Winter Light

Winter Light
Painting No. 2-K-12
12"x12" oil on canvas

I spent Thanksgiving in Moab, Utah.
It's an interesting town with a population of about 5,000 people. Small and remote but full of life; it's surrounded by 2 National Parks, 1 State Park and a massive County Park. Combine that with nearly one million visitors per year and you have a very interesting mix of culture and activity.

For those of you who haven't heard, I'm moving to Moab in mid-January. I've made arrangements to work and paint with the artist Tim Morse at the Overlook Gallery on Center Street in the downtown district. This will be a great opportunity to paint full-time, share the responsibilities for the galleries success and be in a new and fresh environment. I would also like to thank the award winning pastel artist Sarah Hamingson for pointing out some really great places to paint that the tourists aren't aware of.
2013 is going to be a great year of growing, learning and experiencing new and fresh ideas.

A look at 2012

On Wednesday night, November 14, 2012 I had the privilege of providing the demonstration painting to the Tahoe Art League, in South Lake Tahoe, California. This was a first for me, I had never painted in front of 30 people for 1-1/2 hours before. Lots of pressure on myself to not completely screw up! This has been a year of first:

• Started a website, over 11,000 visits since April 2012
• Markleeville Plein Air Festival, Markleeville, California
• Driggs Dig Plein Air, Driggs, Idaho
• 2-Man Gallery Show at Capital ArtWorks Gallery, Sacramento, California
• Plein Air Moab, Moab, Utah
• Instructor for "Introduction to Plein Air Painting" 2-day workshop
• Demonstrator for the Tahoe Art League
• California Art Club Paint-out, Calistoga, California

And there's still a month left in the year. Thank you to all who have stopped by to look at this blog site and visit my website. I really appreciate your support.

Breaking Dawn

Breaking Dawn
Painting No. 2-K-12
30" x 40" oil on canvas

This is a view of Dead Horse Point in Southeast Utah. I was there at dawn painting small sketches for larger works and I fell in love with the lighting of this particular monolith.
So let me ask for your comments; Did I capture the scene correctly? Do you like the composition?

A Hunter's Dream

 

 

 

A Hunter's Dream

Painting No. 17-J-12

8"x 10"

oil on canvas board

 

I was introduced to these petroglyphs by some locals while I was painting on location outside of Moab, Utah. This group is called the "TV Sheep" because of their obvious shape. The biggest sheep is approximately 16" tall. It's assumed that the images date between A.D. 500 and A.D. 1500. The countryside is full of similar examples of rock art, and I really enjoyed every one that I came across during my stay.



City on a Hill

City on a Hill
Painting No. 3-J-12
8"x 10"
Oil on Canvas Board

This was the second nocturne painting that I did during the Plein Air Moab 2012 event in October. This assemblage of rock formations is known at Park Avenue. I got to this location about 5am and painted by head lamp. This took me about 30 minutes to complete.

The Value in Value Studies

The Value in Value Studies

"Summer Shade"

 30" x 40" oil on canvas 

I mentioned to a friend of mine the idea of looking at finished art from a value stand point.

Each new painting I produce is subject to a whole series of checkpoints that I go through before the painting even starts in order to determine composition, color scheme, canvas shape and size, etc. Then several times throughout the process I may stop and photograph the work, download it into Photoshop, and convert the image to black &  white for the specific purpose of checking values. This is a practical idea because it takes away the distraction of color and lets you focus purely on form and values. Typically I squint my eyes and spend time observing the black & white image for darker shadows in the foreground and lighter shadows as the your eye moves farther into the background. It's also a good time to check how darkobjects and light objects relate to each other in a harmonious arrangement.