Summer Woods

7 3/4 x 8 1/4
Vine Charcoal on Canson paper

This week it was hot in Texas with big well developed cumulus clouds forming in the afternoons. When we moved here a few years ago, I really missed those clouds. We seemed to just get high cirrus clouds. But, this summer we've had the big boys! Yesterday I saw some really large ones, all stacked up to the north as I was walking back from the studio to the house in late afternoon. Soon after, a ferocious storm blew in and our power was knocked out for a few hours. This morning I noticed one of the huge old white oaks across the road had come down.

Drawing My Way Back

Whenever I am out of the studio for a while - as I have been for the last few weeks- it takes me a while to get back into the rhythm of long days spent at the easel. When I leave there are usually works in progress and plenty of ideas for new pieces that languish in my absence. Starting on those immediately would feel like jumping into the deep end of the pool, so I stick my toe in and wade out to the deeper waters slowly. Usually, I do this by drawing-nothing serious in the way of finished drawings, but simply reacquainting myself with visual ideas by doing pages and pages of thumbnail sketches. This always builds excitement and within a day or so I am ready to start.

Southwest Corner

Vine Charcoal on Strathmore paper

I have just announced a new online course- Studio & Business Practices for Successful Artists. I am really excited about this class. There are lots of courses on the business side of art, but I think what I have to offer is unique-the straight scoop from a working artist-from the trenches so to speak. There is a direct connection between what happens in the studio and the business side of art, particularly sales, and this course is designed to explore that connection. As a working artist with a business background (my former life) I think I have a valuable perspective and wealth of knowledge and information which can save years of trial and error. This course is for professional artists as well as those who don't want or need to make a living from their art, but want to be better artists, sell more work and gain more recognition. Go here for more information and to register.

Back Home

We got home late Thursday after a quick trip to Denver to visit family. On the way back we stopped at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City which is the site of the prestigious Prix de West annual show and also home to a fabulous collection of art. As I have mentioned before, my friend and mentor Hollis Willford (1940-2007) was a two time Prix de West winner. His monumental Welcome Sundown stands outside the entrance to the museum.


Although seeing the current Prix de West show on exhibit was a treat, the most moving part of the visit for me was to see, once again, Wilson Hurley's gigantic triptychs which are installed in a special room. I have written about Hurley here and why he and his work have influenced me. Here are a few very poor shots taken with a cell phone camera. You can't see much about the art but you can get a sense of the scale. Makes my little triptych efforts look very puny! For more about Wilson Hurley's triptych project for the museum you can go here.


That's me standing across the room and also in front of the New Mexico triptych (below).

Telluride Plein Air- Day Six

The Hidden Pond

12 x 24 triptych

Last year as we were driving out of Telluride I noticed a small pond set back from the road and screened by a stand of aspens. I managed to get Steve to stop and find a small turn off which took us back behind the pond. That was the photo I posted earlier this week. Here is the piece I completed this year at that spot. Although it hasn't found a home yet (several others did today though!) , there has been a good deal of interest. Tomorrow is the second and last day of the public sale.

Tomorrow is the big 4th of July bash in Telluride. For a tiny town, Telluride does the 4th right. Almost every house in town is festooned with flags as are all the street lamps. About 8,000 visitors will crowd into this small town nestled at the end of a box canyon for a good old fashioned home grown parade. All veterans whether residents or visitors are invited to walk in the parade (Steve will walk in the parade again this year, USMC 1967-69). Right as the parade gets underway, two F-16s come screaming down the valley from the west , flying right over Main Street and then bank up and away over the San Juans. Later, the fire department hosts a huge barbeque and spectacular fireworks at the town park. Its a great place to spend the 4th and to say Happy Birthday America!

Telluride Plein Air-Day Five continued

Despite pouring rain, there was a good turnout for the silent auction tonight. Bidding seemed to be light but happily Evening on the San Miguel did find a new home. I want to thank everyone who has left comments this week- your encouragement means so much to me.

The public sale starts tomorrow and the forecast is improving. I'm dead tired but since I didn't deliver on that Sublime view I'd thought I'd leave you with a few images that fill that bill.

Trout Lake


Lizard Head Pass (elevation 10,000+)

Telluride Plein Air- Day Five

This morning we turn in our "artist choice" piece for tonight's silent auction. Immediately after that, the 90 minute quick draw will be held on Main Street. Tonight from 5-8 a silent auction and cocktail party for collectors will kick off the weekend's events. A public sale follows on Saturday and Sunday.

So here is the piece I chose. As you might notice, its not a "big view" after all. I painted two pieces this size, and pretty much all week thought I would choose the other one. But, today I decided on this one. Let's hope I'm right!

Evening on the San Miguel
16 x 24
Sold

P.S. It was pouring rain at 6 AM this morning but now the sun is out. Whew! That's Steve holding the painting up-sorry for the on the fly photography!

Telluride Plein Air- Day Four

Twilight at Leopard Creek
8 x 16
Private Collection

Yikes! How did it get to be Thursday!!? Here are a few more pieces I have finished (maybe?). Leopard Creek is a small creek down valley from Telluride. I've painted it several times and knew I would want to again. Its well away from all that Marilyn Monroe glamor of the landscape in and around Telluride and I like that.

Woods Lake Aspen
12 x 12
Private Collection

The elusive "big view" may have eluded me- as of this morning I am not happy with it and have been looking with more favor on a more intimate evening scene on the San Miguel river. Sometimes, a girl just has to follow her heart.

Telluride Plein Air- Day Three

A Day on the Dolores
Triptych - each panel 9 x 7
Sold

Just a quick post and then more later. The Dolores River converges with the San Miguel just a bit down valley from Telluride. I tend to spend more time near the San Miguel so this year I decided to paint on the Dolores too. Of course, the fact that Steve wanted to fish there might have had something to do with it.

Telluride Plein Air- Day Two

Woods Lake

Yesterday was a hectic mix of driving around looking for painting spots and dodging thunderstorms. Because I've done this show for five years now, I am not in quite as much of a panic as those who are here for the first time. At the artist orientation last night I heard "this landscape is overwhelming" about a dozen times. And it is.

Because of the indirect technique I use, I can't finish a piecce in one shot, so the first two days are a mad scramble to do as many underpaintings as I can and then spend the rest of the week trying to bring those to completion. As a consequence, I am lucky to get six paintings done, while others may do ten or twelve. So yesterday was all about trying to get three underpaintings done. One expedition failed, unfortunately. We drove up to Woods lake, a beautiful small lake with great mountains reflections, which I thought might be a candidate for the HRS piece. But, just as we got there a thunderstorm rolled in and the huge cracks of thunder canceled that plan.

We did run into this little guy taking shelter from the storm. Later after the rain stopped I drove back to a spot I'd seen literally on my way out of Telluride last year.

It seemed perfect for me, so I started a piece there. I also have a larger piece of the valley floor started which is, right now, the only "big view" I have going. So, I'm off to get another three underpaintings done today so I can start glazing like a mad woman for the next three days!

Telluride Plein Air-Day One

We're here! We had a lovely trip - spending Saturday in Santa Fe and enjoying lunch with artist friends - Lynn Windsor, Barry McCuan, Steve Worthington and Meridee Mandio. Saturday night we stayed with Nancy Silvia and Hiroshi Murata at their beautiful home just outside of Santa Fe.





Sunday we headed through our old stomping grounds in northern New Mexico- stopping in Abiquiu for lunch. We arrived in Telluride about 4:30-a half hour too late to get my canvases stamped for the event. But, no matter- had a lovely dinner with our hosts Debbie and Gary Friedman and were treated to spectacular "last light" on the valley floor.



Up early this morning, got my canvases stamped, ran into Stacey Peterson doing the same thing, and now I am on the way out the door to paint. Stay tuned!

On the Way!

We are on the way! Today we're driving across north Texas, up to the Panhandle and then into New Mexico. We'll stop in Placitas- a small village nestled in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains just north of Albuquerque. Its a long drive but we got an early start. Placitas is where we lived for five years before our move to Texas. Tonight we'll spend the night with friends there.

In my last post I mentioned that I'd been thinking about painting an homage to the HRS (Hudson River School) at this year's event. What I meant was painting a "big view" - a nod to the Sublime. I've been thinking about this for a while and asked Steve to come up with a frame design that would be appropriate. So here it is. A simple elegant tabernacle frame. I just hope I can paint something worthy of it!

On the Road to Telluride

Telluride Dusk
20 x 20

It's that time again! Later this week we'll be heading out to Telluride, Colorado for the annual Plein Air Invitational. This will be my fifth year at this event. It will be great to see many of the returning artists and and to meet new ones. This year Stacey Peterson, Colorado landscape painter and blogger will be in the show, so I am looking forward to meeting her in person.

For the last three years, I've blogged almost daily during the event, and I'm going to try to do that again this year. Its a hectic, crazy week of painting which culminates in a silent auction/cocktail party followed by a two day public sale. All of this is against the backdrop of the gorgeous San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado and the tiny, funky, mountain chic town of Telluride.

As I've written before, this event is always a huge challenge for me- fitting my indirect painting techniques to the high wire act of plein air painting, and painting in a location which has extremely cool light and big, knock your socks off views. My usual warmer palette and preference for intimate corners of the landscape have to be modified to the task at hand. Although I plan to follow my usual pattern of looking for quieter corners of the landscape, this year I am thinking that at least one nod to the Hudson River School just might be in order. We'll see!

Summertime Fun

This week our quiet, rural corner of northeast Texas turned into summer camp for children of all ages. Steve's son, Pete, our daughter in law Beth Anne and grandkids Wyatt,5 and Lydia ,4 came for great-grandma Lois' 80th birthday and to visit us for the first time in Texas. It was a week filled with summertime fun- cookouts, volleyball, archery, hayrides in the back of Papa's truck, fishing......

breakfast with cousins

Wyatt fishing with Papa
BTW, this is Rick's Pool which often appears in my work

big kids had fun too!
(Pete)

art lessons

archery

hayrides in Papa's truck
(with cake and ice cream of course)


swinging

Ahhhh, summer......

Sunset Pines
30 x 30

I started this painting as a demo for my workshop group back in late April. I dinked around with it forever, repainting the sky numerous times and glazing and scumbling the trees, and finally reworking the ground plane as well. Then came the photography. It's one of those that just will not photograph accurately no matter what I do or how I hold my mouth! Tweaking it in Photoshop helped but the saturation of the colors is off- knocking it back in the right places also dulled the more intense areas (the lit up trunks in the foreground and light coming through the trees). So, here it is- not exactly as it really is, but as close as I can get it.

I've just scheduled the Advanced Workshop and Mini Mentorship class for next year, April 22-April 30, 2011. The class has been extended to a full eight full days! Its held at my studio here in Texas and is limited to five students (3 spots left!) . You can click here for more information -including comments from this year's students- and to register.

Recycling

Remains of the Day

24 x 36

As I was painting this piece, this title kept popping up in my mind. Even though I've used it before ( a small painting which sold last year in London), it just seemed right for this piece. So, I'm recycling it!