Arches National Park

This is a plein air watercolor I painted at the campground in Arches N.P. in Utah last fall. I just love the red rock features and the complimentary green. This old snag was casting it's shadow loosely on the red rock behind it one morning and I couldn't resist the painting. After a round of dutch oven cinammon rolls with coofee cup in hand I settled in to capture great little scene. If this is something you might be interested in it is at auction here.

This is another one I did later in the day. It was also painted from the campground if you are familiar with the area. The hoodoos or goblins as they are sometimes called were great shapes and color in contrast to the silvery sage and other ground cover. It is also at auction here.


I have several more paintings at auction. Please browse through them and if you have any questions about them, let me know. Thanks for stopping by.

The Art of Being an Artist

I’m telling you right here and now, it isn’t easy…being an artist. It used to be that one could get away with just painting good pictures but that has changed dramatically over the years. Painting the picture is the easy part. It’s everything else that goes with it that is becoming a real challenge.


I see two factors that are causing the most grief. The first is the competition. There are a lot of really good artists out there, creating some really good art, not to mention all of the marginal artists, creating marginal art. I’ll let you draw your own distinction between the two. I’m not going there.

The second factor contributing to this angst is technology, specifically computers and the internet. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for it. The problem, as I see it, is that those who have grown up with it, and have embraced it as a way of life, expect us all to think and operate on the same level in order to be successful. I don’t know. Maybe they are right but I’ll tell you it is exhausting trying to keep up.

Those who think they are “in the know”…and who knows…maybe they are right, tell you that to compete in today’s marketplace, you need to expose what you do in all the right places and in the right way. Here’s what I’m talking about.

I do a painting and hang it in my gallery. All of the career coaches and experts say you need to keep a regular and interesting presence on Facebook too. You also need to keep a regular and interesting presence on your “blog”. Keep your website current. Post pictures of your art. Every time you do a new piece, get it on the ‘net. Tell the story. Keep up your presence.

Now they are telling us that we need to create videos of the creative process. People want to see what we are doing and how we do it. People want to know. Get it on Youtube. It’s the next big trend…and it’s true. I spend way too much time watching videos on Youtube of “what and how” others in my trade are doing. I suppose that it beats watching what’s on TV, which is time waster, but that’s a topic for another time.

The problem is that by the time I try to do all of what it takes to just keep up, I haven’t much time left for what I do…paint pictures, make frames and lay a little gold. They say “there’s no rest for the wicked and the righteous don’t need any” so I guess I better quit whining and get busy. Thanks for stopping by. See you downtown.

Art Nouveau On Glass

This is a test piece I just finished. 23kt gold for the word "leaf". I used 1-shot Lettering Enamel for the colors and design. The reason it is a test piece is because I will use this same lettering and design as part of  larger lettering and a design on the windows of my shop van pictured below. The reason I choose to use an "Art Nouveau" look is because of the lines of the glass and body shape of the van. The free flowing look and curves of the art nouveau period will fit well even if the van is of a modern era. If the van had been more boxy in design and look then a differrent design for the lettering would've been more appropriate.

Looking at the van, I think you can see what I mean. I placed the sample lettering against a piece of grey mat board to simulate the tinted windows of the van. Overall I'm pleased with the look. This lettering and design was done on the front surface of the glass as opposed to the reverse side of the glass when it is clear. The technique is somewhat different as is the resulting look but because the windows are tinted I had no other option than to "surface gild" the lettering. Consequently, with both pieces of glass fully lettered by hand and included 23kt gold, and on both sides, there will be no more trips through the car wash. I'll be washing this piece of art by hand. I think the shameless self promotion of this lettering will pop nicely against the dark glass and color of the van as I travel about. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I should add that this is all done by hand.

The Long Ride North

http://youtu.be/4xBXwVO4EkA

Here's a link to a video of our first planning session for the Long Ride North.

In June of 2014 I will turn 66 years old. At that time, my wife and I, and others, will leave on our Harleys and ride in a northerly direction for 15 days and then turn around and head back home. We’ll be gone for a month. So far we have four of us on three Harleys.


We started talking about this last summer in a rather casual manner, wondering how far we could get and what we might see along the way. All winter long this has been gnawing at me, so I booked a room at the Box Canyon Lodge in Ouray, CO (highly recommended by the way) and this past weekend we met with some of our traveling companions, got the maps out and plotted a possible direction. By the end of this initial session we had developed a route, a little over 7000 miles, and dubbed the upcoming adventure, The Long Ride North. It is now official, complete with T-shirts in the making and a resulting DVD and book filled with paintings and photos. WooHoo!

Turns out it is quite likely we’ll to get to Alaska. The plan is for me to document our travels by video and daily blogging as we go, so all of you good folks and others can follow along on this great adventure. When we return, I’ll edit and compile all the video into a releasable DVD. I’ll also edit and compile all of the daily blog posts, add after thoughts and anything else that won’t fit into the blog, go through all of the photos taken, include watercolor sketches done on the ride and compile it all into a book. Whew!

Sounds ambitious. Of course many others have made the ride before us and most without the fanfare we are planning on but that was their trip and this one is ours. It may be the trip of a life time for me…or, it could just be the jumping off point for a new career. I kind of like the idea of that.

While the idea has been rattling around in the back of my mind ever since brother-in-law Steve and his wife Loann made the ride a couple of years ago, it became more than a passing interest after watching the DVD set of Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor who rode their motorcycles around the world in The Long Way Round. Of course they were gone for three months and traveled almost 20,000 miles and they had sponsors and were much younger than yours truly.

Hmmm, sponsors. I hadn’t thought of that until now. What a great idea. I wonder if AARP would be interested? Sounds like a little fund raising is in order. I’ll have to look into this. I'll put this on the list of things to do, which is growing almost daily.

What we have planned for this trip is a little out of the usual because of the video and blogging to be included. This alone requires far more planning than I had realized.  Thin I'll use this summer's rides as practice.

Stay tuned folks and thanks for stopping by.