Been AWhile

Sorry. It's been awhile since my last post. I have gone back to my day job and it is taking awhile to get back into the swing of working and making art. Here are a few pieces from the last couple of weeks.

 I am painting this one from some reference photos as well as a painting from life, seen below.

 

Utah Canyon Lands and a couple of portraits

A week ago I was in Utah, Canyon Lands at my favorite camp spot, "Big Tree"

I spent the day Friday painting. Then Friday evening, some friends showed up. We hiked on Saturday, and played desert disc golf Sunday morning. My friends left Sunday afternoon. I stayed another night. And, was able to get one more done before night fall. I think these are some of my best desert paintings yet. Makes me happy.

This week was kind of slow at work, so I sat in on a couple of figure groups, where I painted these two portraits.

Back to work

I went back to work last week. Working makes it hard to get much painting done. These are the paintings I did manage to get done.

Show at "Sol Shine" in Denver

Monday was a beautiful warm sunny day and I spent it painting on Love land pass.  I was quite pleased with this one, the last of the day. It just fell out of my brush in about 45 min.

This was the first, and also turned out pretty good. But I wanted to see if I could make it bigger and better in the studio. See next image.

This is the studio version. It is painted on a 18x24" canvas. I really had a lot of fun with it.

This was my weakest Plein air of the day, but I remembered something really special about the light that I didn't quite get, so, I tried again in the studio working only from the Plein air study.See next image.

The sun was blasting the back side of the snow bank in front. it was reflecting back on the trees in the for ground making their shadow side glow brighter than the forests behind them. It was pretty cool to see, but I am uncertain how well that comes across in the painting. Still I had a lot of fun trying and am quite pleased with this 18x24" painting in general. Another quick note, behind the for ground trees in the ski area, Arapahoe Basin.

Tues, I went out to one of my favorite places, Saw Hill Ponds and painted this 16x20" Plein Air.

This morning painting inside the art work space studios looking out the front glass doors.

 Weds. night. Sad...

This afternoon I set up a show at the Sol Shine Gallery in Denver. Located at 1501 boulder Street Denver. There is a reception, I will be attending on February 21st from 5:00 to 8:00pm Come on out and say hi.

Staying in the Groove.

I have given up on painting every day I missed Thursday and today. It really doesn't matter. It is most important that I don't burn myself out. 

Here is my painting from Wed. The model wore this wonderful outfit along with some elaborate makeup. It made for a fun challenge.

 Earlier Wed. I went out to Saw hill ponds, one of my go to places.

 From Tue.

 Friday I came home tired after working all day. I thought I'd just do a quick still life since I was tired. I ended up staying up until 11:15pm working in these bell peppers.

 Sat. was cloudy and windy. I weighted my easel down and painted this scene on Mapleton Ave in Boulder. You can see the first FlatIron between the roof and the tree. This piece is 16x20 in size. That is a bit bigger than I an use to working. My dream is to paint larger and larger pleinair paintings.

painting in public places

I have been painting in public places in an attempt to get some exposure.

It has been fun getting some attention while I work. While architecture is fun to paint, I do miss

a more natural subject. This is the Boulder Cafe on the Pearl Street Mall. I hear it is closing in June.

 Weds. night produced a pretty nice Figure painting.

 I have been painting every day. Thur. night I had very limited time, so I whipped this one out in about 30 min.

 This is a painting of Nina's Flowers and gifts, where I show my paintings in Louisville.

 Here is another Pearl Street Mall painting.

 and another.

 Today I went down to the Santa Fe Arts district in Denver to scope out galleries. Of course I had to paint while I was there. There really wasn't very many people out at all.

art from the last two weeks

Since my last post, I have been to New Mexico, Worked in my studio and drawn a figure study. I have made a new goal to draw or paint something every day for the foreseeable future.  Sorry I don't have the time or energy tonight to comment on each of these pieces. Still I hope you enjoy.