Back at work, busy, busy

January on the Cache La Poudre, Fort Collins

2009

Life has been one really busy whirl lately. I have been teaching painting, teaching marketing, evaluating galleries (cleaning, painting and redoing our Art on Mountain gallery) and jurying a show. Since my knee surgeon decided it was time to inject my knees that has slowed me down more than I ever thought possible, also.

I was really excited to receive an Honorable Mention on my San Jose Mission Arches painting at our Celebration of Color Show last week. Also, I have put 17 paintings in the Western State Bank in North Fort Collins and 9 paintings in the Reader's Cover BookStore. Next week we rehang a new show in Art on Mountain for which I have five paintings ready.

One of these, January on the Poudre is featured on this post. I painted this as a sample painting and a study for my Quick Draw at the Cheyenne Spirit of the West Show. It turned out pretty well and I love the area just down from our house a couple of miles where I have painted this scene many times.

In December, Dale and I did a quick trip through Minnesota and this painting is from a photograph I took while we were driving through a blizzard to visit Dale's parents. Very interesting drive...NOT. But I do like the painting!

Water Sonata

Looking through my photos one day I came across this beautiful sight. I am not sure where I took this photo, or even when, but I just loved the fall of the water, so I painted it. Many times when I am out doing photography I just take dozens of photos and pile up all these ideas to paint. It's an little overwhelming when I find that I want to paint dozens of them!
On this painting I especially like how the background trees got really soft and blue, I changed a lot of this from the photo just to get the softness into the painting. This is a 18 x 12 pastel called Water Sonata. The falls are either in Norway or Colorado...I think! Somewhere I've been anyway!

September Song in Aspen Grove Gallery

This March I have been putting my paintings in shows all over Colorado and Wyoming. It is a busy time! Last Saturday I was thrilled to see that one of my paintings, "September Song", won a My Choice award at Aspen Grove shopping center in downtown Littleton, CO. The gallery is right next to Pottery Barn so it is fun to visit and see what's new! (I love Pottery Barn and bought some gorgeous orange tulips while I was there...I digress) Anyway, my painting won a brand new wooden easel, value $300.00! That was a thrill. Prints of this painting are in the Surgical Waiting Room in the new Medical Center of the Rockies. This is one of my favorite paintings, it is 20 x 30 pastel and took forever to paint, it's definitely not a predictor of the value of paintings...how long they take to paint. Some great paintings go together so quickly...others take forever. Other painting take forever and never turn out no matter what you do! Such is the life of an artist!

Serene Reflections National Show Piece

I am so excited I finally got a piece in the Artists Association of Colorado's National Show. I have entered nine times and gotten in twice. Tough show to get into and it is shown in a great venue right here in Fort Collins.
Because the show is so difficult to get into I spend about a month every fall painting a piece a hope has a chance. Those pieces often garner lots of awards in other wonderful shows, but obviously don't get into this one!

My painting this year is a pastel, 24 x 36, and it is a scene of a heavy snow in the mountains, with lots of unusual colorations. It was difficult and time consuming to paint so I have priced it accordingly. The frame is going to also be an expensive deal since it is so big, but it has earned the best frame I can afford! Or not, as the case may be! Hopefully, art will start selling again after the recession is over! Our gallery is holding its own, but with spring coming on I hope the art sales also come on!

Banks of the Poudre in May

We live about five miles from the beautiful Cache la Poudre River in Fort Collins, right in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.  One of the fun things that we can do is plein air paint almost any day of the year and create paintings of scenery that is beautiful.  Last May a bunch of us went with Master Pastelist, Lorenzo Chavez, over to the Poudre River to plein air paint. It was a beautiful, clear day and we set up on the river banks and painted. For lunch we went to Vern's Cafe which is a great good ol' boy Cafe with homemade cinnamon rolls and low calorie stuff like that. Since it was the day before my birthday one of the guys ordered a big cinnamon roll with candles on it for me and they all sang, loudly, Happy Birthday to me. Wow, that was embarrassing...and fun, some of the people in the restaurant sang along just for the fun of it! Great day!! This painting will be in the Jack Richeson Book, Pastels 75. It should be out soon, I am anxious to see it, I have three paintings in the book.

Inside the Loveland Greenhouse, 11 x 14 Pastel

Last fall we had an unusually cold, windy, really nasty day and instead of painting the outdoors plein air we moved into the Loveland Greenhouse. I really had a hard time deciding what to paint, I enjoy plants but this sea of green was too much even for me. At the back of the greenhouse they had this really nice umbrella set up, and I just loved the look of it so I parked my easel in front, added a couple of nice plants with the grass and painted happily away. This is one of my favorite paintings, I think I just love umbrellas, even though opening them inside is supposed to be bad luck!
Altogether I had a great week. This painting, as well as two others, were chosen for the Jack Richeson "Pastels 75" book which will be published in the next few weeks. The Western Spirit Show curator called and asked me to do the Quick Draw before the opening and I was really excited to accept. Quick Draw is a 45 minute drawing from start to finish and framed!! So, obviously, I will have to have my pastels "ducks" in a row for this one. You can't dawdle with a few hundred people watching!

Lake Loveland at Dawn, Pastel

WATCHING DOUG DAWSON, MPSA, DEMO
Last Saturday I had the opportunity to watch a demo by one of the greatest pastelists of our times, Doug Dawson of Wheatridge, CO. He is a Master Pastelist in the Pastel Society of America and gave us a wonderful demo. In an hour and a half I wrote three pages of notes. Some of the information he emphasized was looking and relooking at the big shapes. He also talked about weaving one color throughout all the colors of the weaving (painting) to unify it. I thought this was a wonderful concept, using the analogy of weaving, you could really picture this working.
He talked about using toned paper, he uses pink for overcast days and yellow gold for a sunny day.
He did a really brave thing and had each one of us in the room pick out a color and he used all of them to do a painting of a big tree in front of a background of other trees. It was very interesting to see how he brought it all together with something like thirty colors being used!
Doug has a new book out so be sure and check it out if you can. I have his first book which I think I've had for almost 20 years.