Winter again

Before the Rain, 16" X 20" oil on stretched canvas

This is my first painting with really thick oil paint (not water mixable oils).  I had a canvas painting I did not like and decided to recycle. I found that I still had a container of Alexander Magic White and Alexander oil paints from an online class I took several years ago. Bill Alexander was the precursor of Bob Ross painting style, wet into wet.  I did not continue with that painting style, but it kind of worked for this image. I had permission from Sean Bunce Photography of Boise to paint his image of Before the Rain (which I saw on Facebook). I used the photo as an inspirational one and did not make a copy, just played with the really thick paint, abstracting the image a bit.  I don't know how long it will take to dry, but I assume it will be quite a while. I liked the colors, but I couldn't match up as well since I only had a limited set of Alexander oil paint tubes.

Robie Creek, 10" X 20",  water mixable oil on stretched canvas

I worked on this painting for several weeks and I'm not quite happy with it.  I need to take more lessons on painting shadows.  This painting seems too flat to me. Not sure if I can fix it or not. Anyway, this is from my own photo of early spring at Robie Creek (which is off Route 21 on the way to Idaho City in Idaho). We have gone swimming there in the spring time with our dog, but not at this location.  The water was running very fast in the spring so we just took photos.

Yesterday was a holiday in the U.S. (Martin Luther King Day) and I was having a bit of cabin fever. I do get tired of just being in the city even as nice as it is.  We took a drive up to Idaho City and I took some photos. We had a good lunch at Trudy's Kitchen and brought home desserts for later.

I took some photos on the way back from the moving car. I was surprised that they came out and showed the nice scenery in this part of Idaho. Winter is mild in Boise where we live and I don't miss the extreme winters of New Hampshire, but I needed to see a little snow and more trees. Morning in Boise started out foggy, but cleared by noon time. Nice blue skies on the trip.