Capture the County, Winter Shadows

This is a painting close by to the last painting that I called Winter at the Ponds. This painting is of the late afternoon shadows close by the Cache la Poudre River north of Fort Collins. This is an oil, quite large, 24 inches high and 36 inches long. It received a Second Place for Oil Painting at the Cheyenne National Show and I am not putting it in Capture the County show which will be in the Art on Mountain Gallery.

This has been a better week for me, painting-wise. I just finished a real abstracty painting that is 24 x 24 on a wrap around canvas. I will post it when I get it photographed. Tomorrow I am going to finish a couple of paintings that I did plein air to also put in the Capture the County Show. The weather here in Colorado couldn't be better, one of the greatest things about living in the state of Colorado is the long beautiful fall. In the evening it gets down into the 40's but each day it hits the high 70's or 80's. The Chamisa that blooms so prolifically here is in full glory. I have a back-lit chamisa painting that I did for the Lines Into Shapes Show in Estes Park. It reminds me of the warmth and fragrance of the Colorado fall days.

Winter at the Ponds, New Mexico Choice 2008

I was really excited to get the notification that my piece, "Winter At The Ponds" was selected for the New Mexico National Pastel Show in Albuquerque this fall.

I really like this painting which is of the area right

north of Taft Hill Road, off the Poudre River

in North Fort Collins, close to where we live.

Being from North Dakota, I enjoy painting snow

and winter! This was a nice winter day, the

snow and water smelled clean and earthy the way I always remember from North Dakota when

we had one of those "warmer" days. The pond was not frozen, so it reflected the soft blue sky

that we had that day.

This is the first time I have gotten into this show, so I am very excited about it. I am going to go

down to Albuquerque anyway to participate in a Scandinavian Butikk which is held on Nov. 1st, this is a good excuse to spend a few days with all my friends down there!

I am also taking a class from Sheila Rieman who paints beautiful colorful animals in pastel. She is

actually from North Dakota, Sentinel Buttee, which is close to where I grew up. It should be fun

to take her class in Albuquerque and to see this wonderful exhibit. The exhibit is on the fair grounds of the New Mexico State Fair, it is beautiful in November, smells like apples, pinon smoke in the air and the gentle warmth of fall...usually about 65 degrees, my favorite temperature!

This is one of my favorite fall scenes, the Cache La Poudre River at Martinez Park right in
downtown Fort Collins. This scene is only three blocks from our Gallery, Art on Mountain where I show my work and where this painting is hanging.

This painting is 36" high and 24" long. I have painted this scene three or four times, this time of the year the Poudre River is so beautiful reflecting the clear blue skies of our wonderful state.

This has been a difficult fall, my father died two weeks ago, he was 95 but was one of the best right up until the end. He must be looking down on me right now making sure that I keep on painting! He was a great supporter of my painting and I have done several of him and the North Dakota scenes that he loved so well.

My family always has been really supportive of my crazy painting career, even though sometimes they probably wonder why I don't get a "real job". It's too late now, I have retired from "real work" and will just keep painting!

Hopefully there are still people out there who want to see painterly scenes of the wild and scenic Poudre River, plains, mountains and contented cattle...my favorite subjects!

Diane's Doodles Blog, September 6

Hi, if you haven't heard of me before I'll fill you in a little on my history. I was born in North Dakota and raised on a farm/ranch with four sister siblings. We had a lot of freedom to ride our horses and play all over our farm. When I was seven I knew I wanted to be an artist and so I have worked at that all my life.

Lately I have been trying to work some new things into my art. Since I am a Signature Pastelist with the Pastel Society of Colorado and also paint in oils, I decided to break away a little from my usual work of realistic landscapes and start to abstract them a little. I don't know if I will ever really change my style but I want to stretch the reality of it a little.

This painting is of a waterway on our land in North Dakota that was homesteaded by a man named Fisher. The WPA built a dam on it in the thirties. We now have a couple of wild horses who live here and enjoy the water and the green grass. This painting is a pastel, size 9 x 12 and it was painted a couple of weeks ago.

I want to paint a really large painting of this, so this is kind of a study even though it is a complete work of art by itself.

I am also working on a series about trees, which you can see there aren't any here, so I guess I deviated a little from that plan! However, I will post my tree paintings as I start to get them finished.