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!

Found: Use for old blank postcards

I have been helping a friend from my church, whose husband died recently. She had asked me to help her with his art supplies as she had no clue what to do with them or even what he had. What he had (has) is a mini art supply store! It reminded me of when there was a small store set up at the Art Student's League of Denver when they were located in LoDo. Drawing pads, watercolor pads, pastel paper pads, of all sizes and brands. Pencils: colored - including a 132 Prismacolor boxed set; Derwent - watercolor pencils and regular colored pencils; pastels; 100's of tubes of watercolors as well as travel sets (6); a pochade box as well as 3 other easels. ETC. Suffice it to say, I, in my entire career, have not used or needed the amount of supplies this man had. I am still using the same Pelikan travel set I bought as a student in the early 1970's which needs to be held together with the rubber band. I have replaced one color tray (olive green) in all those years. I can see why she was overwhelmed and had not idea where to start.

I also came across these old blank postcards. I have not checked to see their value and maybe I should before continuing...but I remembered reading about an artist who was painting on index cards. I have a friend who has COPD and is house bound that I have regularly been sending postcards to. In an effort to bring a smile to her face I keep trying to find a new way to do this. She received the first attempt of my drawing on one of these cards. I did not take a photo of it unfortunately. I wasn't sure how watercolor would do on this old card stock, but I need not have worried. It works just fine. So at the last minute finished my drawing of a cone flower in my garden with colored pencils.

The next one I did was of a day lily. I did not think it worth keeping but then changed my mind. I made it for my friend whom I have been helping. I also wrote around the edges of the first card I did.

Here is the last one, another cone flower, this time in watercolor. I have other flowers in my garden but I do tend to want to be in the shade, so depending on the time of day I go out determines the subject.

It is not written on yet, as I have not decided to whom it is going. I want to do a few more so that I have more choices. So far, I am using up those that have corners bent or in the case of this last one, it had a start to a name written on it so that I think will decide the recipient. May as well go with the flow, so to speak.
I am enjoying this little endeavor as a way to be creative; be enjoying my garden and spreading a little sunshine. We could all use a little love in these unsettled times.

View from the Uffizi

View from the Uffizi, 30x30, oil on linen

Wow! I just realized this painting has been 2 years in the making. How is that possible? A real challenge for me. It seems to be finally at a place where I like it. After many false "finishes"...

The block in

I love the block in process and felt this really got off to a good start.

Continuing to build

Mid point.

Dance of the Jelly Fish

Dance of the Jelly Fish, 16x12, oil on linen

This painting comes from a Facebook 'challenge' a month or so ago that some friends of mine were throwing around. The first subject was octopus. I so wanted to paint an octopus but I have no images of my own of those amazing creatures. Searching online did not help me find what I was looking for. So, after those paintings were posted by those who knew what they wanted, the next topic was Jelly Fish! I had a number of images I took when I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  I went there a few years ago with my son on our road trip up the California Coast. I am sure it is the lighting of this exhibit that makes the colors so vibrant, but it was captivating!

I thought this being a fairly small piece it would not take me long, which it didn't. But getting it to the satisfaction of my son (and he was correct) has been a struggle. In the original image the jelly fish are fairly dark and almost have a solid feel to them, which I of course, captured. He just could not like the painting because of that. So I did my best to rid them of the dark lines and solid feel trying to make them more ethereal. Not something I do well with. I am so an outline, graphic person in how I see. He has not seen this last version yet, but I am thinking it will 'pass muster.' Finally!

I do love the colors and it was fun to paint something totally different for me.

Rock Study

On this Rock, 11x14, oil on panel

I went up painting this past week with a few old friends and now some new friends, as well. One of the women offered her garden in Evergreen, about a 30" drive from my house. Even though it is not that far from Denver, it was still lovely to get out of the city and into the foothills. On top of offering us her property to paint on, she also fixed us lunch!

Her garden, being at a higher elevation, had plants blooming that left my garden in the past few weeks. ie her Iris were at their peak and mine peaked at least two weeks ago. At any rate, there were these lupines growing in the crack of where the yellow straw meets the dark under-hang of this boulder. I struggle with rocks for some reason. I found out that I am not alone in this as none of the women I was with like to paint rocks...They all painted flowers or a path including flowers. I decided to take this opportunity to just study rocks. To do this, I was looking at them abstractly. Looking for shapes, values and color. Whether the lupines found their way in or not was not a concern of mine. It took everything in me not to wipe this study off as has been a recent pattern of mine. I don't want more paintings lying around. I will normally take a photo and then wipe the slate clean. I won't say I am glad I kept this painting but there is something about it I like. It is strong graphically, I give it that! And I may add the lupines. TBD.

The panel I used here had been painted on so many times prior to this one that the texture was almost a hindrance.  It did slow me down. This may be the last time I can use this particular panel. So be it.

RIP Fritz the Wonder Dog

Fritz, 20x16, oil on panel - Died 6-4-20 at 15.5 years of age

Yesterday was a sad day, but yet a relief. Fritz finally let me know on Wednesday he was ready. I found a wonderful Veterinarian who came to the house. This is all he does, which takes a special individual. And he was very good at it. A big shout out to Dr. Jason Cordeiro. This was my first experience with home pet care, but I would not do it any other way now. I was able to hold Fritz as he passed out of this life into the next. He is missed and will be missed. He was a little shit in a many ways, but he was my little shit. He had such a personality and was a verbal dog, letting us know what he thought on the subject. The past year he was showing his age, but still, for the most part, vibrant. The past several months I knew the time with him was coming to an end. Knowing and accepting are two different things...please forgive me if I wasn't listening to as closely as I should have. With much love.

I did this portrait of Fritz 6 years ago. It was for a class project where texture was the theme. I tended to paint with a smooth surface and this was to try and break me out of that mode. I thought I might be able to add more paint texture to his hair, which for me, was a help. I will never be an impasto painter but my paintings are no longer smooth to the touch.

Fritz, quick sketch, 9x12, oil on panel

I could only find this one image of a quick sketch I did of Fritz many years ago. (looks like the paint was still wet when I shot it) He was waiting for Richard to come home. He had heard his cab drive by so had his eye on the gate. This quick sketch was painted in less than 5". Fortunately, I had the paint already on the palette as I had been painting in the garden just before I saw him sitting there so intently.

Continuing the Farm/Ranch theme -the Big Barn

Big Barn, 9x12, oil on linen panel

Continuing not only the theme from my last post, but also another uninspiring title! I lack creativity in that area...I "finished" this painting months ago and I let it sit all this time because I wasn't sure what I thought about it. Still not sure what I think about it. So I am throwing it out there for commentary or critique.

Then I decided I could not post this image. In life it looked better - in a photograph - all I can say is ugh. Back to the easel it went. The first thing that I did, even though it was the clouds that I dislike so much, I pushed the mountain back a bit. I felt the color was too strong. Next, the trees on the right. The far right one especially reminded me too much of Charles E. Burchfield (his trees are very stylized). Which was a distraction to me. Still avoiding the sky, I did a few adjustments to the foreground. None of this took very long as the structure is in place and it is a small painting. It continues to look better to my eye. Then I decided to redo the barn; the value of it wasn't off per se, but it needed something. Finally, I had to face the clouds. I have been studying clouds, especially when they hang over the mountains. The bottoms of the clouds here really can get very dark. So the value of that dark blue wasn't the problem. Nor was it the color. I discovered it was the  middle value that was the problem. That middle value was too light. And I had tried too hard to add pinks and yellows to it making the clouds look dirty.

Big Barn, 9x12, oil on panel

Usually, I prefer to put the 'New! Improved!' image at the top of the page...today I decided to leave what was originally going to be the posted photo and text where they were. I have taken more time on this silly little painting than I do on some of my larger paintings. I just don't paint this small much anymore. It took 5 days of taking photos, taking it back to the easel before I am done with it.

I went out to paint in my garden yesterday on an 8x10 panel. It was pure torture..