8-25-15

Distant Summit    4x8    Oil on Panel

Art of the Valley Paintout

River Light.   11x14.   Oil on panel

Sorry about the bad iphone picture. Will update the photo soon.

This painting won both Peoples Choice and Artists Choice awards plus it sold!

Thank you all very much!

Flat Tops

Passing Storm    8x16    oil on panel

Another hard one to photograph because it is so dark. Sorry about that. Painted near the Flat Tops in Colorado. The storm passed really quickly, barely had time to finish blocking in. I saw at least a half dozen more paintings in this area, so I will be going back to get them. Beautiful spot to paint!

Art of the Valley Gallery Paintout

Holy Cross    8x16    Oil on Panel

Painted at Art of the Valley Gallery in Avon, CO for their Memorial Day weekend activities. This view is from the top of the Eagle Bahn Gondola in Vail looking southwest toward Mount of the Holy Cross. Holy Cross is the closest 14,000ft mountain to Vail. I worked from a photo I took earlier in the winter. This was a hard painting to photograph, sorry for the glare.

I have 3 paintings in this gallery so if you are in the area please stop by. When this is dry and framed it too will be in the gallery.

Touch The Sky

Touch The Sky    11x14    Oil on Panel

Got this one in dodging rain showers on Coffee Pot Road. Love going here, great place to paint!

Winter Paintings from Colorado

Cows Before The Storm    9x12    oil on panel

Glenwood Ascent    8x8    oil on panel

Transmutation    12x16    oil on panel

Brush Creek Willows    11x14    oil on panel

Moab 2014

In Balance    8x10    oil on panel

These are all the paintings from Moab I did this year at the Plein Air Moab event. The paintings at the bottom I did in advance of the show and two of those sold. Sorry about the picture quality on those. I forgot to take photos of them before I left for Moab and remembered just as I was turning them in that I had no photos! All the rest (including the one above) with the exception of River Giants were done in Moab this year. River Giants is from a few years ago, but I never posted it. I thought this would be a good time for it. Enjoy!

The Test of Time    9x12    oil on panel

Quiet Evening    11x14    oil on panel

This is the painting I entered in the show.

River Giants    8x10    oil on panel

Double Arch    8x10    oil on canvas

Thermal    8x10    oil on canvas

The Fire Still Burns    9x12    oil on canvas

New Years Day 2014

 

New Years Day - Eagle River    11x14    oil on panel

 

Happy New Year! For the last several years I have gotten together with a few other artists in Denver for a New Years Day paintout. Now that I'm no longer in Denver, I can't always meet up with them, but will continue to paint on New Years Day. They are always welcome to come up here! It's a great way to start the year, and it's always nice to be outside no matter what the weather. This is the first time I've been able to paint out since my back surgery. I'm a little rusty but I think the painting came out OK. Looking forward to getting back painting regularly and hopefully this is the start! 



 

Ebb and Flow    8x16    oil on panel

 

My last chance to paint the fall trees here in Colorado. Fall happened really late, and the trees are dropping fast. Down valley, along the Eagle River is all that's left.  Snow is in the upper mountains, ski slopes are open and I think I might be lucky to get one more before it's all gone.

 

9x12    Window of Opportunity    oil on panel

 

My entry into the 2013 Plein Air Moab event. This painting won an Honorable Mention Award. Thanks to everyone involved with putting on this event and thanks to Peggy Immel and Vern Swanson for the award!  Moab is such an amazing place it's hard not to have a good time. There are paintings everywhere waiting to happen. Can't wait to go back!

 

 

Strong Silence    8x10    oil on panel

 

 

Painted at the top of Onion Creek, near Moab UT for the 2013 Plein Air Moab event.

 

 

 

 

 

Water Under The Bridge

Water Under the Bridge    11x14    oil on panel

Painted this one on a lovely New Year's Day, 2013. I met Cliff for the annual new years day paint out along the South Platte river in Chatfield State Park. A lot of people showed up this year, in the past it was just Cliff, myself and 1 or 2 other people. Met some new (to me) painters and had a very nice day along the river. I set out to do something particular but the painting wound up going in a different direction. Actually, I gave up trying to do what I wanted to do and just let the painting make itself. It came out nice despite my initial disappointment that I did not do what I wanted to do. 

Since it is the start of the new year I'd like to thank some people:

Thanks to:

My wife April

Cliff Austin

Leslie Allen

Holly Kearns

Jennifer Riefenberg

Nancy Hawkins

and everyone at PAAC

Below this post are 4 other paintings I made this fall that I was unable to post at the time. I hope you enjoy them!

Hidden Mesa Fall

Hidden Mesa Fall    11x14    oil on panel

Across The Valley

Across The Valley    11x14    oil on panel

Over The Hill

Over The Hill    7x5.5    oil on panel

Last Days of Autumn

Last Days of Autumn    7x5.5    oil on panel

 

Lair of the Bear    8x10    oil on panel

 

I have painted at Lair of the Bear probably a dozen times and never made a painting I liked or even thought was OK. I tried the only viewpoint there that I had never been to, and this time I finally made one I like. Glad to get past that road bump!

 



Project Gemini

Gemini in E Minor    20x20    oil on canvas

I finished this painting a few months ago but have waited until now to post it because it was a commission for a CD cover. The musician I did it for, Jeff Goebel, had a release party for this CD this past weekend. I met Jeff a number of years ago in Anaheim at the NAMM convention. NAMM is a convention for the music industry and is a really amazing show to attend. We hit it off pretty well and soon Jeff and I and our wives were vacationing in Florida. While there, he mentioned that he was thinking of making his own CD and asked if I could paint him a cover. I agreed and several years later here it is.

The painting went through a ton of changes along the way. The original ideas were nothing like the finished painting. We both have a strong interest in the space program, so the basic theme was easy to do. One thing I wanted to try to do with this was show the sound of music. Since you can't hear music in space and this was a music CD is seemed like that was something that should come across with the art.

This painting is painted pretty thin for me, especially compared to my plein air work. It was a lot of fun to do this and a nice change of pace from all the landscape work. It brought me back to my comic book roots a little bit, so it is a bit of an illustration rather than fine art. It came out unexpectedly cool as many of the things in this I had other ideas for. I'd start going in one direction and Bam!, something else would pop out. I tried to keep as much of that as possible and toward the end I just let those little things happen without attempting to change them.

Jeff's 'group' for this is called Project Gemini and the Space Donkeys. Jeff plays guitar (and lots of other instruments) and he 'borrowed' band mates from other bands to help contribute parts. The music is modern instrumental rock in the vein of Joe Satriani-Steve Vai-George Lynch and is pretty kick ass stuff. I know it was a ton of work for Jeff and I'm glad that he finished and released this CD. You can get it and/or listen to samples on iTunes, Amazon.com and on his Facebook page. Tell Jeff I sent you there!  

Dawson's Butte PAAC Castle Rock Paintout

Summertime Blues    8x10    oil on panel

$325

Another beautiful summer day in Colorado! Thanks to Lee McVey for joining us. We had a great time chatting and I really enjoyed watching her paint. She got 3 paintings done in the time it took me to this one! Also thanks to Leslie for joining us this time. Hopefully she can join us again! Some of the other painters in this group are really growing fast. There has been a nice jump in skill and quality since the beginning of the year. It's great to see others painting well outside.



Eastern Wyoming

Stuck in a Rut    8x10    oil on panel

Souls Depart    8x10    oil on panel

Summer - July    8x10    oil on panel

These three paintings were done on a recent trip to eastern Wyoming. I have been to these places in years past and have wanted to paint there. The first painting was made at the Oregon Trail Ruts near Guernsey. The second at Register Cliff, also near Guernsey. Pioneers would pass by Register Cliff on their way west and engrave their names into the rock. There are many names from the 1800s in the rock. The third painting was painted at Ft. Laramie. Ft. Laramie would have been the last place pioneers would have stopped for provisions before going any further west. It was super hot at all these locations, over 100 degrees, and I have no idea how people would have handled it in 1880. By the time I painted the third painting, I just wanted to convey the heat and the sunshine and how there was no escaping it.