Happy New Year

6" x 6" oil on panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
please contact me if interested

My your New Year be filled with health, happiness, friendship and family.

Canyonlands V

6" x 8" oil on panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
Please contact me if interested

This is another small piece from our trip in November to Canyonlands National Park in Utah. With the holidays and both kids visiting, I'm just now getting it posted.

I had some daily paintings in a fall show at a local Nature Center. Several of them sold and this morning I decided it was time to update that part of my blog. I'm not sure why, but when I did this, emails went out each time I edited the past blogs. Maybe it was a senior moment on my part, maybe something's going on w/ blogger. I'm not sure, but sorry about that. Is anyone else having this problem? Did I do something wrong? And, thanks to those of you who emailed me about the sales.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

6" x 6" oil on panel
nfs

This is my last rock piece for the time being. I'll come back to these again as they are such great color/value/edge studies.
Yesterday I was trying to come up with another "rock" title for my piece, so I Googled "songs with rock in the title". (I know, how do I have time for that in this busy season!) I couldn't believe how many sites came up. My favorite site was "Songs with rock in the title that don't rock!" And, Jingle Bell Rock was in that list!
Both our kids are due home today. It'll be great to have them here for awhile.
I want to wish all my blogging friends a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday. Thanks for all your support, comments, and friendship this past year.

Jingle Bell Rock

6" x 6" oil on panel
nfs

OK, I know this doesn't look like a jingle bell, but it has tints and shades of red and green. And, it is another Christmas song with the word rock in the title!

Frog Rock

6" x 6" oil on panel
nfs

I think that this rock looks a little bit like a frog. He seems ready to jump off the table. It is truly amazing the different values and colors of rocks. There are as many, if not more, than there are rocks. Then, there is temperature difference. I could repaint all of these changing the background cloth from warm to cool, and cool to warm. There are never endless exercises to be done and paintings to be painted.

Rock-in' Around the Clock

6" x 6" oil on panel
nfs

This was the only holiday song I could think of with "rock" in it.
I've been painting a lot of canyons, rock walls, rocky mountains and rocky cliffs lately. I paint what I see. I've also been thinking about value a lot. So, this led me to want to concentrate really closely on rocky values. Which led me to paint rock close-ups. All of these rocks are about fist or whole hand size. I've done four so far. They're together below. I'll post one each day. They've been fun to paint. Sort of a color study of rocks instead of boxes.

Turnips

6" x 8" oil on panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
please contact me if interested

My husband does most of the grocery shopping and came home the other day w/ these turnips. He said we should have mashed turnips for dinner (we have only had turnips maybe once in 27 years of marriage!) I just loved the color and had to get a painting done quickly. And, dinner was good!

Canyonlands IV

6" x 8" oil on panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
SOLD

This is from our second day at Canyonlands National Park. We were in an area where you walked along the edge of this cliff. For those of you who know me well, you know I have a fear of heights. I had to really breath deeply, walk slowly, look across and not down, to conquer my phobia. I will admit, that where I stopped here, there was a guard rail!

When landscape painting, the lightest value is usually that of the sky. The second lightest value is the flat plane of the ground....except the ground at the bottom of a canyon appears to have a darker value than the horizontal plane near the top of a canyon. These canyon pieces have gotten me thinking about all the values in a landscape. I even got out my Carlson's guide to see if he talked about canyons.

Canyonlands III

6" x 8" oil on panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
please contact me if interested

This is another piece from our recent trip to Canyonlands National Park in Utah. I'm trying to be aware of color temperatures and values. Granted, snow is cold, and the temperature was in the 30's, but snow can be warm or cool depending on if it's in the sun or shade. The same is true of rocks, or anything in a landscape. I tried to make sure that in adjusting for the color temperatures, I'm keeping true to the values. It helps to do a value sketch first.

I was asked in a comment what colors I use to tone my canvases. Usually I use cad yellow deep, yellow ochre, or cad orange. Sometimes a combination of two. And, sometimes red. I'll often tone 6 - 10 canvases at the same time.

Canyonlands II

6" x 6" oil on panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
please contact me if interested

This is another view of Canyonlands National Park and more snow. This snow went a little more toward violet, which is was. The shady side of the trails was pretty snowy, but with practically no one else hiking, there was plenty of room to stay on the sunny side.

Canyonlands is a showcase of geology. Until recently, which means 15 million years ago in geologic times, this area was near sea level. Uplifts and volcanic activity created folds and mountains, but then movement in the earh's crust caused the whole area to rise. Today, the average elevation is over 5,000 feet above sea level.

In this painting you're looking at a ridge, a plateau, a canyon top, and a mesa.

Canyonlands National Park

11" x 14" oil on stretched canvas
$295.00 + $10.00 s/h
SOLD

My husband and I just got back from a 14 day trip, 9 of those spent days driving to San Francisco to visit our daughter. On the way we stopped in Durango, Co to see our son, and visited 7 National and State Parks and Monuments. It was an absolutely wonderful trip. In several of the parks we say only 5-10 other cars/people all day. Talk about uncrowded!

Our first park was Canyonlands National Park between Moab and Monticello, Utah. We spent 1 1/2 days hiking and driving through as much as we could. Next time we're taking our SUV as there are 50 miles of 4 wheel drive roads that we didn't want to drive on w/ our daughter's car.

I took my paints and hoped to paint occasionally, but the temperature never got out of the 30's. That's great for hiking, but cold for painting. I think I've got the snow a little too blue, may go back and gray it a bit. This piece, and those below, are from the area around Needles Overlook.




"Canyonlands is a colorful geologic wonderland in the heart of the high desert of southeastern Utah-a masterpiece of nature's work."