New Oil - "Autumn's Poem"

"Autumn's Poem" 11x14 oil, palette knife. The place of reference for this painting is West Fork!

A Couple of New Oil Paintings

Now that the weather is so chilly, my oil paintings are taking quite a bit longer to dry. These two paintings were completed about a month ago. The first one was painted on site at West Fork, also known as Plein Aire painting. I used a palette knife for the entire painting. The second one is a forest scene off of Senator Highway, "Oak and Aspen" will be it's title. I am not entirely thrilled by it for some reason although the colors are pleasant and pretty. I will stare at it for a while longer or just move on to painting other subjects. With this freezing weather, going into my studio is not so exciting. I use space heaters to warm up the studio, but I need to wait at least a half hour for it to reach a comfy temp. Not too worry, I will get back in my studio next week.

9x12 oil with palette knife, "West Fork Meditation"

8x10 oil, "Oak and Aspen"

A Cold Sunday Afternoon Hike

This weather certainly changed quick, warm fall weather to cold freezing temps. Cold doesn't mean staying home all day, my wife and I took a couple hour hike north of Thumb Butte. A few fall colors remain plus patches of snow linger in the shade.

Going Black & White

I miss working in the darkroom, hand developing negatives and enlarging them. I decided to try a few of my recent digital photos as black and whites. Photoshop is like a darkroom, allowing me to dodge and burn, adjust contrast and brightness. The only problem I have is my printer. My first print looked purple. I played with color balance and got them looking like a warm tone paper, but they still have a touch of green to it. If I want to do this more seriously, I will invest in special software to print great black and whites. For now, I mostly use my photos as references for paintings... I still own all of my old film cameras, 35mm, 2x2, and a 4x5. Some day, I will set up a darkroom and do "old-fashioned" photos. Digital is the way to go but the act of making prints by hand is slowly becoming a lost art and I think will be more of a rare thing, thus, giving hand developed photos more value.

Mini Show at the Frame & I Art Gallery

Stop by my work during November and December to view our "Miniature Masterpieces Show." I have 8 pieces in it, including this Aspen Tree colored pencil drawing! The Frame & I is downtown Prescott at 229 W. Gurley St.

An Afternoon at the Grand Canyon

We spent the day (Saturday, Oct 29th) traveling with friends to Sedona, Oak Creek, and to the Grand Canyon. Here are a couple pics from the gorgeous sunset from Mather Point.

West Fork of Oak Creek

I thought Monday would be a great day to miss the crowds at West Fork. Was I ever wrong! I did not get there bright and early, but still, I figured at 10am, there would be a parking spot for me. My first clue was that Sedona itself was hopping with tourists with many out of state cars. I saw someone taking a picture while driving, another with his arm through the sunroof, and cars pulling off to the shoulder to see a view I would consider "okay." The best views of Sedona are those you get by hiking, getting away from homes and cars. Today, I was forced to park a half mile up the road to get into West Fork, hauling two tripods, a paint box, a camera, lunch, water/vitamin water, and other painting gear. I had a spot in mind where I wanted to paint away from the trail and up against a cliff wall. The air was noticeably cold there and once in a while a breeze would blow warm air my way. I was not prepared for cold weather and quickly completed a palette knife study. Not to mention the 120 photos I took along the way. I noticed many elderly folk on the trail and on the way back, a woman had slipped and fallen at the second creek crossing. Paramedics had here stablilized, I heard that she had a possible broken hip. Sad! West Fork is amazing and many seek it's treasures. I think I found a few:

spirals in nature

almost done