Earth Day 2017

12" x 16" Oil on Panel

Earth Day is one of those days which should, by all means, be spent outside, in nature, where you can see your own part of this planet. I chose to celebrate Earth Day plein air painting. 

Part of my set-up for the day.

The post before this one showed a painting of Mount Timpanogos viewed from Utah Valley. On Earth Day I drove to some ranches near the town of Midway in Heber Valley. From there I could see the opposite side of Timpanogos, the Wasatch Back view, and made that the subject of the painting shown at the top of this post.

Timpanogos in Mid April

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

Trees are still mostly bare of leaves, but I go painting anyways. There's a lot of snow on Mount Timpanogos. The painting at the top of this post shows the highest peaks of the mountain framed by a latticework of early Spring tree branches. 

This was painted last week on a very windy day. I had to set up the paintbox on the downwind side of my little SUV for some shelter from the wind. The day was sunny and clear when I began the painting, but a couple hours or so later clouds moved in and dust kicked up turning the air grey. The sky and mountain in the painting were mostly completed before blowing dust made it almost impossible to even see the mountain.

Early April in the Valley

8" x 10" Oil on Panel

It's still "stick season", that time of year when grass is greening and wildflowers are appearing, but the trees are still just budding out. It's also a season when one's reaction to fickle Spring weather can go from euphoric Spring fever one day, to wondering the next, "Where the heck did Spring go?!" Either way, it's a good time to go explore and enjoy the valley near and around the lake. The painting shown above was painted last week on one of the nicer Spring days.

Late March along a Country Road

8" x 10" Oil on Panel

Warmer weather is drawing more colors onto my palette. 

It was such a nice day last Wednesday when I visited the marshes by the lake. Scouting out places to paint, I walked down a road that had a view through tamarisks and cottonwoods of the mountains at the south end of the valley. Walking down the road I thought of how not only the warm, sunny weather felt nice, but the simple activity of walking down a dirt road in the country felt so good! 

The songs of western chorus frogs and meadowlarks sounded across the marsh as I set up and began to paint. Occasionally, a mallard duck or two would land in or take off from a small canal that ran beside the road. Not far away, a couple sandhill cranes trumpeted from time to time. As the day moved from afternoon into early evening, several red-wing blackbirds came into the area, singing their tumbling, raspy trill in competition with one another.

On a day like this, who on Earth would want to work in a studio?

My New Blog

Here It Is

As you can see from the photo above, I have a log. And now it's on the World Wide Web. It's a World Wide Web log, or "blog" for short.

Another View

How do I log on? Well, as you can see above, I can log on the floor or log on the ground, log on end or log on side. Maybe put a log on the fire, and maybe even log-a-rithm. Hope you like it! Be sure to like, share, and comment! And by the way...

😁 HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY! 😜

Stick Season

8" x 10" Oil on Panel

This is the season between white and green. Snow in the valley has melted, and trees are a couple months or so from fully leafing out. This season can be kind of brown and grey. Trees look like giant conglomerations of sticks great and small. This is stick season.

It's also the season of warming temperatures and rising birdsong. Grass begins to green and tiny wildflowers make their appearance. The welcoming rays of the sun begin to draw Spring into the valley.

Painting during this season can be challenging, but there are still paintings to be made from this time of transition. Late last week I ventured out to gather some of pre-Springs's colors of blue, gold and bronze onto a gessoed panel. The picture shown above is the little bit of the season I brought home with me.

Oil Sketch of a Bearded Man

8" x 10" Oil on Panel

Here is another portrait sketch in oil from the ongoing weekly visits to the portrait sessions. This one is from last week. These sessions not only allow me to exercise sketching and painting skills, but also to meet and exchange ideas with other painters and hear about art happenings near and far. There's so much to learn from seeing how the other session attendees draw and paint!

Colors used for this portrait were cadmium yellow, cadmium red, ivory black, and titanium white.

For more about portrait sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "portrait", "sketching" or "drawing.