My weekly blog.... updated monthly

Wow! how time flies. So here are my paintings from the last month. 

Adam was our model in this painting. He took on this very interesting but somewhat difficult pose.

This is about the 4th time I have painted this view from Walker Ranch. It always turns out a little different.

From the pull out on 93 just South of Boulder.

A partly cloudy day  on our property In Coal Creek Canyon. The cloud shadows were slowly moving across the landscape.

Fun colors.

This is one of my favorite portraits to date.

Low in Boulder Canyon. I loved the light.

Hygiene Colorado. I've admired this house for sometime now. I finally got around to painting it.

These are some big rock slabs just to the west of Ncar.

One evening after work I pulled over low in Coal Creek Canyon, climbed up a bit and painted this view looking up canyon. The sunlight only lasted about two minutes.  I was determined to get it in my painting.

Yesterday I hiked/climbed up behind NCAR to a saddle just below Bear Peak. And caught this view to the north.

a little color?

I painted these flowers on Thurs. evening at the base of the foothills. I tried finding out what they are, with no luck. Any ideas anyone? 

It was nice to work in some yellows and oranges for a change.

Sat morning I was driving along Gross Dam Rd. and saw these wonderful low clouds. I quickly set up and whipped this one out. The clouds had cleared in about 45min. It was a good challenge.

 Then I headed over to Gross reservoir.

Gross Dam Rd Paintings

This morning I got up early and headed to this spot on Gross Dam rd. I have admired this scene for a long time and today was my day to paint it. The morning light gave me a treat this morning. I hope I have done it Justus.

 At 10am I had my first Plein Air student. This is the result of the demo I gave. We were focusing on how color and value change as things are further from you. The sun kept going behind the clouds. So, it was challenging painting conditions to say the least.

 I painted this figurine I bought the other day on Friday. It was a fun exerize to try and make it look like a real swan in more of a natural setting.

 

Too Buzy!

I've had too much work to paint much this week. I did get to paint this afternoon and Weds night. this afternoon I hiked down to South Boulder creek in Walker Ranch. I  loved the way the light was shining through the trees next to the creek, so I had to try.

Weds night was a good night for figure painting.

 Today I went to Mapleton in Boulder. There are many big beautiful houses to paint there.

 Yesterday I went over to Walker Ranch and took a short hike, where I painted this. This is one of the first places I ever plein air painted. It is fun to look back at that painting and see how much i have improved. See next.

Back in full swing with my right arm

It was 40 up here today and in the 20s down in town, so I stayed up here to paint. This is from accross the road below our house.

In the afternoon I hiked down the trail at Walker Ranch and got this view through Eldorado Canyon. You could really see the cold air trapped down low.

 

 Yesterday I copied a Robert Liberace trying to prepare to dive back into color for my figures and portraits.

This is my figure from last week. I am trying to come up with more interesting poses.

slow week

I didn't have much energy this week, so I only painted Weds. night and today. This is from Weds. night. I am pretty happy with it.

This is my second painting this morning, we are looking down at Eldorado Canyon, through Walker Ranch.

 

  Sharon and I met early this morning in Coal Creek Canyon. I see this every morning on my way to work. I have been wanting to try to paint it at this time of day for a long time. Finally I got my chance this morning. It turned out to be very challenging. The magic moment of light was gone inside an hour. I took some photos and am trying again in my studio.

time lapse

No work this past week so I had a lot of fun. Weds. Morning I went to the little town of Buffalo Creek and painted this first one. A local told me the name of the mountain in the back is "Cathedral" and the white building is the historic "Blue bird Cafe".

 This is of course from our Weds night figure class. I was pleased with how fast and well this came together. I guess all the hard work is starting to pay off.

This is a view from Walker Ranch that I've painted before. It is an awesome spot.

Today my painting friend, Sharon and I headed up Boulder Canyon in search of rushing water to paint. I found this spot where some of the river was in the shade and the rest was in the sun. The light moved so fast that within 20 min. everything was in the sun. I really tried to stick with how it looked when I first started.

I did a time laps with my gopro on this next one. Be sure to watch the video below, and turn up the volume. I have some of my guitar music in the back ground. The name of the tune is "Steppin in" I wrote it back in 06 or 07. The figure is Sharon painting on the shoreline.

 

Remember turn up the volume. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF973eopwpI&feature=youtu.be

finally some good plein air painting weather

  This week was beautiful weather wise. I got a lot of plein air painting done. If I had to choose a favorite, it would have to be this 12x 16 painting I made Friday evening over at Walker Ranch looking west. It was partly cloudy, so the sun was doing a song and dance with light and shadow on the mountains. I was able to stick to one moment in time when the sun was shinning off the snow just right.

Today I got up early and drove to Brainard Lake and made the 2and 1/2 half mile walk from the winter gate to Brainard Lake proper where I painted these two. The first is 8x10 and the second 11x14.

 I was surprised, it actually got quite crowded. People were talking to me, commenting on my paintings. The kids seem to enjoy it the most. Bicycles were zipping by. I had to be careful not to back up suddenly to look at my work with out looking down the road for on coming cyclists first. The weather was fabulous. Not much wind, plenty of sunshine and warm temps.

Earlier this week, I stopped at the bottom of Coal Creek Canyon to get some painting done. This 10x8 is my second attempt at this scene. The first didn't turn out at all.

This 10x8 is another from Walker Ranch