Wildflowers Revisited

Years ago, when my children were young and we were getting them started on hiking, I began to draw and paint wildflowers during our many pit stops along the trail. It was a way to help me learn the names of the 100's of flowers that are found in the Rocky Mountains. This year is a banner year for wildflowers and I decided to pick up where I left off in 2003, the last drawing I did and when I had put together a little book of my drawings.
My first attempts to draw small after drawing with a paintbrush on large canvases seemed difficult for me. I felt the drawing was way off and stilted.  The relationships were off between the leaves and the flower.

potentilla, false start

Cinquefoil (pontentilla) 2003

I redrew flowers I knew I had done before just to see how much my style might have changed in the intervening years. I would say it has changed quite a bit! To me I think the older version would be better for keying into and identifying the flowers in the field.

Low Penstemon, 2020

This low penstemon I did the other day I had to lay on my belly to see it at eye level. I made sure that there was no flora that I would crush, just a dusty dry gravel. The trail was running between the flower and me.

Low Penstemon, 2000

Here is another one I thought I had done before and I wanted to see which was the 'better' of the two. Lo and behold, I had not done it before! This is called Butter and Eggs and I thought it was a Golden Pea. Obviously, it has been awhile since I have seen the golden pea! They are alike in color, height and similar in structure. Otherwise, very different.

Butter and Eggs, 2020

Golden Pea, 2000

I had a good illustrative style going after doing so many every summer back in the day. I need a bit more practice before I will use any of my newer drawings. They are too different and need some refining. The one exception might be this Sego Lily. Amazingly, this is one I had not done before. They were in two colors, white and pale pink. I think I prefer the drawings without doing them in pen. I will leave them done in pencil in future. Your thoughts?

Sego Lily, 2020

I am enjoying using this renewed interest to get me up hiking in the high country. It has been a long time since I have gone hiking this much and it has been good for renewing my soul, if not yet my drawing ability!

Conglomerate

Today I am playing a bit of catch up. First, here is a photo from the August First Friday pop up show that I participated in with Cherry Creek Art Gallery.

Thanks to Larry Pritchard for this photo

This is me and my wall. We each had a section of wall and a post. As the sun set the lack of lighting became a problem as evidenced by the spotlight on the floor only shining on the bottom section of the wall. Still, there was a constant stream of people coming in for a solid 4 hours and I talked to a lot of people. I was fortunate enough to be closest to the windows on this side of the space so had more light than most. We picked our 'spot' by pulling a number out of a bag. There were 15 artists participating in this one night art show.

study in apple green, 6x6, oil on panel

Here is a little study I did this past week of this little apple I found on the ground while walking my dog in the neighborhood. It must have just fallen as it was still looking so perky. I set it up on the ledge of my easel for a study in apple green. We were hit with such hail this year that very few fruit trees in our area have any fruit on them so this was somewhat of a surprise to find.

And then shockingly, I went out to paint plain air last Friday. I really cannot remember the last time I did that. I went up to Evergreen and 3 of us painted this little cabin. It was a beautiful day. I did this profile facing North, Betsy painted it facing almost due East (ie the front porch) and Debbie was facing south, so on the other side of the cabin.

Here is my first sketch of the cabin. I painted it over another landscape (maybe from the last time I painted outdoors) of a tree with fall foliage. I turned the old painting on its side so the cabin is over the orange and golds of the tree. I was told to stop right here so I did.

This is my second sketch, again painted over another, much older plain air painting of church spires and a one way street sign. By this time the sun was getting to me so you can see, the cabin has lost some width! Both of the boards are the same size, 11x14.

Ready When You Are - Tools of the Garden

Ready When You Are, 12x9, oil on linen panel

Monday I was invited to a group day of painting at a friend's house in Conifer. Amazingly, it was a perfect, beautiful spring day in the Colorado High Country. We have had few and far between days in the past several months where we have not had rain, so this was a big deal!  I have not painted plein air since last summer so that was another "big deal."  The place was so green. So naturally Victoria has to be different and paint something so not in keeping with a day painting in the mountains! No aspen trees for this girl. I found that the back wall of Karen and Barney's home had a line up of gardening implements. I mean the whole side of the house had this perfect lineup of tools. I picked these four to concentrate on as I liked the shadows.

The wall was raw wood. I had set myself the task to use as little white as I could possibly get away with. This was a bigger challenge than I thought and definitely took a concerted effort on my part. For instance, to paint the wall I used burnt sienna and a little dab of two yellows (cadmium lemon and Cad yellow medium). Then I grabbed the white! NO! By not adding white to this mixture it meant that the red handles had to be dealt with in a different manner too. They could not read darker than the wall which is in the light. Adding white to red does not make a lighter red, it makes variations of pink. I added a tad of yellow to the red enough to keep the red (and not make orange) and a smidgen of Naples yellow which lightened the mixture but did not weaken the red. It made me realize just how much I rely on white for value shifts. I needed light colors for the other two handles and what is in the light on the metals so I did use white. Keeping white to a minimum makes for a much brighter painting to be sure.

A friend of mine had said my paintings tend to be "chalky" so I took it to heart and am doing my best to address this. That was why I am working on this as my summer project. She is right. I recently added Zinc White to my palette as it is semi-transparent while my normal white, Titanium is opaque. I may try Flake white too. It has lead in it but is also semi-transparent. It helps lighten without deadening the color it is added to. It is my summer project for myself. I rediscovered an artist that I am using for my mentor in this endeavor. Aldro Hibbard. His colors are so vibrant.

It was a fun day. I do like painting outdoors. It was lovely to see some old friends and to meet new ones. It is always a treat to see what others do when you are out with a group of painters.

Beach Chairs 21

Beach Chairs, 8x10, oil on linen

Still on the easel and taken under warm lights this is a bit yellower than the actual painting. Trying to economize on brushstrokes and keeping to simple shapes. Even though I prefer to photograph when the paint is somewhat dry the wet paint does have a juiciness to it.

The Hill Country Revisited

Arbor Ridge, 8x16, 4-2011 oil on Linen panel

Arbor Ridge, 2nd rendition

Arbor Ridge, original from 4-2009, near Fredricksburg, TX

Here is a painting I never thought would amount to anything. I so enjoyed painting in the Hill Country of central TX. This was the 3rd painting of the day, and the sun was hot, and my ride had to leave. All that aside,  I felt I got a good structure down, but that is about it. The cleaned up middle view I worked on when I got home. Better, but still not very exciting. Painting yellow in shadow is still something I am getting the hang of. I liked the yellow in #2, but it doesn't read as being in the shade.
In my effort to save paintings I think have a chance, I decided to work on it AGAIN this past month. So on to the top and most recent version, the yellow looks too green in this photo but in person it "reads" as in the shade. From version 2 to 3, I put the hint of stones on the sides of the first and third buildings; added rust to the roofs of the outbuildings, added more foliage in the foreground, as well as lightening the ground, added the fence and the dog running along it. Reworked the trees in the background added spring green to the silhouetted big tree; took out the lame tree on the left and put in a bush. I am still debating about whether to put the tree back in or not. It doesn't seem to need it. I also changed the color of the sky from a more yellowish glow to a more purplish blue. Not sure how I feel about that yet. I may have to go back to the original color. As usual, I "see" all kinds of things once I take a photo and then start to write about it.

Watercolor Studies

Gay's Table, 10x7: I painted this at my sister-in-laws table on a very rainy day; there is a hedge outside the window that technically should have been darker in value. Still not that comfortable with watercolors. Gay picked this one to keep. She sets a beautiful table.

Pomegranate Singleton, 6x4-Killing time in the orchard I sat on the ground to do this study; 1st one of the trip to CA. Family were coming for a lunch BBQ. The pomegranates are not quite ripe yet but still beautiful.

Pomegranate Singleton II, 6x6-I tried to put in some darks on this one. Still sitting on the ground painting the low-hanging fruit. I think I need to put darks in the whole upper right corner to make this look more complete. Something missing for me.

Marc's Pick, 7x10-Because it poured all Sunday in the Bay Area, Marc went out and cut me these two pomegranates. I did a small study of the short branch before putting the two together here.

I did one landscape but only got as far as the sketch, no color. I was shooed off of private property; Mea culpa. I also did a drawing of the baggage carts on the tarmac as our flight home was delayed and it gave me something to do. I forgot to scan it when I scanned these.

Baby Walnut Trees, 7x10-this is my incomplete sketch. The idea was going to be a white picket fence coming into a haloed light green as the sun hit the tree edges (I hadn't gotten to the leaf outlines yet). The bulk of the trees would be silhouetted. The background hillside was in shadow and that was going to be dark blue green. The earth was stubble dead grasses. I might still get to it, but it isn't a high priority. I have no photo reference just the picture in my minds eye.

Second Place Emerging Artist category

Urban Serenity, 9" x 12" for $400 won second place at the GTMD 3rd Annual Denver Plein Air Event. I painted this at the Urban Roots garden center located at 10th and Acoma in downtown Denver. Thank you to the judges for the event.

Last weekend of the GTMD paintout

Friday morning I went back down to Urban Roots and painted again. This one is called "Urban Tranquility" and the one I did a week previous is called "Urban Serenity." They both are 9"x12" and both took me about 2 hours.

I also went out Sunday afternoon to meet Cynthia; I painted looking up Delaware Street. I had hoped to get out yesterday to finish it up but it was so cold, wet and miserable. Not at all the sunny, warm, clear conditions of Sunday. The event officially ends for painting on Thurday, so there may still be an opportunity for me to finish it up. I think it is a good start and worth it. All images need to be turned in for jurying by Sept. 30. Last year I had 5 paintings, submitted 4 and had 3 accepted into the show. This year I have 3.5 paintings; not sure how many I will submit. 2 for sure. I think the two buddha paintings are good and will make a nice change from all the urban buildings and street scenes.

Is the hiatus over?

Today I went with two friends, Jeannie and Steph, to see the Wayne Thiebaud exhibit that is at the Loveland Museum. I am so glad that I went. No matter what you think of his work, to see 70 years of someones work, puts a life in perspective. As is usually the case, seeing paintings in person makes you realize how much a reproduction loses. There was a diverse selection of his work, from sketches to landscapes to people and objects. My favorites were one amazing landscape (vertical format) with the evening light hitting the rim of a hill and the whole foreground was in shadow. But what amazing color and depth was in that shadow. The shows poster is of three watermelon slices, each on its own plate, which is wonderful and the painting of two paint cans (as in house paint) were simply stunning. We also watched most of the interview that was available for viewing, and he was delightful to listen to. This YouTube version is a good synopsis of the one we saw. "that is what you do as a painter, you live on hope." Coming out of this exhibit, I was inspired.

In June we went to California to visit family. I took my gear, but the only painting I worked on was the one shown above in this photo taken by my son, Grant. I have always taken my gear with me on our visits to my in-laws ranch in Mendocino County as there is so much to paint. I had painted this barn many times over the years and I almost always gave a painting from each trip to my in-laws. One of the earliest paintings of said barn was hanging on the wall where the window looks out on the actual scene. I cringed when I saw it, again. BUT this time we were in California at the same time of year I had originally painted it, so I took it off the wall and took it outside and got to work to fix the perspective and relationships of the barn to the landscape. I did take a "before" photo but it is that bad that I cannot post it. I had not asked "permission" so I was glad when my father-in-law said to me that it really was much improved. I realized too late in to the reworking of it, that they might like it the way it was and it was rather presumptuous of me. It came out of all the paintings I have been reworking here. I was glad to see that Wayne does this too. One of the larger paintings in the show had a 30 year span of years listed on it!

Big Bend Revisited

This painting has been bothering me for some time now. I painted it last fall on Hwy 40 at Big Bend on the way to Berthoud Pass. Last weekend I decided to rework it. A number of things finally gelled for me. The foreground was out of proportion to the mountain, dimishing the size and solidness. In fact, the trees can still come down a bit more on the bottom to no ill effect. Also, the trees on the far side of the mountain were no different in value than the trees in the foreground, so I grayed them down. I carved away at the grove of trees near the top and also grayed them. I felt the color of the beetle kill was too intense. I concentrated on trying to get movement through the mountain side and to break up all the gold. I did not get to the immediate foreground at all so that is incomplete at this point. I will look at for awhile and see what comes. It is all a process.

I do enjoy taking these paintings to see what I can learn. I look at the photo reference very sparingly and concentrate on what I am trying to say. I had put the original photo of the painting in photoshop and grayscaled it, and took my photo reference and grayscaled it, too. Amazingly, my values weren't as off as I had thought, so I held to the color and value of the original painting as I reworked it, but tried to get more feeling of movement and depth.

Tomorrow I will be heading to California for a week. I am taking my paints, but computer access will be limited.

Alliums Revisited

The painting on this blog entry was done weeks ago. I took this in to be critiqued Saturday June 4. This are typical of the problem I cannot seem to break while painting “plein air.” I paint the light too light and the mediums and darks are not as separate as they need to be. I have started to rework the Alliums; starting with the darks; I will then darken the medium of the dirt to make the light of the Alliums stalks stand out more. They compete for attention right now. From there I will see what if anything further needs to be done. As of today, I have gotten no further on this painting. I lost interest-for now. There were Coral Bells in bloom (rosy red) in front of the allium which I chose not to put in. Now I am wondering if I should add them to break up the foreground and all the green. Amazingly enough, because of the weather so far this spring, the Coral Bells are still in bloom all these weeks later.

At Iris-4-U

Friday, May29 I painted at a business called Iris-4-U with Leslie Allen. She did a beautiful little painting of an Iris. She does paint here every year, almost every day while the season lasts. And it shows that she knows her subject well. I love this painting she is working on here.

Bluebonnets revisited

Today I am doing a before and after for one of the paintings I did in Fredricksburg in April. I was never happy with this painting and I wasn’t sure why as the structure was good. I took it to have Kevin critique it last Saturday. He suggested I lighten up the bluebonnets, that the dark blue was too dark and should be no darker than the sky color. I knew that was not quite right as I remember there being depth to the flowers even though it was a “carpet” of color. By depth I mean the flowers had shadows underneath of them as Lupines have some height to them. It is interesting to note that having a painting held up in front of your peers makes things jump out that you intuited but couldn’t verbalize. I saw all the things I needed to do to make this painting look like I had originally envisioned it. First, I needed to solidify the dark, as the shadows in the background trees/bushes were quite deep; then I needed to remove the white I had used for the tops of the trees to lighten them. Instead, I used cadmium lemon yellow with my green color to give the sun its due. I defined the dried vines on the fence so they read like dried vines. And I refined the field, giving it more depth but still the feeling of a carpet of flowers. I am now happy with this painting and consider it well done.

Alliums

This long weekend would have been a wonderful weekend full of painting except for two things. One is the rain and the other is my allergies have me laid quite low. I did start a painting on Friday which I took back outside again on Saturday and worked on some more. I am not sure it was vastly improved with more work, but it is what it is. I am quite happy with this one as it is looser and more painterly. I strive for this even though I can't always manage to do it. These alliums are in my back yard and are on an 11x14 board. My plans to paint iris today have been shelved as the iris blooms are all severely water-logged. Instead, I set up a small still life.

A beautiful Spring Sunday in the neighborhood

Today I walked the dog taking my paints along in case I was inspired at Harvard Gulch Park in South Denver. I saw some beautiful poppies in a few front yards, but other than that nothing called my name. There was no shade in which to plop the dog, so I opted to go home and paint in the studio for the morning and try painting my iris in the afternoon. I have been scoping out the best time of day for the iris over the past few days and afternoon seemed best. The iris were started on May 17; I have wanted to get back out and finish them all this weekend but the sun has not been co-operating and since we had hail yesterday (May 24) the iris themselves are a bit worse for wear. It is the foliage I am more interested in anyway, so I should get another opportunity to finish it up.

In the morning, I worked on a painting from TX. I doubt it can now be called Plein Air even though the composition and main elements were done on-site. I have been carving out the shapes and forcing the values in the studio; I understand why so many artists prefer to paint small outside and do studies for larger paintings in the studio. I am really trying to force myself to paint larger outdoors in an effort to be able to complete them faster. I figure every time I work on one of these "incomplete" paintings in the studio, I am "getting" more of what it is I need to accomplish while painting on-site. Also, my time is limited for painting, so I doubt at this point in my life I would actually do a studio painting from a study. There are always trade-offs.

Afternoon at the Denver Botanic Gardens

Saturday (5-16) I met Pat at the DBG to paint. A beautiful spring day at the gardens but it was a zoo of people! I walked around for over an hour before I finally settled down to paint. Pat had choosen a subject where I wasn't motiviated so I kept going. To the south of the little cafe and seating area is a vegetable garden. The chives reminded me of lavendar, so I found a little cranny to set up to get a view without being actually in a garden. The best view, of course, was where it was not feasible to be. I ended up putting a lot more in the painting than I had wanted, but it seemed the best composition when all was said and done. I seemed to spend quite a bit of time talking to people who came by than actually painting. I have noticed that men and children are curious; women often ignore you or turn around and walk away when they see you. At least this was the case on this day. Hispanic men predominate which I find interesting.



I got home about 5:30 and the light was really nice in our back yard so I started a painting but then wiped it off. I was cleaning up when I saw our dog, Fritz, sitting still! His back was to me as he watched the sidewalk waiting to pounce on the next unsuspecting canine. I quickly grabbed a canvas and started to catch him. I had about 3 minutes before he ran off, but I am happy with my quick sketch. I put the background in after he left.

Winter Painting

I started this painting a year ago or so, as I remember working on it over the week of Christmas 2007! I got to a point that I just didn't know what to do with it so I left it until a few months ago. I finally "saw" what had been bugging me and so I fixed it. I just looked at my blogs and did not find that I had posted this particular painting. I had gone to Prospect Park with PAAC in November 2007 I believe it was and when I finished painting the painting below, Prospect Park in Winter (8"x6"), I turned around and saw another beautiful scene. I took photos and then painted in the studio. It is called "Storm's Coming" and is 16"x12." I sure do enjoy painting trees.

Painting at the Aquarius Trail in Louisville

Here is the little farm house I painted yesterday. I paid such attention to the values. I know there is some adjusting that can be made, but overall I was rather pleased. The propane tank behind the truck bed is the only thing that really is weak and I think I may just paint it out. I don't believe it adds anything to the overall composition.

Windy Series from Fredericksburg

Above is a Live Oak (14"x11") I painted on Thursday morning; so one of the last paintings I did; as is alwasy the case, I just get warmed up and it is the end of the paintout! I did a 20" minute after this one, as two bulls had come and taken up residence under the tree as I was finishing this one up. I did not want to add them in case I blew it, but I think I captured the bulls pretty well, all things considering in my sketch (12"x9").

Below is the afternoon painting from Wednesday at Sally's Spread. This was the incredible ranch that looked like a mini French village. Most everyone did a long landscape to capture all the buildings. I decided on this square format (12"x12"). The morning painting is being worked on. I was unhappy with it but resisted wiping it off. I have been playing with it today in my studio. It had a good foundation so I think I can make something presentable.

The watering cans are from Tuesday morning. I really want to play with the shapes on this one. It was meant to be a study for a larger painting, but I ran out of time. I also smeared it but I had fun painting it. Below is the token Bluebonnet painting (12"x9") from Tuesday after lunch. There were not many Bluebonnets to be found as this area of Texas is in drought conditions. It is not one of my favorites from the trip.
This is the third painting of the day from Tuesday; it is 16"x8". I sat out in the middle of a field for this one. I haven't decided if it needs anything done with the foreground. The unfinished look of it doesn't bother me at all.

And finally, the last painting of the trip (16"x10"). This is the place Barbara and Chuck rented while their house was being built. I am not sure, but I do think this painting was done under the windiest of conditions of the week, which is saying something. One of those hold on to your easel or it will fly over kind of days. I worked really fast and I have done some touch ups in the background as I laid out good shapes to finish later. The fence is also incomplete. But for a two hour painting I am good with that. I really liked the colors and odd angles of these buildings.

That completes the "Windy Series," minus the one already posted and the one being reworked.

Last day of the Paint Out

Thursday morning we met at another privately owned ranch; this one has one of the longest stone walls in the county, and it was long!. There is alot of stone in this part of TX and the walls are amazing, as well as the homes built of it. Anyway, I set up my easel next to a fence with a couple of different views I was interested in doing. One held bulls (now I know that more than one bull is not normally in an area with other bulls, but I looked, and every "cow" I saw did not have udders, and that is all I know). I was not sure if wanted to paint them or the field or the hay, etc. so I sat down to start sketching to figure it out and my back was to the fence. Doesn't the horse look bucolic and perfectly peaceful? She is on the other side of the barn I am taking about. Well, animals are curious beings, and I was just too close to the fence and I am not paying attention and the next thing I know my hat has been lifted from my head and she is playing with it. I was able to retreive it, but she took it two more times out of my hands before I actually was able to keep it. It was a sad hat to begin with, and it has now entered into the "donkey hat" stage of its existence, as in only fit for. Llama kisses and horse thieves; who would have guessed?

Here is the photo I took of the "bull" pen. I hope I am not some ignorant northerner, but they still look like bulls to me.

I ended up doing a landscape in the morning of the fields with a live oak as the center of interest, from my spot by the fence, but I removed myself from close proximity and the horse lost interest. I think it is one of the better paintings I did this trip. Since I still had a half hour before we were heading to the Hilltop Cafe for lunch, and I had a lot of paint on my palette all ready to go, and two "cows" were now under the tree I had just painted, I did a quick study of them before they moved, so that if I wanted to put them in my painting, I had the reference to do so. It helped that I had just painted the tree.

After lunch (which was very good-Cajun fare) we headed to the "goat" farm, but truthfully, I don't know that anyone actually painted the animals. As has been the norm of the week, the wind was up, and it was hard to find shelter, but a few of us hung in there and painted anyway. I was under a tree with Kay and Louise at least trying to get out of the sun, and we all painted different scenes. I did not take a photo of the scene I decided to paint; I think because once we set up our gear, we had to paint holding on or else it would blow over. I am not kidding. My hat flew off and I could not retrieve it, because it was not worth loosing everything else for. I do have photos of the scene Kay painted as that was what originally drew my interest. Too funny.

Dinner was again hosted by Chuck and Barbara in their lovely home. Barbara not only made dinner but 5 fresh pies, cherry and apple. I had to try them both, as it was too hard to pick, and there were both excellent. We all had our paintings out for show and tell in Chuck's studio, and believe it or not, I didn't think to take any pictures. I had every intention of taking a group photo. Darn it. I am hoping that Leslie or Chuck took some photos that they will share.

Cynthia and I drove all day today, but we did go check up Palo Dura Canyon as was recommended by one of the artists yesterday. It was beautiful but again, too much wind, and I am quite beat up from all the wind so we did not stay to paint as we had planned to.