On the Way to Steamboat over Rabbit Ears Pass

This is from one of the photos I took while leaning out of the van in the midst of a snow storm going over Rabbit Ear's Pass on the way to Steamboat Springs.
It is one of the paintings that I am showing at Art on Mountain Gallery this weekend. Come on down and see my work,I have 14 paintings, some of them new right off the easel.
I have been painting like a crazy person all this fall and I have 30 new paintings, but not all of them are presentation ready.

Painting in Taos, New Mexico

This oil is of our local sculpture park and I just liked the hazy swamp grass and the ambiance of the September water swamp. Another outdoor painting that brings memories of the smell of the swamp (not as bad as you would think!) and the warmth of the hot Setember sun in Colorado.

Really could it get any more beautiful than Taos, NM? The golden chamisa, the blue mountains and the blue-grey sage? The trees had yet to begin turning but we still had plenty of color in all our paintings. I only wish I had the stamina to paint as many hours as I used to. Knee surgery has certainly slowed me down this summer. This beautiful scene is just north of Taos by Arroyo Seco. I will post my finished painting here as soon as I get it photographed.

Bear at Bear Creek Park

Could there be anything more appropriate than a bear wandering around Bear Creek Park while we plein air painted? There he was just a few yards away seemingly enjoying himself as we were!
Painting en plein air is certainly one of the most satisfying ways to enjoy your day outdoors. I don't know of anything that is more fun, enjoyable, frustrating and almost impossible! That has to be one of the reasons I am so drawn to painting outdoors. I am preparing for a show of my plein air work at our Art on Mountain Gallery starting September 1 here in beautiful downtown Fort Collins. Come and join us on Art Walk night, September 3rd, at 102 West Mountain Avenue from 5 to 9. I will have about 20 new plein air paintings to show from the last couple of years of painting from Tuscany to Malibu, Colorado to Texas. The great thing about a plein air painting is that you can almost feel the atmosphere that the artist enjoyed at the time of the painting, unlike a studio painting, it's all right HERE, mosquitoes embedded in the painting, a few bear hairs and the usual blood, sweat and tears!!

Cruising the Baltic Sea

Could anything be more beautiful than cruising the Baltic Sea? Visiting London, Bruges, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Rostock, St. Petersberg and Tallin, Estonia. Wow. We are numb with exhaustion! But it was gorgeous and there will be a few paintings resulting from this trip although my forte is landscapes, mostly with just nature and there are lots of buildings on our photos!

Glad to be home.

Off to St. Petersburg!

This painting just went into the Evergreen Pastel Show in Evergreen, Colorado. It is a painting I did of the lillies in my backyard last year. They are just getting ready to bloom again now and we will probably miss them as we are off on a cruise through the Baltic Sea. We will go through all the Scandinavian capitals (except Norway) and Tallinn, Estonia, Berlin and Bruges, Belgium on our way to St. Petersburg where we will tour the Hermitage and probably see 1 millionth of their art. But just to be there will be great.

Landscapes from New Mexico

We are packing up to go to Littleton and take a class from the guru of landscape pastel, Albert Handell. This should be a fabulous class and I hope to learn a lot. He is one of the Master Pastelist's that I've always wanted to study with so I am very excited.
This is a painting of some cottonwoods hanging over an arroyo in New Mexico that I did last year, I love the vibrancy of the leaves against the dark background. A fun painting.

Almost healed! Lilli and I reading Elmo.

Lilli and I spend a lot of time reading books, especially since both of us have been under the weather. This is her Elmo book that I bought in LaMesa, CA, last year. A daughter of a good friend of mine there has a children's book shop! So cute, it has a train that runs around the top of the room, and darling little places to read to kids. I wish it was here, although we do have a very nice one, called Reader's Cove, that has a real Ark inside. Lilli loves it, she runs down the gangplank as fast as she can go, scary!

I am working on some new pieces for the gallery, they are watercolor with webbing spray, such a fun thing to do, absolutely different from my usual work. I am enjoying my art more now than ever, mainly because I don't work so hard at it! More like fun.