Last post before surgery

This may be my last post for awhile. Surgery is set for Tues. I did have a pretty good last week of painting though. Weds our model wore a Christmas hat which made for an interesting painting.

 Today a bunch of us braved the cold for some plein air painting. This is my first of the day.

 And this my second

 This is a studio painting see a video of it being painted here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5BMJGlFio0

Windy Days

Today Sharon and I went plein air painting off of Cherry Vale. It started out nice, but with in two hours the wind was really starting to pick up. It blew my panel off of the easel and was just kind of making things difficult. My painting wasn't very good, but I brought it back to my studio and worked on it more from memory, and here it is. Not too terrible.

I sure do enjoy our Weds. nights, even when my paintings are just so so. I am looking forward to getting my shoulder fixed, so I can start to work big again.

Left handed

This weekend I dove into more left handed painting. It has been hard to motivate to paint right handed knowing I will be losing that ability for awhile after my surgery. So I decided to see if I could improve with my left hand and actually have some fun. This one I did Friday evening. You can see the video Here..

This one is also left handed. I broke my rule of not painting from photos, It has just been so cold outside that I decided it was OK this time. I also filmed this one. See it at Here.

One

Yesterday I was participating in the Holiday Bazaar art sale at the Wilderness Trace Art studios. I found some time yesterday after noon to get out and paint this . It is of the old train depot which I have painted before. This time I saw it through these leafless trees and thought it would make an interesting challenge.

practicing with my left hand

Many of you may already know that I am more than likely going to have surgery on my right shoulder. I decided to try to look at this as an opportunity to learn how to paint with my left hand. This first painting is all right hand though. I painted it this Weds.

This one however is all left hand. I painted it last night. I figure it will be easier getting use to the left hand if I start using it before the surgery. That way I can ease into it, instead of being forced to use only it, with no option to go right for a break.

I painted this this afternoon. I went back and forth from left to right. using the right for awhile paying attention to how I hold the brush and the movement of my wrist and fingers to make the brush strokes. then I'd switched to my left trying to mimic in a mirror image sort of way what I observed with my right hand. I think this just might be good for me. Maybe After I recover I will be able to paint with both hands simultaneously. Ha!

This Week

This week I did a portrait on Weds and a Plein Air on the corner of Mapleton and 4th street earlier today.

One Painting

Not much time for painting these days, however I did manage to get this done on Weds night. We didn't have a model so Deb, one of the artists modeled for us. Everyone thought it was a pretty good likeness.

Life has gotten in the way recently, tapping into my time and energy for painting. I am sure it will get better in time. I did manage to get two paintings done this past week. The first from Weds night. I may not be painting much, but still I feel this turned out pretty good. I feel more confident in my use of color in the light. I still have room for improvement, but it's coming.

This is from today. Sharon and I went down by Boulder creek, near the justice center on 6th street. 

Colorado Plein Air Arts Fest

  I didn't paint this week, however i have been accepted in the Golden Triangle Museum District Juried exhibition of the Colorado Plein Air Arts Fest. See link below. I am pretty excited. The show is at

Gallery 1261, 1261 Delaware St, Denver, Co 80204

NC Ocean Isle Beach and some fall colors

We got back from Ocean Isle Beach Yesterday. Here are the paintings I got done while there. It was a great time, and hard to leave. This one is looking at the beach from an upper deck of the house we stayed in.

 This is of the inner coastal water way.

The beach with some people.

 The house we stayed in.

 My frien Rudy reading on the beach

 This one is small at 3x5. It turned out to be one of my favorites.

Today I went out to Saw Hill Ponds looking for colors. Found some!

Ocean Isle Beach

Debbie and I are at Ocean Isle Beach this week with some old friends from Athens. I brought my paints and a sketch pad. It was cloudy this morning when I painted this looking north up the beach.

These next two are from the layover in Atlanta.

Rudy reading on the Beach.

This is from Weds night.

Two to Show

This weekend most of my painting has been on my house. I did sneak off this morning to Golden Gate Canyon State Park. It is a beautiful place for aspen viewing. I tried to capture that fleeting moment when the trees in front of me were seeing their first sun for the day. It was kind of fun to try.

Friday was rainy, so I Stayed in and tried to copy one of Robert Liberace's portraits. It is far from done, and never will be. I was trying to copy what he is doing with his color in the skin tones.

Finally painting again after the flood!

Sorry for the poor quality of these photos. I was just anxious, I guess, to get out a new post after

forced hiatus from painting due to the flood. First is the Weds night figure.

 This I copied off of the internet. It is from a Robert Liberace. It doesn't look any thing like Robert"s painting. Oh well..

 Today Sharon and I went to a paint out. first in Baily, where I painted this.

 Then to "The Fort", in Morrison. I am so glad to be painting again.

Paint Paint Paint

Weds night we had a model who wore a really colorful dress and ring. It made for some really fun painting.

Here are a couple of details

 Monday, Labor day, Sharon and I went up to Caribou Flats to paint. I love the way the trees get around tree line where the wind hammers them all winter.

Supprisingly the wild flowers were still out at 10,000 ft.

Saturday morning, I decided to paint at home. I have painted this scene several times, but never in the morning.

Then I went down along 93 between boulder and Golden where there is this wonderful hog back.

Me Casa

Friday I had the day off and painted our house from the drive way. I am seeing more and more around the house I want to paint

 

 This one I worked on after work on a couple of rainy after noons. Being it is in natural light, I still consider it to be a plein air painting.

This is a scene I painted from out my studio window. It was raining Friday, so it seemed like a good way to get in some practice.

 This is a copy of a painting I've been dragging around with me for 25 plus years. I don't know where I got it, but have always had it hanging in my studio and really like it.

This morning Sharon and I went to Eldorado Canyon. This is my first. The cliffs were glowing from the reflected light from the sunlit cliffs on the north side of the canyon.

 Then I painted a monochromatic of some falling water.