A quick oil sketch

I have been participating in a group who is trying to paint from life, every day. The every day part is tough and I haven't been good about doing it that often. It is still a bit cold in the mountains of Colorado to get outside to paint. I have three cats, so decided they will be good subjects during nap time. Today I must have been too noisy as they kept moving. I wiped off two starts when my subject left, and started two more which never did get finished. This one isn't finished either, but I liked my start so won't wipe it off. I just wish I had wiped out the sketch lines of the parallel angles in the bottom center. I didn't notice them until I photographed it. It is amazing how many things show up in a photo that you don't notice while you are working on it.

New Zealand in summer, a great time to paint!

We have been in New Zealand for almost 6 weeks now and will be leaving a week from today.

I have loved being here and plan on coming back next year to do it all over again, but it will be good to get home. I have tried to paint every day, although it has been very rainy and I cannot paint inside in our rented house, so it has limited me. Still, I got a couple of dozen small paintings done. I don't necessarily want anyone to see them all, but this is one that came out ok. The photo is a bit washed out and perhaps I should have darkened it before posting, but I really don't like to manipulate the photos and prefer to just post what I get. If I want a better photo, I should get a better photographer! ;)

One more before leaving for New Zealand

A friend of mine had asked me to paint her dog. As we were only a month or so away from leaving for New Zealand for seven weeks, and my to-do list was very long, I didn' t think I could get it done before leaving. I sketched it in, and then it sat on the easel for a week or two, looking at me, asking why it wasn't finished! So one night I decided I was going to get it done and it just fell off the brush. I love paintings like that! This was photographed with my iphone (which takes better photos than my good camera!) but it was still wet, so there is a little glare on the right side. Now all I have to do is frame it and get it to her before we leave, now in less than two weeks.

A dog commission

This is the third dog commission I have done for this family, but it was the toughest! The photo they sent me of the dog wasn't the greatest, and when I tried a close up, I couldn't figure out where the various parts of the dog were within the black blob that was the head! I don't paint from imagination very well, and really do need reference. So I decided that I loved the girl and the dog together, and did that instead. It made it less necessary to get as detailed with the cockapoo. I titled it Best Buddies, as they look like they really are. The painting is a present for the little girl for her February birthday.

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.

Aspen Grove

Aspen are the weed tree here in the Colorado mountains. They grow like crazy anywhere you don't want them to be. like in my garden. However, we love them for their color and their ability to fill empty hillsides very quickly. Pine Beetle have devastated our pine forests but it is amazing how quickly aspen are providing cover for the wildflowers and wildlife. This Aspen stand was in Rico Colorado, but it could have been in my backyard in Summit County. This photo of the oil painting was taken with my new iphone and I was amazed at what a good job it did picking up the color. It may be just a touch light, and the blue in the shadows isn't really quite that bright, but I was really surprised at the quality of the photo. This painting is 18x24 and available at the River's Edge Gallery in Alma Colorado, a little town between Breckenridge and Fairplay.

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.