Cowboy Coffee

Cowboy Coffee
Oil 10" x 8"
$195.00 + $10. s/h

This is a plein air still life.  I set this old Cowboy Coffee Pot up outside on gravel in the sun.  I love the way so many colors are in the metal.  I let the gravel just be light values.

South Platte Valley

South Platte Valley

Oil  9" x 12"

I'm thrilled that "South Platte Valley" was juried as a Finalist in the Richeson75 Small Works Show.  The Gallery is in Kimberly, Wisconsin.  

Golden Afternoon

Golden Afternoon
Oil on 1 1/2" stretched canvas - ready to hang
18" x 24"
$595.00 + $20. s/h

Still organizing paintings that I've set aside, and still loving these western skies!  It's no wonder so many  artists in the past have painted these skies.  They're mesmerizing, constantly changing, never endlessly beautiful.  And, they can be a distraction when driving.  You always want to pull over and paint or take another photo!

High Meadow

High Meadow
18" x 24"
Oil on 1 1/2 " stretched canvas - ready to hang
$595.00 + $20. s/h

And another western sky among the pieces that I'd set aside.  Actually, this one is hanging in my studio!  I've loved looking at it, but am now ready to see it go to a new home.

Out On The Range

Out On The Range
Oil on 1 1/2 " wrapped canvas- ready to hang
18" x 24"
$595.00 + $20. s/h

I love painting skies.  Colorado, and much of the west, is filled with wide open ranges and vast skies.  There is a never endless changing view everywhere you look.  I love how the clouds create ground shadows allowing for great color and value contrasts.

Standing Bull

Standing Bull
Oil  24" x 18"
$595.00 + $20. s/h

I always set painting goals for myself each year.  These consist of "painting" as well as "business/marketing" goals.  One of my goals for this year (and every year actually) is to go back through old posts and check that every painting has been offered for sale.  Sometimes I might post the piece in process, but not yet finished.  I may post the piece, then set it aside for a show, etc.  So, over the next few posts I'm going to try to catch up on some of these pieces.

Standing Bull is from a huge bison herd at the Medano Zapata Ranch in southern Colorado.  

The Small Works Juried Show

Majestic Migration

Oil  6" x 6"

Tonight is the opening of The Small Works Show at Cottonwood Center For The Arts, here in Colorado Springs.  I'm so pleased that my painting of the sandhill cranes, Majestic Migration, has been juried into the event.  The show hangs until mid-March.  I hope those of you who live nearby can get a chance to attend.  Thanks Cottonwood!

Rose Madder

Rose Madder
Oil  8" x 6"
$100.00 + $10. s/h

Day 27 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

After painting from photos for the last few paintings, I decided to switch over to painting from life.  I feel like I paint about equally between plein air, life and photos.  Although I admit, in the Colorado winters I do less plein air painting than I do in the warm weather.  It probably equals out over the year, as I paint less from photos in the nice weather.  I don't think that it matters, as long as you paint!  For the next few days I'll be posting the roses that I'm now painting.

Vermont Barn - Finale

Vermont Barn - The Finale!
Oil 20" x 20"
$595.00 + $20. s/h

Day 25 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

I made the few changes that I talked about in the last post...darks here and there, adjusted some lights, painted the cupola.  I'm happy with the way the painting turned out.  One odd thing, the photo here on blogger came out a bit bluer than the photo in Iphoto.  Not sure why.  I've removed and reloaded this and for some reason, it's a bit too blue.  I don't like having a photo here that's not accurate.  Not sure why this is happening.  Frustrating.  Please imagine that the blues in the roof and the silo are a bit grayer, not quite so bright blue.  Otherwise, I like this!  Now, on to some painting from life.

Vermont Barn - Step 5

Vermont Barn Step 5
Oil  20" x 20"

Day 24 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

At this point I'm nearing the end.  With the sky painted in I can really look at the barn and all the color notes around the sky to see if they read correctly.  I've worked a bit more on the shrubs in the front.  The way the lightest, tallest shrub breaks up the long building helps the composition.  The shadow side of the silo needs a bit of darkening.  The grass in the shade needs a little more shade.  The lightest spots on the lighter side of the barn are a bit too light.  The cupola hasn't yet been painted.  I'll work on all of those, then look at it all again for several days.  Then fix what needs to be fixed, look at it some more and then I'll be done!

Vermont Barn - Step 4

Vermont Barn - Step 4
Oil  20" x 20"

Day 23 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

I've started laying in some of the darker colors in the trees.  Even thought the trees are turning shades of light green and golds, darker colors and shades are in the back of the trees and create depth.  I've got the bushes in the front of the barn in.  I think they should be a bit darker because they're in the shadow.  In the photo and in my original sketches there are some small shrubs headed into the piece on the lower left.  They then curve down the slope.  I've decided that those need to be changed and/or removed as they take your eye down away from the barn and off the painting.  The focal point of the painting is the barn, and the curving shrubs not only draw the viewers eye away from that, but are somewhat distracting.  With just a soft, grassy slope in front of the barn there is a calm feeling looking up the slope.  I think it also makes a better composition with most of the main subject in the top of the piece.

Even though I planned and drew a value sketch to start out, there are constantly decisions that need to be thought about through out the painting of the piece.  That's all part of the fun and challenge of a painting.

Vermont Barn - Step 3

Vermont Barn - Step 3
Oil  20" x 20"

Day 22 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

At this point I've started adding color to the barn.  I painted the largest dark mass first, which is the shadow side of the barn.  Then I painted the light side of the barn.  This side has light as well as  shadow from the silo.  I'm not sure if the light side is light enough, even though it's pretty close to the value.  Since a color mass is not accurate until seen in relationship to the color next to it,  I'll have to wait until the sky and roof are in to know for sure if the light side is light enough.

When looking at the value study, I decided that even thought the trees and bushes on the right of the barn created one large shape, it wasn't working.  So I removed those and added a shed, or barn continuation onto that side.  (That was an easy remodel!)  Now the building and composition work better due to the continuation off the page.

To be continued...

Vermont Barn - Step 2

Vermont Barn - Step 2
Value Sketch
Oil 20" x 20"

Day 21 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

The steps in this weeks' barn painting are pretty similar to the steps in last weeks' farm painting.  Yesterday I posted sketches and ideas for a close-up view of a barn.  In Step 2 I drew in the painting with a brush, then roughed in the values in a thin coat of paint.  Again, my palette for the values was a mixture of my previous gray pile.  At the end of the day, if I have quite a big mixture of a color on my palette, which is glass, I'll scrape it into the corner.  Sometimes it gets used, and sometimes after a few days it's dry and it gets scraped off.  But, for this step it was great for my values.  Some artists might paint the whole canvas with values, but I just put in what I needed for my future reference.  The grass in the front isn't really quite as light a value as the roof top, but since I know that, it wasn't necessary for me to paint that in.  I just noted where some darker grasses and were.

As I said last week, if the values in a painting are correct, it doesn't really matter what colors you use.  At this point this could be a red barn, green barn, or old gray faded barn.  Actually, it's none of those!  If you paint the values fairly thin you often can just start painting right on top of them without the colors mixing too much.

I don't always do preliminary value sketches like these last two.  Value is the relative degree of light and dark, or grayness from black to white.  Sometimes that can be confusing because we don't see things in shades of gray, but in light and dark colors.  So sometimes it's just as easy to block shapes in as colors.  Both of these are great learning steps and something all artists do at different points.

I recently mentioned Kevin MacPherson's Fill Your Oil Paintings With Light & Color.  It is filled with so much great information and exercises.  He talks about doing many, many color studies.  I highly recommend it.

Vermont Barn - Composition and Value

Vermont Barn - Composition and Value

Day 20 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

I loved the Vermont Farm that I recently painted.  I felt that the composition and colors all worked.  Sometimes that happens and it's a great feeling.  So, I wanted to paint another Vermont farm or barn from our fall trip.  I looked back at the composition and value sketches that I'd done for that piece, (click here for that blog post) and the other three didn't jump out at me.  I went back to my photos and started looking at the close-ups that I'd taken of barns.  I wrote down the numbers of the ones that seemed like they could be good paintings.  Then went back through this list again, looking at and cropping and editing until I came up with four that I really liked.  That took way over an hour.  Those four became these sketches.  Sketching took over an hour.  Because drawing the angles, etc of the architecture matters, I used a grid for the sketches.  Now, I'll look at these for awhile and soon begin the painting.

Raking The Hay

Raking The Hay
Oil  10" x 8"
SOLD

Day 18 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

I admit, I am not a farmer.  I grew up in a town, in a neighborhood.  My experience on farms is pretty limited.  Maybe that's part of the enchantment of all the farms I photoed in Vermont.  They are different than Colorado ranches.  Several afternoons we just drove around taking pictures of farms, barns, fields, crops, and farmers.  I knew I'd want these as reference for future paintings.  The future is here!  Now I'm painting them.

I also admit that I didn't really know exactly what this farmer was doing.  He wasn't plowing, or cutting.  My husband said that he was raking.   So, as I often do I went to the internet for help.  I Googled "cutting hay",  and "cutting and raking hay" and spent several minutes watching John Deere videos on YouTube!  So, now I know for sure that this farmer is raking hay!

Vermont Farm - Finale!

Vermont Farm - Finale!
Oil  20" x 20"
$595.00 + $20. s/h

Day 16 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

 The farm painting is finished and I'm really happy with the end result.  I like the looseness of the crops, the light and shadows on the buildings, and the values in the trees.  After looking at the piece for a few days I did end up slightly darkening the shadow side of the silo (although I don't think it really shows in the photo), finishing up the buildings on the far right, and doing small touch ups here and there that probably only I would notice.  

I want to thank everyone for all of the comments, likes, etc. throughout the process.  It was fun as well as helpful for me to share my step by step thoughts....Now, onto a new piece!

Vermont Farm Step 5

Vermont Farm Step 5

Oil  20" x 20"

Day 13 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

At this point I've blocked in the rest of the barns and the trees.  As I said, I needed to see the color masses next to each other to know if they work.  I like the strong contrast between the light and dark of the barn, but still think the silo shadow side needs to be a bit darker.  I didn't get to the two small houses at the far end, or  the top of the far silo, they are still the original value tone.  The trees need another pass with the lights.  I think the light green in the back of the field could use a bit more light.  I'll work on all of that today, then let the piece sit for several days while I look at it and make small changes before I say that it's all done.

Vermont Farm - Step 4

Vermont Farm - Step 4
Oil  20" x 20"
Day 12 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

Yesterday I talked about the front of the corn field, whether or not to continue the corn, or have it be a fallow field of something else.  After thinking about this for awhile I kept it all corn.  The focal point of the painting is the farm and I felt that something different in the front would draw the viewers eye to the bottom of the painting away from the buildings.  With just freshly cut cornstalks in the entire front, the rows are similar which is a calmer feeling.  (Freshly cut corn stalks are a challenge to paint!  These look like they could be freshly cut anything, but that works as they are not the main subject matter.)  I feel that I now have a better composition.  The rows take your eye from the bottom of the painting up to the corner of the subject mass and then across the buildings, up the left side of the silo, round the top, down the right side and back into the buildings.

I've started putting the colors into the buildings.  I painted the biggest darkest mass first, (sometimes I paint the lightest mass first) the shadow side of the big barn, then the silo next to that.  I previously talked about the relationship of the color masses next to each other..even though I got the silo values pretty accurately, it now looks to me that the shadow side of the silo may not be dark enough and the light side is almost the same value as the sky.  A color isn't accurate until seen in relationship to the color mass next to it!  So, now I'm going to have to spend awhile looking at and thinking about those two areas.  But, until I get the rest of the barn painted I won't know if the shadow side is right!

Vermont Farm - Step 3

Vermont Farm - Step 3
Oil  20" x 20"

Day 11 of the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

After blocking in the values of the farm: the barns, houses and trees, I next put in the colors surrounding that mass.  While I tried to portray the values of the farm accurately, no color is true until seen next to the color beside it.  So, had I painted the farm first, I would have probably had to make color changes.  I still might have to.  But, by putting the colors in all around the farm it will help me when putting down the color notes.

I've left the front empty for the moment.  In the photo there's a road in the front.  In my preliminary sketch I drew the lines for corn stalks as if to continue the field.  But when I got the darker under green down, I wondered how it would look if I painted that as a fallow field.  So, I'll think about that for a bit and then decide.

Composition and Value Step 2

Composition and Value Step 2
Oil 20" x 20"

Day 10 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

Yesterday I posted my preliminary sketches for this Vermont farm scene.  This is step 2 where I painted in the buildings and values.  The palette I chose for the values was the leftover gray pile from a previous painting.  Almost any palette will work for the values.  Some people have strict value palettes that they always use.  Many people use a warmish value palette.  I just grabbed what was there.  I like toning my canvas with warm colors.  Other artists use a neutral gray as a tone, but I love bits of warmth peeking through.

If the values in a painting are correct, it doesn't really matter what colors you use.  At this point this could be a farm with red barns, green barns, old gray faded barns.  If you paint the values fairly thin you often can just start painting right on top of them without the colors mixing too much.

As I said yesterday about not always doing a preliminary sketch, I don't always do a preliminary value study.  Value is the relative degree of light and dark, or grayness from black to white.  Sometimes that can be confusing because we don't see things in shades of gray, but in light and dark colors.  So sometimes it's just as easy to block shapes in as colors.  Both of these are great learning steps and something all artists do at different points.

Another book that I love is Kevin MacPherson's Fill Your Oil Paintings With Light & Color.  It is much easier to read and understand than the two I mentioned yesterday.  And is filled with so much great information and exercises.  I highly recommend it.