Adobe Gate

This is a watercolor I painted on location in Santa Fe, NM a couple of years ago while there for an art show. Santa Fe. What can I say. It is such an artist paradise what with all of the old adobe structures and the rich history not to mention the fabulous art galleries.

Painting "en plein aire" is such a joy and what a wonderful place to do it. The shadows cast across this adobe wall and the entrance gate was too much to pass up.

This watercolor is double matted in acid free white mat with an acid free backing. The image size is 9x12 and with the matting will fit into a 14x18 ready made frame. The painting is for sale at my studio.

Navajo Nation

I was headed to Tucson, AZ one winter for a show and was on the highway between Shiprock, NM and Gallup, NM when I came across this scene on the Navajo Reservation. The colors of the red butte and white and blue shadows of the snow caught my eye so I pulled over and did the painting on the spot. Because it was winter and cold outside I did the painting from inside my pickup, through the windshield, which I have done many times when the weather wasn't conducive for b eing outside. It is for sale at auction. You can go there by clicking here.



Sidewalk Cafe

Bougainvillea vines are my favorite. The brilliant red color makes for a great watercolor. This scene is of a sidewalk cafe in SoCal. I did the painting a couple of years ago from a phot I took of the cafe. The place was very inviting. Everytime I see this painting I want to go there and have lunch.

I really like painting watercolors. There are certain effects I can get with watercolor that just aren't possible with oils This painting is double matted in white and will fit nicely into an 11x14 ready made frame. This painting has SOLD! Thanks.

Escalante Colors

Here's something that is a little different than what I've been posting, different in that this is a watercolor. I paint a lot of watercolors. I love them. There are certain effects I can get in watercolor that I just can't achieve in oils. There is a translucent quality to watercolor that make them unique. Additionally, watercolor can be rather spontaneuos and unpredictable which makes the whole painting process, shall we say, interesting. Sometimes you never know what you are going to get.

What is also different about this watercolor is that it is varnished. That is to say there is a protective finish that has been applied thereby protecting the painting without the need for glass. The painting was done on an arches paper and then mounted on a lightweight panel and varnished. It can be framed as is or matted and glassed in the traditional manner.

This is a plein air watercolor I did near Escalante, Utah a couple of years ago. I love it over there. Very wild uninhabitated country. Perhaps the wildest and least populated in the lower 48. Brutal country if you aren't careful. Anyway, when painting plein air with watercolor, great things can happen. Because of the nature of the medium and the fact that one isn't looking at or painting a static situation, the light, wind, sun, bugs, etc. the result is a visceral reaction. This painting is for sale at the gallery. Please contact me if you are interested.

Grand Wash

This is a great little red rock oil I just did in the studio. It has a little of everything that I enjoy about painting in oils, from thin washes in the wall on the left to thicker paint in the clouds. It was a fun little painting. The reference I used was a watercolor that I did on location a couple of years ago. That's the best way to do it, on locaton, but in lieu of that, painting from a study, as in this case, works fine.

The scene is of the entrance to Grand Wash over in Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. It is a favorite place to go paint. Part of Capitol Reef NP is the site of an early Morman settlement. The fruit orchards that were established still exist and the public is invited to partake of the bounty for a small donation you can leave in the can at the gate.

This little oil can be purchased at auction. Click here for more information. Thanks for looking.

Fruita Canyon

This little oil painting was done from a watercolor sketch I did on location one morning at the Colorado National Monument. I was on location early that morning with the sun just coming up. I remember it was quite chilly with frost in the shadows. It sure felt good as the sun got higher and higher.

I really enjoy painting the desert southwest red rock features. The is so much character in the rocks. The Colorado National Monument is a special place because of these features and it is not far and easily accessible. This painting SOLD!

Waiting...

Another of my cowboy series, this painting is of a good friend of mine who is dead now. He was a cowboy's cowboy, a true gentleman and a good friend. He had a unique way of sitting on a horse, especially when motionless as here. Sitting, waiting, perhaps for the day to warm, or maybe just surveying his domain. This painting has sold. Thank you.

Gottcha!

Continuing my cowboy series, this painting is of a calf roper at the Fred Harmon 4th of July Rodeo in Pagosa Springs some years ago. Fred was the creater of the Little Beaver series that some of you may remember.

Here I was striving for the feeling of action without the typical "freeze frame" look. This is something new for me and I realize there is a fine line between blurring the images too much and loosing some of the identity and not enough, thereby loosing the effect. With this one I have sketched in the imagery and developed the detail from right to left to focus on the calf. The warm, nondescript background helps focus on the cowboy, horse and calf. It is also a great foil for the blues I used in the riders jeans and the shadows of the calf and horse. This painting is for sale at my gallery. Please contact me if you are interested.

The Red Shirt

As many of you know, I used to be a cowboy. Hmmm. That sounds like the title to a song or a book..."I Used to Be a Cowboy". I'll have to remember that one. Anyway, I've been thinking about doing something different with my art, trying to find something that will excite people. Most of my work is pretty representaional. I like to paint a variety of subject matter and rather than try to make a change in "what I paint", I've decided to look more at "how" I paint it. In otherwords, maybe develope my style a bit more.

Many artists go through a shift in style throughout their careers and maybe it's time for me to get out of my comfort zone and stretch a little. This painting, although a familiar subject, is done a little differently, and I kind of like the look. With the portraits I've been doing lately, I've been experimenting with the background treatment and I've used what learned there on the background of this painting. I hope you like it.

This is a little 8x6 oil painting that is for sale at auction. This painting SOLD!! Thanks Heide!

Delicate Arch

Last fall we went over to Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. October was a perfect time of year to go. Not too warm during the day and cool in the evenings. I love painting the red rock features in southeastern Utah. Although I have done a lot of work in the area this was the first time I had been to Arches in many years. The hike to see Delicate Arch was well worth the effort. This particular arch is the one that the state of Utah uses for much of it's branding. This 8x10 studio oil is available at the gallery.

Soldiers Falling Into Camp

I was taking inventory the other day and I came across a pencil drawing I had done some years ago of Crow Indian Dancers at the annual Crow Fair in Crow Agency, Montana. This gathering is a big deal for the Crow. Representatives of all invited tribes show up for a week or so of celebration. A show of feathers, dress, hoopla and regalia. Horse races are big.


I used to be a Lease Agent on the Crow Reservation, representing the Padlock Ranch who was the largest land holder on the rez to the tune of about 250,000 acres give or take a few thousand depending on the year. I had roughly 1400 individual Crows that I dealt with every year involving a little over $1,000,000 in lease payments. It was sort of like running a little bank as money was loaned against the leases, and of course this all had to be accounted for.

One of “my Indians”, Fredrick Lefthand, along with a couple of other fellas wrote a book titled “Soldiers Falling Into Camp”, so titled because of a vision Sitting Bull had just days prior to the famous battle involving Custer against the Sioux and the Northern Cheyenne. Fredrick gave me a personalized copy.

I’m sure you are familiar with the battle from our history books. What is unique about this book is that it is from the Indian’s perspective of the time. Many of my Crow “friends” still harbored great resentment toward the “white man”, often expressing their anger against me. I continually had to remind them that I had nothing to do with the matter, and besides, at the time of the battle, my ancestors were still in Norway. If necessary, I would remind them that the Crow fought on the side of Custer…so there. That generally ended the argument. The Crow are embarrassed by their alliance with Custer although they were enemies of the Sioux and Cheyenne at the time.

The Crow Reservation surrounds the Custer Battlefield or the Battle of the Little Bighorn National Park as it is known today. I leased much of this land for the Padlock and became very familiar with the names of the creeks and drainages of the battle site and those traversed by Custer and his various regiments as they approached the Indian encampment on the Little Big Horn. Ash Creek, the Rosebud, Medicine Man Coulee and of course the Little Big Horn. I’ve stood on the very ground, alone, in the still heat of a certain June day and it was easy to imagine. I have to admit an eerie feeling and tingling of my skin. Hmmm. Material for a painting I suppose.