Are we there yet?

I'm never sure when paintings are done. These have been sitting for a while in my studio and I'm not tempted to keep working on them, so I guess I'll call them done.  Top painting "Hot Springs" is from my trip to Yellowstone a few years ago. Oil on gesso'ed hardboard, 16" X 20". Middle photo "What's Out There?" are the tourists looking out at Glacier National Park, Oil on stretched canvas, 16" X 20". Bottom Photo, Bar U Ranch, (National historic site) oil on stretched canvas, 11" X 14". I haven't posted these to my web site yet. I'll do that this week. These two are from our trip to Canadian Rockies (Alberta, Canada).

I'm working on a larger canvas now, 20" x 24" of a scene from Idaho. I had sold the original one I did of this scene several years ago, that was monochrome, and now I'm working in color. I wanted a bigger picture to put in my new home when we move to Idaho in a couple of months. I'm not ready to post that one yet.

Spring has been a long time in coming to NH. The trees are finally blossoming, but there is still snow up in the northern part of the state. It's cold enough here that I had to turn on the heat for a little while this morning to take the chill off my studio. I still need a jacket and gloves to walk outside most days.

Video Classes

I signed up for Paint Along 30 with Johannes Vloothuis. The classes are online and run 4-6 hours each Saturday, very inexpensive and the recordings may be downloaded after the class is over. This first one is oil paint, Half Dome from Yosemite. I have never been there. I think the taller mountain needs to be even taller than I'm showing in my painting. I was working from his photo.  I was able to watch this one as he was doing it and follow the "chat" from the students.

Second class (photo below) was from Yellowstone where I have been in the past and have painted from my own photo. I had to watch the recording on this one and he was working in pastels.  I used thin oil paints on oil painting paper.  I could not figure out how to make the mist rising up look like it was supposed to look. I like my old painting better that I had done from further back in that canyon. Link here:  Canyon Colors

I did not enjoy working on this one, but I learned more about composition.

Last class which I only watched half of the recording and did not download at all was a watercolor of Murano, Italy. I tried to finish it up from his finished painting.  I did not have the right pigments and paper so I used some acrylics on hot press paper along with some pen and ink (for the drawing).  The teacher changed several items in his drawing after I had already done my drawing from the original instructions.  That didn't help either.  I was frustrated with it and did not enjoy the process.

My conclusion is that I need to be emotionally invested in an image to really want to spend time on it to create it.  I do not relate to other people's photos even if I have been to the same place.

I started a new painting today that I had done a study of before and I am much happier working on my own.  This is from Glacier National Park.  The tourist caravans have canvas roofs that open up so the tourists can stand up and enjoy the views and take photos.  I will work on this for a while, but here is my start and I am happy with it (oil on canvas, 16" X 20").

Sorry it has taken so long between postings. I had knee surgery on Friday and I am already feeling better.  One doctor I saw said I didn't need surgery and he did conservative treatments including shots that did not work. It took me a while to get an appointment with another specialist and get an actual surgery date, but I'm glad I was persistent. I'm looking forward to hiking again. I really missed it this past year.

Happy New Year to all. May it be a better year for all of us, filled with peace and good health (and more art of course).

More painting progress

This is my first painting from the trip to the Canadian Rockies.  It is a view of Moraine Lake in the Valley of the Ten Peaks (in Banff, Alberta, Canada). I still struggle with composition and colors, but I'm happy with the way this came out. It was a magnificent view of the mountains and glaciers.  I hoped to give some sense of the massiveness of all those mountains.  As usual, it was hard deciding whether or not I was finished or if I would still do a little touching up, but I think this is done.

Oil painting, 16" x 20". You can buy a card or print here.

Meanwhile, I decided to do a couple of small panels.  These are not done, but I'm having fun with them.

This little guy seemed to be watching us. I'm going to continue working on the panel this week. I'm calling it "watching the tourists". Oil on canvas board, 8" X 10"

I planted dahlias for the first time this year in front of my house. I took a photo of the first one to open. I'll be working on this one and hope to finish it this week. I'm happy with the way it looks so far. Oil on canvas board, 8" X 10".  The background is black gesso. I think I'm going to leave it that way as I like the way it sets off the flower and leaves.

Canadian Rockies

I took hundreds of photos on our trip to the Canadian Rockies (Calgary, Banff, Jasper etc.). Photo above was taken in Jasper, across the street from our bungalows. The female elk (wapiti) are called cows, the babies are called calves.

It's hard to believe that some people do not know how dangerous it is to approach wild animals. I guess they think they are like the ones on the television. Anyway, we saw bear (safely from the bus), deer, elk, chipmunks, ground squirrels and other rodents.

I took too many pictures of the glaciers, mountains and lake to post here, but if you have the time and patience, you might enjoy viewing them. Here is a link. Linda's photos of the Canadian Rockies.

I forgot to post my last painting before I went on vacation, so here it is:

Time?

And finally, a new profile picture:

I loved the different colors on the lakes there. Some interesting greens (from glacial silt), some bright blues. I'm having difficulty decided which image to paint first!

Fall Hiking to Arethusa Falls & Frankenstein Cliffs

We hiked over the weekend in the Crawford Notch area of New Hampshire. The view from the parking lot shows the Frankenstein Cliffs and we were up there, about 2500'.  The trail in that area was poorly marked on the way down and we felt that the trail signs lied, this was much more than 3 miles. At the end, we bushwhacked to the railroad bed and followed the rails back to the beginning of the hike, then back down to our car.  Total hike for the oldsters, 6 hours. We would not recommend the cliff trail, but were glad we did it.

These are the highest falls in New Hampshire, about 200 feet high. You can't really feel the scale and majesty of the falls from the photo.  Beautiful fall colors on the trees now too. The hike to the falls was definitely worthwhile and that trail was clearly marked.

I think I will make a new painting of this cliff (glacier).  It will remind me how much I ached going downhill, but how proud I am of myself that I can still do it! The views from the cliff are of the presidential range of mountains.

Crawford Notch State Park (link)

Mendenhall Glacier - Alaska

This is a small 8" X 10" acrylic painting on stretched canvas of the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska.  I painted it from a photo provided by a family member.  She requested the painting and I think it is finished now.

This is really the first time I've done any type of commission for someone.  It was interesting working from someone else's photo since I have never been there (but would like to go!). First we had to decide on a composition since her photo was a panorama type and she wanted an 8" X 10" canvas.

I made several sample compositions using Photoshop.  I made several other painting decisions too. She told me that the ice was bluer than in the original photo and I knew this from other friends that had been there. I looked online at other photos and paintings to get an idea of colors.  As always, you can click on any of the photos and you will get a larger image.

I took a digital photo of my painting and noticed that the colors are not quite accurate with my painting.  I always struggle a little to get a good photo, but this is fairly accurate. I will let the painting set for a few days to make sure I don't want to change anything else, then buy a frame for it.  The other possibility was putting a canoe in the painting (to show scale), but I felt it would detract from the painting and would be too small so I opted not to do this.

Here are some of the original photos I was working with. The top one is the original panorama.

Notice the color of the ice. I thought it was really beautiful.

And the canoe that didn't make it into the final painting: