. I called it "Reflecting". One day I will figure out a way to think of interesting titles! My nephew, Shane Rebenscheid, calls his paintings names like "The day that Sam lost his watch" and "Covert Diplomacy". Once you see the painting, it makes sense, (mostly) but how he comes up with the titles, I will never know!

The link above takes you to his blog. Shane is a commercial illustrator, doing book covers for the most part, and now he has taken up "fine art" and is doing well. He has a great art education and it is good to see him using all of it! If you want to see his illustration work, go to blot.com (another great title!)

Autumn will be here soon

When you live at 9300 feet, the seasons are short, except for winter! Our aspen trees will look like this in about 6 to 8 weeks. By mid-October we won't have leaves left on the trees and ski season will start at the end of October.

I finished this painting this morning, and it is the first one I have done in a month or so. It has been a very busy summer!