A few paintings from the last few weeks

This is from a photo my uncle took a long time ago.

 i took a picture of this church in rural New Mexico. 

I changed the proportions making it taller and skinnier.

 a quickie 

 Out on Cherry Vale rd.

Here come the storms.

The next four  are from a trip I took to Utah.

 

 This is out near Hygeine.

Today I drove up the Peak to Peak and painted Long's Peak

Yesterday, I took some photos set up to paint and mixed some colors when everything disappeared in the clouds. So, I took the photos along with my pallet home and came up with this painting. It was kind of fun to mix it up a little bit, painting from photos and memory.

Trip to desert

Last week I took a trip to one of my favorite places, The desert in Utah. I left Boulder at noon and pulled over around 6pm to paint this. I am right off of I-70 directly north of Moab looking south. 

when I woke up the next morning to my dismay, it was cloudy. I painted anyway. I am right out side of Canyon Lands National park Needles district, looking up Indian creek.

my next stop was in the park where I painted this rock formation I have admired many times in the past. You can probably tell it was still cloudy.

The sun finally started to come out later that afternoon when I painted this of some nice Junipers with "Junction Butte" and "Island in the Sky" in the back ground.

Then back at camp, with the sun low I painted the last one of the day.

 The next morning was sunny, and good painting weather.

 Then, I decided to hike the 3.5 miles with my kit to a place called "The Devil's Kitchen".

 The next morning, I had some friends due to arrive. The first arrived right when I was putting the finishing touches on this one. It turned out to be the favorite of my friends.

The next couple of days were spent riding our bikes, hiking, and playing disc golf. Sunday morning came around and it was time to head for home, but before I did I had to stay and paint one last one. These cotton woods with their fresh budding leaves seemed to be glowing with the shadowy cliffs behind them.

handicap painting

I have been doing a little left handed painting from photos since my surgery.  This first is of a picture taken from my drive early one morning.

 This is Utah Canyon lands Needles.

Needles District, Canyonlands Utah

I left early last Thur. morning and headed to Canyon Lands Utah to meet some friends for some camping and hiking. I showed up before anyone else and had a few hours to myself to paint. I was able to get three done before anyone else showed up. All of the paintings were pretty much done right from camp. The formation in this painting is called six shooter.

We call this camp "Big Tree" This is about a third of the "Big Tree" which is a big cotton wood that has kind of laid down. I heard a quote about this place that goes: "Even the tree is relaxed here."

This was done in the evening. I felt like I was struggling getting the color right and I ended up getting a little crazy with the orange. At the time I didn't like it, but now when I look at it, I think it works, and may even help with the feeling of a low warm sun.

This is of the same formation but painted in the morning.

I really felt on this trip, I was struggling getting the desert colors just right. After our hike on Sat. I sat down with the intention of just working on colors and not making a painting. This is what I ended up with. Turned out to be a painting after all.

Sunday morning was spectacular, so I sat down with my morning coffee and whipped this one out before I hit the road for home.

Here are a few sketches I did while on hikes and sitting around camp.

Saturday Post

I am posting today, because we are going skiing tomorrow and I am sure I won't have time to paint.

This is from one of my desert photographs. I did a lot of work on the photo before I started to paint. It really wasn't very good. In Photo shop I made the background much lighter, less contrast and bluer. I did the same to the middle ground but less so. The foreground I more or less left alone.

I think it turned out pretty good.

 This is a portrait of my friend Jon

 I painted this Weds. night. I was a little liberal with the medium when I began. It started to run as you can see on the right side. I thought it was cool looking, so I left it.

one painting to show

I came down with a bad cold last week, so my painting has really suffered. The only work I got done was to finish this painting I showed you last week. These are my friends Jon and Neil in our favorite place, the Needles district in Canyon Lands Utah. I hope to have more to show next week, but first I have to get over this cold.

painting from photos

We"ll start with the Weds. night figure since I think it is my best painting of the week. Not much to say, I just like the way it turned out.

I had every intention of painting outside today, but got spooked by a windy forcast, so I stayed home and started this painting. These are my friends Jon and Neil on one of our trips to the Needles in Utah.

I have been thinking of the desert a lot lately, so I have been painting from photos taken while on outings there. I am really trying to get the proper colors and values so that they look like they were painted pleinair.

4-24-13

This is from a photo I took a couple of years ago in the Needles District, Canyonlands Utah. I had to ask my friend Jon Foote to figure out the exact location. He says it is on the trail to Chestler Park before you cross Elephant Canyon. I don't know if that means anything to any of you, but there you have it.

 This is another from my studio window. It is the late afternoon sky looking north east.

And yet another from my window in the early evening. We had some snow early in the week that was still hanging in the grasses. I like this one better than the one I did of this last week. I tool a little more time with it, trying to get the play of warms and cools in the snow.

In figure this week, I went bigger. This is 24x16. It was fun but I didn't have time to work with any color.