Looking for Snow

At this time of year the landscape can be pretty spare in Colorado. Finding color in the neutral shades challenges me - and not in a way that I like- so as long as there is snow to be found I will be out in it.
Sue McCullough and I drove up to Rock Creek not too long ago, looking for deep snow and spent a PERFECT morning painting. Perfect means: temps over 10, no wind and a bright day with no cloud cover. Being out in the mountains on a day like that - I don't even care if the painting turns out to be a bomb; but as a rule  Rock Creek does not disappoint.  Just a short drive into the high country and you find every kind of view - short and long, with pine and aspen forests, majestic snow covered peaks, rocky canyons, and no sign of civilization. It is hard to go wrong.

Peak Weekend

Today is the first day of Autumn and the San Juan Mountains wear a garland of yellow like a necklace across the front of the range where aspens grow thick between the pine trees. A most beautiful time of year and the most nerve wracking - where every plein air painter wishes they could be in several places at once to snatch the fleeting color. Due in part by a warm, dry summer, the trees were changing in the high country back in August - YIKES!  Now it is here, full blown, and we will try to catch some of it and pray that a deep freeze or fluke snowstorm doesn't cut the season short before its time.

It can also be a time of hard choices: where to go, choosing to go to a competition/event- or not, it's a great time to be IN a show but a better time to paint out . . . . and every day the window of opportunity gets smaller. In years past Sue McCullough and I have painted all over the the Arkansas River Valley and Collegiate Peaks as part of the CO Mountain Plein Air Fest competition . This year however, we are choosing to skip the event circus and head into a different part of the state near Lake City. This is supposed to be the PEAK weekend for color, so we will take aim and hope to come up with the goods. Hopefully, more about the outcome - later.

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These paintings are all Autumn pieces that have sold recently. From the top they were painted at the Rio Grande River in Alamosa, Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, Cottonwood Pass, Colorado and along the border of Colorado and New Mexico.

Looking for Snow

Last week Sue, Dave and myself went looking for snow and found it up the Pinus Creek Road in the San Juans, above Del Norte, Colorado.
As Spring comes on, the winds kick up in Colorado but we managed to catch a morning that was very mild and almost calm. There was a lot of "atmosphere" though, because of fires that burned in other parts of the state; downright smokey day actually. Some painters go for that atmospheric/air look -
being originally from California, I'm not so keen on it.

Spring in the Mountains

I painted with Sue McCullough at Rock Creek, in the San Juan Mountains this last week. It is amazing, to me how seemingly colorless the landscape can appear at this time of year.

Class Notes: Staying In the Flow

After painting every day for a week at the Colorado Mountain Plein Air Fest I came home pretty toasted but still had to teach classes on Tuesday night, Thursday Morning and again on Saturday morning.
I am grateful for my classes that always help me continue in the flow of painting - when my natural inclination is to take a week off and just nap.
These two 6"x 8"s at the top are from Tuesday evening and Thursday morning. The top one is self explanatory - the bottom one not so much.
Thursday the class drove out east of town to a beautiful ranch owned by a local couple - the Brandt's. In the center of an oasis like setting they have a beautiful Koi pond covered with lily pads, and at this time of year, surrounded by golden Cottonwood trees. I chose to abstract a very small view across a portion of the pond.
Saturday morning we went east up to Rock Creek, which is a riot of colored aspen right now.
The 6"x 8" format is not my favorite but I have found it to be a good discipline for working out simple shapes and good design. And sometimes it's about all I can finish in the time frame while also working with students. It was beautiful morning.

The Autumn Rush Is On

In a week of painting along the Arkansas River at the Colorado Mountain Plein Air Fest, we saw a lot of aspens - and even painted some. Susan McCullough, David Montgomery and myself painted together for several days and happily, we each won an award at the opening of the show in the Salida SteamPlant. My piece directly below, of the Arkansas River, won a cash business award. Yay!

We each could enter 3 paintings into the event competition - the award winner was my last minute addition. In an event like this we paint every day and sometimes it is hard to judge the validity of each piece until it goes home and sits with you awhile. Some pieces will be set aside for future reference, some will get tweeked a bit - and others will never see the light of day; beyond this blog. . . .
Cash awards aside, I think the real benefit of an event/competition like this is the chance to focus strictly on painting for several days in a row, with the added pressure of a deadline. The payoff is: more paintings, more reference material, more opportunities to be out in the landscape, and just more miles of canvas covered - in a relatively short period time.
For a novice painter - the discipline of painting "under the gun" every day for a week can produce results that rival a workshop experience.

From Estes to Salida

The Estes Park Paint Out seems - ah - like moments ago. I think the leaves were still green, but things change quickly around here.
These 3 pieces were done in Rocky Mountain National Park during that paint out, and I won the People's Choice Award at the opening of the Western Light Show on August 26th. Well, THANKS people.
The very next weekend I was in Boulder for the Women of the West Show opening that highlighted the work of 6 women painters. See the post below.
And that painting on the promo card, was one of the first to sell.

But that was then. . . . .
Next week Sue and I will be painting in and around the Arkansas River Valley at the Colorado Mountain Plein Air Fest; and staying all week in that great Colorado art town of Salida.
Catch the opening reception at the Salida SteamPlant Event Center on Saturday night the 24th at 5 pm where some of the best Western plein air painters will gather to show their work from the week of painting.



This photo is pretty bad; falls into the 'documentation' category. I forgot to take a photo before leaving it at the gallery so had to shoot it on the fly right before the show.
Sometimes, at a event and show like this, there is just too much to do.

Your Are Invited - PAAC Show, Saks Galleries, Denver '12

I will be in Denver on Friday night for the opening of the 15th Annual PAAC Show at Saks Galleries. This annual juried exhibition draws plein Air painters from all over the country and I am very excited to have 3 pieces in it.
Click on any images to see them larger.

If you are in Cherry Creek Friday night the 24th between 5 and 8pm - step into Saks Galleries and enjoy the party. The show will hang until July 9th.
At the top:
'Twilight Graze' 9"x12", SOLD
'Monday in Taos' 12"x16", SOLD
and 'Rock Creek Thaw', 20"x 10",
all in oil.
By the way, "Monday in Taos" was the painting I was working on last October when I took that really stupid leap off a porch and broke my foot. Fortunately for me, the piece was almost done.

See the entire show catalog on line; click on Saks Galleries.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend is always an invitation to enjoy some of the Best of Colorado and this year is no different. In La Veta, the LaVeta Fine Art Gallery will kick off the summer season in the Spanish Peaks area (just south of Colorado Springs and Pueblo) with an opening party and reception Saturday night the 28th from 5-8 pm.
Also on Saturday evening in LaVeta - just around the corner from LaVeta Fine Art Gallery: the opening of the Spanish Peaks Arts Council Gallery 2011 Photography show. Two good reasons to be in LaVeta on Saturday night. Hope to see you there.












In the other direction, high in the San Juan Mountains, Memorial Day means "The Taste of Creede". One of Colorado's most colorful and classic mining towns, Creede knows how to celebrate, featuring artists' demos, restaurant food tasting, music, theatre, and children's activities all weekend. The Silver Chef Cooking Competition is on Saturday.

Sunday, May 29, at 1 pm will be the Quick Draw Contest.
The Quick Draw is hosted by Stephen Quiller, (whose gallery is in Creede) and attracts some of the best artists from several states including Steve Quiller, Kris Gosar, Randy Pijoan, Peggy Stenmark Morgan, Charles Ewing, Jan Thompson, and Frankie Will.

Quick Draw fun starts at 1 pm and artists get one hour to complete a painting. At the auction immediately following, bidders will have a chance to purchase work they just watched being done by top artists.
Creede will be the site of a lot of holiday partying but don't miss the National Small Prints Show hanging at the Creede Repertory Theatre, Lobby Gallery. In the Upstairs Gallery at CRT the 3 Friends, 3 Painters, 3 Points of View show, featuring plein air work by myself, Susan McCullough and David Montgomery is on display as well;
all well worth the beautiful drive into the mountains.

It's Spring - Take Cover and Hold on to Your Earflaps

Winter cold will seldom keeps us from painting out - but Spring wind will. We do all kinds of things to foil the weather, as if it were possible to sneak out under the cover of night and get a painting done before the wind finds us ; but we still try. In the last 3 weeks finding a morning when the wind wasn't already blowing the paint off of your house at dawn was rare. Over Spring Break, Dave Montgomery and I headed up the western slope of Mt. Blanca and took cover in the pinion for a view west over the San Luis Valley, as clouds blew in overhead.

A week later, we lucked out on a perfect day with no wind; Sue McCullough, Dave Montgomery and I drove in to the very mountains we had been viewing from Blanca, the week before.
Looking for snow and running water, and a good place to park, kept us heading up Alamosa River Canyon and happily, we found it all on an extremely beautiful day.

These plein air trips, with Sue, David and myself painting together in the same locations, are the basis of our 3 FRIENDS show that will open June 3rd at the Creede Repertory Theatre's UPSTAIRS Gallery with a reception at 5:30 pm.
On December 17 at 4 pm a reception will open the 3 FRIENDS show at Salida's Steamplant Gallery.
Lot's to paint between now and then and wind will be a major factor.

Class Notes: Painting Demo with David Montgomery

This last week, our Thursday morning Painting Class had a special guest, well known landscape painter David Montgomery.
David is known for his dramatic and epic scenes of the Western Landscape. It was a treat to watch a master walk us through his process. He began with an 8"x 10" linen panel, a photo cropped for this purpose and a charcoal sketch already completed. Click on photos to enlarge them.
Dave and I paint together in the landscape a lot and tho' our styles differ dramatically, our process has many similarities; the sketch being one. The sketch is where we make decisions about what to say about said photo - or the view before us. Amazingly, this is a step most ignored by beginners.

In the second photo, he has used violet to draw the general layout, based on the sketch, and begun to lay in a complementary under painting, over which he will work the varied greens of the landscape. At this point he is very conscious of allowing that under painting to peek out between brush strokes as he works it from the top down towards the bottom.


Dave is a classically and academically trained painter with a refined sense of technical expertise. His unique style though, has developed from a bent to follow his own passion and not the wind of stylishness or painting fad. My students had a lot to say about his brushes, which are mostly #1 & #2 rounds - which I do not allow in class.
. . . As long as you live under my roof missy, you'll do as I say . . . . . . .
- oops wrong lecture.
In the next photo, Dave is making a point about different edges and detail, created by varied brushwork. The final photos show how the bottom, and foreground of the painting were resolved. He did not consider the piece "done" at this point but will take it home to his famous freezer where it will rest for a day or 2 until he can look at it with fresh eyes and better judge if the piece has become what the sketch intended or if it needs some massaging. Massaging might be resolving edges to bring some foreword and make others recede, it might be added detail to bring the important points out, or it might be simply adding the signature.
Thanks Dave for sharing your work and your process with so much generosity. To read more about David Montgomery and see his work click here on his name.
As a ps. I am happy to say - I own one of Dave's plein air pieces, painted at Point Lobos in California on the Monterey Peninsula.

Looking for Winter

We have had an unseasonable shortage of snow here in Southern Colorado; chalk it up to LaNina or whatever,
but on Friday
Sue McCullough,
Dave Montgomery and myself went looking for some winter. We found snow and sunshine, the perfect combination,
up at Rock Creek
not and hour from the house. With temps at 31 degrees and NO wind, it was like a day in the park. This photo of Sue expresses out feelings, exactly.

Sue, Dave and myself paint out together often and amid other things, are working toward a show that will include work from all three of us done on trips together. That show will open with a party on Friday, June 3rd in the Upstairs Gallery at the Creede Repertory Theatre, in Creede.

June is aways off though, in the meantime, we will enjoy a little bit of snow. This was my piece from our beautiful morning in the mountains. I have been experimenting with a more extreme format of 1 by 2. This painting is 20"x 10".

Class Notes: Painters Just Want to Get OUT

Tuesday evening the class painted on the edge of town; lots of great views but late afternoon showers were still blowing over and we painted in a light but persistent rain.
More annoying than difficult, it does beg the question - WHY?
Everyone says they want to paint plein air and most of my class painters are very hardy but these are times that separate those that do and those that simply want to - it is an observation and a question of motivation.
I have found that most painters that pursue plein air work have one major thing in common: they love to be OUTSIDE.
We could discuss the importance of direct observation, the benefits of being on site and the finer points of technique in the landscape -
all of it good - but when temps are below freezing, wind threatens to blow you over or, as in this case, the drip, drip, drip soaks you through (my under painting literally slide off the panel) - something must make it more attractive than sitting in a dry studio.
It can't be bragging rights (how cold was it?)
especially when there is no painting to show for it - ouch.

We were rewarded with 2 rainbows and a wonderful sunset, this might be part of it. My studio does not have this kind of view.

Class Notes: Beautiful Days of July

In Colorado, these are the days we live for: sunny and almost no wind, afternoon storms filling the sky with beyond-belief clouds that later part to create amazing sunsets, and beautiful evenings full of stars.
Last week class met overlooking the river.
On the right, I painted looking into the morning sun. The mountains appear as a flat shape, almost the same value as the sky, creating a good foil for the tree shapes below which are partly back lit.
Soon the sun would rise higher and light would define all the different shapes of the mountain,
but that would be a different painting.



Later in the week we went out to the
wetlands near our local golf course
and I turned my back on the sun and
faced a group of trees getting
the full morning light.


These are typical valley views:
cottonwood groves, wetlands,
all on the backdrop of
14,000 ft peaks that surround the valley.
Both paintings here are 8"x10".

Soward Ranch Paint Out

These are some snaps from the Plein Air Paint Out to support the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust. The flat mountiain on the left is Bristol Head early in the morning as we headed to the Soward Ranch from Santa Maria. The ranch is somewhere down past the clouds.
A beautiful morning but win-deeee. Here Dave Roepke looks pretty relaxed - don't believe it. Bristol Head is in the background.
Two hours later Sue McCullough wrapped up a fabulous piece of Bristol Head. This was not a day for the faint of heart. We would stand in 40 mph gusts and just hold the easel, with both hands, minutes at a time until the wind died down a bit.












Dave Montgomery here, is living dangerously and about to do an impersonation of Mary Poppins with that umbrella.
I used to think WIND was a deal breaker but these 2 paint outs for the Land Trust have force me to paint in extreme wind situations I never though possible. Amazing what you can do when you have to.

These are my two pieces from the day, both 8x10. The morning sun just glowed across this pond toward the little cabin. As noon approached "weather" seemed to come at us from all directions and when the thunder started to roll we packed it in.
Some of the other artists involved were: Stephen Quiller, Karen Bonnie, and Charles Ewing. To learn more about the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust and why it is important - click this link.

Plein Air to Support the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust

What: Artists paint the landscape to support Colorado open spaces
When: Saturday, June 12, 8 am to 2 pm
Where: Soward Ranch above Creede;
Take Hwy 149 out of Creede toward Lake City for about 7 miles. Turn Left onto Middle Creek Rd. and follow this for 5 miles. Stay to the right following the signs and ribbons; the road will end at the Soward ranch.
Hope to see you there.

The Public is invited to come out Saturday, June 12, to the beautiful Soward Ranch, above Creede, where local and regional artists will gather to paint on-site in a program connecting artists with conserved lands in Colorado.
Come out to support the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust and enjoy a day at the Ranch in a part of Colorado seldom seen by the public.

Rio Grande Land Trust Paint Out

Saturday at the beautiful Gilmore Ranch, was -- well, beautiful and WINDY - so windy it was frightening. But, we painted out anyway.
Sue McCullough and I went out to the ranch about 7:30 in an effort to beat the wind, Ha! Hanging on for dear life, we painted as fast as we could and after wards, we were lured by coffee and muffins to the barn, where we added our dirt covered paintings to the art show hung in support of the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust. You might not think anyone would come out on such a rough day but, certainly the right people came because 3 major pieces of art sold.
At the top is Jim Gilmore, award winning Colorado wildlife Sculptor and our host for the day. Those are my paintings on the left, and below Sue is waiting to be interviewed by Rio de la Vista about her participation in the event and thoughts on Plein Air Painting. That interview should show up on UTUBE sometime soon.
There will be a second Plein Air Paint Out on June 12 at the Soward's Ranch in Mineral county, from 8am to 2pm. Come out to see this beautiful property and we will be there along with other artists -
taking what ever the day throws our way.
Plein air - not for the timid!