Beyond the Canvas

I've been out walking in the woods again.
This time however I left the paint box home and brought the chain saw. That's right, it's wood cutting season and I'm straining muscles that I forgot that I had. It all started about 15 years ago when Kim and I bought a house and installed a wood stove. Since then firewood accounts for about 80% of our winter heating. We both enjoy having a roaring fire on those long cold winter nights. But there is the added benefit of getting a great workout from falling trees, cutting and loading logs, cutting into smaller logs, splitting and eventually stacking the wood.

The Sierra Nevada Mountains are wonderful as a subject matter for landscape painters, but these woods are more than that to me. I grew up here, hiked and sleep out under the stars, saved a guy from hypothermia during a winter camping trip, got chased by a Black Bear looking for an easy lunch.
And yet these mountains still hold lots of mystery and adventure, more country than I will ever see. 

Back Forty

Back Forty
Painting No. 3-H-12
8"x10" oil on canvas board

Beautiful hot summer weather prevailed in Teton County during the Driggs Digs Plein Air Festival in Driggs, Idaho last week. This painting is from just outside of Tetonia, a small ranching community near Driggs. Within 50 miles of Driggs you could paint an entire career and never repeat the same scene.

Aspen Afternoon

Aspen Afternoon
Painting No. 7-G-12
6"x8"
oil on canvas

Afternoon light filters down through the trees in Hope Valley as another hot summer day draws to a close. As I paint in the meadow, I hear a small herd of cows with bells around their necks graze up in the shadows. Nice day, no mosquito's.