New Mexico

I went to see my Aunt and Uncle in New Mexico over the holidays. While there  I got to do a little painting. We drove around a bit and found some beautiful lonely places. This is one I went back to yesterday afternoon to paint. It is larger than I have been working at 16x 13. I was surpprised that it fell together as quickly as a 8x10.

This is a little mono tone painting I did before I left town of a Christmas orniment a friend gave us years ago.

 On the way down to New Mexico, I pulled off of interstate 25 on exit 64 and painted this.

 Aunt Joyce and Uncle Darrell have a lot of cool stuff including ceramic sculptures of different kinds of animals. I was taken with this one of an elk and stayed up one night to paint this mono tone of it

  One day we went down to the Quarai ruins and I painted this. It was cold and windy which made for difficult painting. I had a lot of cleaning up to do on this one later that night.

Yesterday Debbie went for a bike ride. I on the other hand wanted to ski up to our secret stash and see if there was enough snow to be worth while going back on Christmas. As you might have guessed I put my painting kit in my pack just in case, and when I got up to this spot I thought why not? It was pretty cold and a little cumbersome painting with gloves on, but I did it. Then I realized I forgot a box to carry the painting back down to the car, so I had to hold the painting in one hand and my poles in the other to ski down. It was a little rough, but I made it. The painting actually didn't turn out this good. I worked on it a fare amount when I got home, from memory. I am pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out.  By the way, there is enough snow for some good skiing. We will go back tomorrow and on Christmas. I'll leave my paints at home.

I finished the angle this week as promised. I guess it turned out OK. It definitely was a great lesson in value.

 Today a few of us got together and painted portraits of this lovely young girl.

 Weds. night I painted this. I love the hat.

 Friday night I looked around for something to paint and came up with this.

Windy and cold pleinair

Yesterday Sharon and I braved the cold and wind to paint in Boulder canyon. This is the back side of Castle rock. We were both pretty cold by the end of two hours. A big gust of wind hit us right at the end which sprayed dirt and dust all over my painting. Who says painting can't be extreme?

Friday I approched one of my neighbors and asked if it was alright to paint on his property. He was very nice and said I was welcome on his land anytime

 Sat. I went onto his property and painted this. It is neat that I have more options at home for plein air.

 This is from Weds. night. It is quite a bit larger than I am use to working at 24x16 .

 I have been working on this painting for several days. It too is 24x 16. I wanted to see if I can work this big taking my time and still make it look as spontanious as a smaller painting I do in one sitting. I still have the angle to work on. It should be done in time for next weeks blog.

fun with candles

Today Lilly came to Classical Art Academy to pose for a few of us. This is what I came up with.

 This past week I go interested in attempting to paint candle light. It was a great exercise in getting the values just right.

 Here's my little angle figurine again.

This of course is from Weds. night. I didn't have the energy to push this one very far Weds. night, so I just kind of let it be a rough sketch.

New Etsy shop

I want to start out by mentioning my new Etsy shop where my paintings are available for purchase. Visit  http://www.etsy.com/shop/BillMeusersArt  to check it out. I will be adding more paintings soon.

 

Yesterday was my day to paint. It was a bit too windy to paint outside, so I found this spot in Boulder canyon parked my car on the side of the road and painted. It is always a bit frustrating painting in the car because I can't back up and take a look at how I'm doing, which I like to do often. I have to get out of the car and peer through the window, which is hard to do often. Still I think this turned out pretty good considering.

I painted this from memory earlier in the week. It is of our view at dusk. I actually like the colors.

The following evening I attempted to paint the same view from life. The light only last for a moment so I had to paint fast. I think I did this in about twenty minuets. Both of these paintings are smaller than I usually work at just 6x8 inches.

This is another from yesterday.I had about forty minuets before the sun went down. So, this is another done pretty fast.

I painted this Weds. night from our model. Some times they turn out good and other times they leave me a little unsatisfied like this one. Oh well.

Thanks Giving Weekend

I Love Days off for holidays. I was able to get out quite a bit the last few days. It has been so frustrating this time of year now that it's dark when I get off of work. I really relish the daylight hours on these days off. This I painted Weds. after noon. I snuck out work to get an early start to the weekend and headed up Boulder Canyon. This is fairly close to Nederland.

This is from Thanks Giving morning. I painted this from inside my car up on the peak to peak just across from the Kelly Dal camping area. It was blowing pretty hard so painting out side was out of the question. The lake was mostly frozen. (just in case you couldn't tell from the painting.

 Yesterday, Debbie and I rode our bikes north out of Hygien. Before we started I was able to paint this of Longs and Meeker as viewed from Hygien. I only had about an hour and 15. I still think it turned out OK.

 

 This morming I took the dog over to Walker Ranch where I painted this looking down into Eldorado Canyon.

  This afternoon when I got home I saw this beautiful light in some trees on our property. S o I attempted to paint them. The sun was down in about an hour, so it was fun trying to remember the way it looked with the light.

art sale

This week was a bit hectic, so I only have three paintings to show. This one I did Weds. night. I like the hat. It gives the picture some character.

 Yesterday I had my paintings in the Coal Creek Canyon holiday Art sale. To pass the time, I painted. The challenge as always was what to paint. There were all of these paper plates, plastic cups and forks, so I thought why not. I saw all of these subtle reds and blues so I didn't hesitate to put them in the painting.

 The lady next to me had some nick knacks to help spruce up her table, including these plastic flowers that made a good subject. Everyone seemed to like my paintings, and enjoyed watching me paint, but didn't buy anything. Oh well, I wasn't really expecting to sell. However, it was really good exposure. I had quite a few people take my card. A few asked about lessons. I may be contacted to give a demonstration at the local elementary school with pay. I think that could be fun and rewarding.

Reflections and shadows

I don't know how well this is working. I thought it'd be fun to paint a little of the out side reflected through the window on my guitar. It turned into a real chore.

I felt pretty good Weds night when I did this.

This, I am very happy with. I wish I could come up with ideas like this more often. The knife was my Grandpa's. In fact he made it. Ingraved on the blade are the words "For Peace Only" I forgot that was there. Grandpa was cool.

This one's OK. It just doesn't have the drama the previous painting has.

no plein airs

This is my God Daughter Arises. I painted this from a photo she gave us.

 You saw the under painting for this last week.

 

I re painted this from one I made last summer. I think it was easier the first time

This weeks paintings

It snowed the other day and I really wanted to paint the snow. However I couldn't get myself to stand out in the wind and the cold. So I studied the colors very carefully and took some pictures. I painted this in my studio trying hard to remember the colors I saw and not just copying the photo. I think it turned out pretty good. This is, by the way, another painting of the view from our house.

These next two paintings are from today. Sharon and I went to a new place by Higene. I think it is called sunset lakes.

This is from a photo of my friend Chris. I plan on putting some color on this week.

I did this in figure this week. I really wish I would have noticed that his head was too small in class instead of noticing it the next day.

Still lifes / Plein airs

With the shorter days it is getting harder to get out after work, so I have been setting up still lifes. Here are two I did this past week. 

Sharon and I ended up at Saw Mill Ponds again today. We walked in a bit further to this spot. 

The air was much clearer today so I was able to see and paint the snow in the mountains. The biggest snow field is Arapaho glacier nestled in between north and south Arapaho peaks.

Weds. night figure.

I am going back packing in Utah next weekend and in preparation, found this cool little water color kit. The oils are way too heavy to take back packing. These are my first two paintings with the new kit. It should be perfect for my trip.