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.



Paintout along the South Platte River

South Platte River Study    8x10    oil on panel

Meeker Plein Air 2012

Cool Mountain Breeze     8x10    oil on panel

Independence    9x12    oil on panel

Rio Blanco    8x10    oil on panel

These are from the Meeker Plein Air event I participated in last week in Meeker Colorado. In my haste to get them into frames for the auction, I forgot to take pictures of some of them without the frame. Had a good time in Meeker, everyone there was really nice. A lot of great landscapes there as well. Way more than I could paint in 2 days. Cliff and I painted together one day and that produced the first painting shown here. It looks real similar to Cliff's painting because we were standing about 25 yards apart, and both wanted to paint the same thing. It was pretty cool to see two of the same compositions by different people. This painting was the one that was sold in the auction. I didn't even get to paint west of town which has some really great desert scenery. Maybe next year! Thanks to everyone involved for the event and thanks to Patricia Sheeran-Daggett for judging!

Heat by the Creek

Cherry Creek Study    8x10    oil on panel

Late Morning at Blackmer Lake...

The Light Within    8x10    oil on panel

Suddenly.... Summer!

Summer Morning    10x10    oil on panel

Another great morning to be outside. Not many showed up for the PAAC paint out this morning. There wasn't a whole lot down by the creek, but this view of the Rock was hard to pass up. I'd like to try this view again with a different size panel. Not sure I really like the square shape. Came out O.K. in the end though. Spring sure did seem to end fast this year. Now, it's on to summer!

South Valley Rocks    8x10    oil on panel

The rocks in this painting are the same ones in my other South Valley painting called "January Morning". This view is from the other side of the rocks. I thought the light from this angle was very striking and I liked the angles and shapes. The scale of things is difficult to tell without a reference. The green bushes just below the main rock, center of painting, are a little under twice the height of an average person. This painting was a little difficult to do. I was not really sure where it was going until the very end. Cliff came over and pointed out some things that helped me along. It was a fantastic morning with great weather and light. Here's hoping the rest of the summer is just like today!

Hidden Mesa Wildflowers

Spring Wildflowers    8x10    oil on panel

Today the PAAC Castle Rock group met at Hidden Mesa. It's become an old haunt of mine as I've been going there for years to paint. It was really nice to have some other painters there this time. We got a lot of rain the day before and a few days before that and the wildflowers have really popped up. I don't remember there ever being that many flowers at this part of Hidden Mesa before. As I have painted a lot of the trees and rocks many times, I decided to try the flowers. The weather was fantastic with a nice breeze and it made it easy to finish this painting. Some of the other painters stopped by near the end and we debated adding the purple flowers. Those flowers were way off to the right of this shot, and I was not sure if it would 'break' the picture to add them in. In the end I added them anyway and I really like how it came out. It was a great morning to be outside painting!

And now for something completely different....

Rio Grande Rides Again    8x16    oil on panel

Today's PAAC paint out was at the Colorado Railroad Museum. I've never been there, but have wanted to go for years. I never was quite sure where it was so I was glad Cliff put it on the schedule. It's a small place considering how many engines and train cars they have there. Tons of stuff packed into a small area. Since it's a museum and the trains aren't moving I thought the challenge here would be to make the trains seem like they were moving and hopefully come alive. So that's what I shot for. The light wasn't great but this old Rio Grande engine was. I saw several other engines that would make nice paintings also. My perspective and the train cars got a little wonky, but I'm happy with it. I took tons of photos so I'm sure there will be more train paintings in the future.