Crested Butte on the 4th of July

We had a wonderful trip to Crested Butte to visit our friend and great artist Peggy Morgan Stenmark. What a beautiful place, and so many subjects to paint! After the 4th of July parade, I did a couple of sketches and completed this 12 x 9 inch plein air study on Elk Avenue. I set up in the only quiet, shaded spot I could find amidst the buzz of the tourist crowd. The stage with the band and the food court were only a half block away... The shade did not last long, a couple of families congregated on the same spot, and there were many passers-by who stopped to view, ask questions, comment and tell me about their own home towns. And I did not realize I had been painting in front of a gallery until artist Ann Sharkey came out to introduce herself! I did not do any planning and just tried to capture a bit of the scene and ended up overworking it, but it was only meant to be good practice and fun, and so it was.

RRWS National Exhibit Bronze Medal

 

June has been full of nice surprises. The latest was the Bronze Medal at the RRWS National Exhibit in Moorhead, MN. I was not able to attend the opening ceremony last Tuesday, but did have a chance to see the show before it opened and the worker in charge of setting up the lights was kind enough to take this snapshot of me by my painting "No Left."

This piece retires from exhibits with a nice history. Initially, it was not successful and collected several rejections at shows, until I revised it by darkening the building and shadow on the right, and created a lead into the painting with the spatter on the foreground. After the adjustments, it was accepted into a local, a State and two national shows, and won an Honorable Mention and a Third Place Award.

It is a painting I love, not only because it shows one of my favorite places, San Francisco, but because its overall realism is undermined by the abstraction in the shadows and details, and I find the interplay of the two very intriguing.

Shadows of History at the LAG Exhibit

Shadows of History, watercolor on paper, 9x12

Finally back home from a long trip... I was unable to attend the Longmont Artists' Guild 2015 show, but heard it was very successful and learned my painting Shadows of History won the second place award for watercolors. It was great to have a chance to display some of these smaller paintings, as a lot of other shows have size restrictions.

This was one of the first paintings I did without the use of a pencil drawing. I was really pleased a how well the straight lines ended up, and at the positive/negative design of the fence, which prevented it from being too conspicuous and restrictive. I am very glad juror James Whartman saw merit in it as well.

The subject here is a view of a farm setting at the Littleton History Museum during a paint-out. I did a different scene en plein air and captured this view with my camera. Years later, I did this painting from that photo but could still remember a lot of the light and atmosphere of that bright summer day.

Plein Air Artists Colorado National Exhibit

Niwot Farm in Summer, watercolor on paper, 12 x 16

Summer is the time for plein air painting, and for plein air shows. I got great news that Niwot Farm in Summer and another of my paintings got selected for the Plein Air Artists Colorado 19th National Exhibit in July and August at the Mary Williams Fine Arts Gallery in Boulder.

I have sketched and painted at this site a few times in different seasons. It is a beautiful scene at a convenient location, except for the lack of shade, which causes a constant glare on the paper and makes the paint dry too fast. Still a very enjoyable experience and a thrill to face the challenge to capture the subject before light conditions changes too much. The more I paint onsite the more I regret the times when I have to use a photo as reference, as I'm more aware of all the distortions the camera causes. Colors are interpreted by the camera in a way that is very different from how we see the objects, especially the contrast with lit areas and shaded areas. The lens also stretch the field of vision and makes any distant objects appear much smaller and farther than in reality. And of course any close objects will have their perspective skewed.

One of my goals for this plein air season is to increase the ratio of completed paintings done on site, as opposed to only sketches and studies. This means I will have to focus more on technique and speed of execution. Another idea I'm toying with is to try painting on yupo en plein air... At first thought it seems impossible, but they sun and wind usually dry the paint so fast it might be doable with the right approach. Well, we will try and see where it leads.

Best of Show at State Watercolor Exhibit 2015!

 

My five year old son receives the Best of Show award on my behalf

I received an incredible early birthday gift this year: It was a big surprise and a bigger honor to receive two awards at the 2015 Colorado Watercolor Society State Watercolor Exhibit! My painting No Left won an honorable mention, and Twin Elevators was chosen Best of Show by juror Rick Brogan! It was even more special to have my wife and children in attendance at the Award Ceremony to enjoy the moment with me! My two sons were elated to share the limelight and receive the award bags on my behalf.

It is great to get such recognition for my work; these are two of my favorite pieces and I am thrilled that the juror saw merit in them. Thank you, Mr. Brogan! I owe this and other recent success to great instructors that have inspired and guided me along the years, but in particular to Mr. Arne Westerman, whose workshop in 2013 really drove home to me the pitfalls and strategies of design. I did not even get accepted to this show two years ago, but since I started critiquing my own work and applying the learnings from that workshop, I got an award in 2014, and top award this year.

Congratulations to the CWS and its President Greg Chapleski, show chair Gary Nichols and all their collaborators for another beautiful show, with many of the best water media artists in Colorado, and for the successful Opening Ceremony, very well attended on this sunny Saturday afternoon at the Lone Tree Arts Center in southern Denver.

 

 Family photo with Twin Elevators at the Award Ceremony

 No Left, Honorable Mention at the State Exhibit

Just Before the Storm

The Red Garage in Winter, watercolor on paper, 9x12

This winter in Colorado has been very kind to plein air painters. Lots of sunshine and mild temperatures. Last week, for instance, we had a cold front and very low temperatures on Monday and Tuesday, and then warm days again towards the weekend. I managed to get a long lunch break on Friday to paint this scene in Old Town Niwot, just before the next storm moved in and brought snow for the weekend. My plein air group was painting at the canyon west of Boulder and I did not have enough time to travel that far, so I set on this location roughly five minutes from my house.

The muted colors of winter make colorful elements such as this red garage by the old Grange building really stand out. I am using a technique of direct painting, without a pencil sketch, with just some general guidelines in permanent orange to define the major shapes. It is exciting to paint without the pencil boundaries but the drawing accuracy suffers.

I parked the car, opened the passenger door and painted from the passenger seat, with the tripod easel set in front of me by the open door. Only five minutes into it, and the owner of the restaurant next door was sweet enough to come by and offer me a more comfortable chair. I politely declined; I wasn't going to be staying long. Ironic that 99% of the time I stand to paint and no one had offered a seat on those occasions... And I was too focused on the painting to realize I should have taken the opportunity to order a cup of tea or coffee...

Mountain Town Best Buddies

Mountain Town Best Buddies

It was very satisfying to work on this painting of a back alley in the mountain town of Silverton, Colorado. A couple of weeks ago I pulled out the black and white print and the pencil sketch I had done a couple of years back. Several times before I had put them away not know exactly what to do with it, but I now spent some time remembering the light and atmosphere of the day, thinking through some of the challenges, and then proceeded to paint quickly to my plan, without any struggles.

I wanted to keep the detail to a minimum, just suggested, and I wanted to celebrate the simple joys of small town life, the quiet and piece that allow people to enjoy friendship, and I believe the painting suggests those themes well. I like the path of light, and the frame within a frame composition formed by the dark wall, the shadow and the pole.