winter efforts

"Winter, Chick le 'est, 11"x14"


"January Thaw, Devil's Elbow" 16"x20"

I have been delighted with the results of winter work out of doors. It is cold but I have the luxury of a car heater. When my hands or feet get too cold I simply jump in and warm up. I tune the satelite radio in to the Opera and turn up the volume with the doors open and paint away. Eat your heart out Monet! Luv it! The white of the snow is like the white of the canvas which makes it easy to decipher the composition and shape of things. The painting just about paints itself and I try to keep from overworking the painting. I use a very limited pallet raw umber, raw sienna, alizarin, cobalt blue a little viridian and very little cad yellow but lots of thick impasto titanium white.

"Storm Over 21 mile" 16"x20"


"Winter Tracks" 11"x14"


"Tracks in the Snow" 11"x14"

Studio Paintings

I promised myself I would start working on paintings of horses if only because I have worked with them for more than 20 years and figure I should paint what I know. I've got a lot of material, digital photos, regular photos, and 6 models, Lucky, Rainy, Windy, Sunny, Willow and M&M.
The challenge will be working in the studio as opposed to life studies. I do tie up the horses outside the window and study them to get things right but I miss the colors of the warm seasons and the horses are wearing their shaggy winter coats.

Myers Falls 16x20

This painting was started on location at Myers Falls, the oldest longest producing millsite west of the Mississippi, 1826, or atleast that is the claim of the caretaker that lives below the falls and maintains the power house that still operates and makes enough power for up to 1000 homes. Pretty cool. This was also the area that the Hudson Bay Company established a post and if it weren't for David Thompson and political shenanigans that occured at the time this area would have been part of Canada. Also nearby was one of the greatest salmon fishing sites on the Columbia to which tribes from all around the west would gather for a potlatch. The first of the catch went to the Creator, the next that were provided for were the elders and handicapped, then those that came to trade were dealt in. Salmon didn't make it up Myers Falls but continued on their way up to the Upper Columbia, one of the greatest Salmon fisheries the world has ever seen. Today dams on the Columbia have closed much of the fishery off to salmon, many species of which are endangered of extinction. I wonder what it was like back then. I bet you had to dodge Grizzlies and wolves for some of the bounty.
It was a very cold and grey day to paint. I had to brighten it up in the studio. I was tempted to put turkeys in the painting. As I was working a flock of turkeys flew from the trees across the canyon over my head. There were atleast 50 of the big birds and it was a delight to watch them cruise over my head, gobbling to each other as they landed.

Fall Series

I've been working on a "Sanpoil Autumn" series.
I've enjoyed developing a simplifying my compositions as well as color notes from plein air work onsite. It is a pleasure to explore possibilities and interject the poetry I derive by reflecting on nature. I listen to opera and refer to notes of paintings and digital photos I took on location. I have always been enamored with the process of painting, of discovering new color combinations. Painting is much like playing the guitar. Many times I take time out and play the guitar as I critique my work. I have noticed there are many similarities between the way I play and the way I paint. It is very personal, I have never been inclined to play music as it is writen, rather it is a point of departure that I build upon with innovation and simplification. If art is about growth then I am growing. I discover my self through my efforts. It is an aesthetic development of the window of the self and the world that self occupies..




I visited the Frye museum in Seattle and discovered works by Cummings, one of the last of the NW greats like Tobey and Graves. I had seen some of his "Western" work in various magazines. The show was a retrospective of his very hard life in which he was married 7 times, survived TB and being a Communist during the days of Black Lists. I found insight into an artists development. He was true to his own vision. His later works are a celebration to his committment to color. He said something to the effect that after 40 yrs he finally allowed himself what he always suspected, he was a color junky. That's not exactly how he put it but it certainly is appropriate for his later Masterpieces, "Balthazar" and others.

Sanpoil Autumn and trip to Washington D.C.

Sanpoil Autumn, 16x20

This is my first studio painting of the year. It's been raining and cold every day. We sure need it, the ground soaks it right up. It hasn't rained for months and months. There is snow in the mountains and the Indians are burning slash, creating a nice but pungent haze in the valley. When the sun does shine the mountain shadows are every shade of ultramarine blue. Perfect to set off the brilliant oranges and reds of cottonwoods and aspen. I chose to work from my studies. I still had the same paint on my pallet that I had been using so thought it would be logical to use those colors and the notes from some landscapes. I had fun developing some of the color combinations I had discovered outside i.e. intense gradations of Hansa + white for highlights down yellow cad, virmillion and alizarin mixing alizarin and ultramarine with white to get some wonderful pastels.

In this painting I used the "Golden Rule" idea for the composition with the center of interest in the middle of the painting perhaps too much so but it does feel like I achieved the intent. I look forward to perhaps a series of these to develop the idea and see where I can take it. I listen to classical music and don't notice the day go by as I paint away!

I worked outside everyday with the intention of working indoors during the winter. I started just fixing up some plein air work, adjusting and altering right on the existing painting but quit after I realized they were important notes that I can't afford to lose. I have lots of digital photographs but they aren't to helpful. They help with the mechanics of things such as composition and object identification but lack any kind of ability to inspire interpretation. I've come to the conclusion that nature is a point of departure. If I thought I wanted a perfect picture of reality I would take a photo but they don't even come close to the right colors. Paintings are about Ideas whether it was the cave man, Monet or Picasso the end result was a reflection of the artists thoughts or ideas.

I had the opportunity to go to the Freer Gallery where many Whistler masterpieces reside. I also got through Hirshorn Museum of Modern Art but felt those represented were large "smart asses" thumbing their nose at the viewer but I also recognized that they were those that pushed the envelope of convention. I particularly liked the installations and sculpture especially the most modern sculptures such as David Smith's welded sculpture of a Raven. I came to wonder why I can stand in front of a Church, Moran, or Bierstadt for hours and marvel at their accomplishments. As usual I spent most of my time in the National Gallery of Art looking at those favorites but discovered two wonderful paintings by George Bellows of his famous "Boxers". Huge dark canvases such as Rembrandt would have devised with two figures brutally locked in combat under a light from above, a rabid crowd dark on dark crowded around the bottom of the combatants. I was delighted to see two of his cityscapes. Truly a virtuoso painter. Much pallett knife work but very acurate fooling the eye in such a way that the shapes come together from a distance of about 10 feet. Fun stuff! I have to think that his process was such that after working on location he would distill his thoughts and visual memory into such wonderful work.

The Freer Gallery built at the behest of Railroad tycoon and art Patron (William?) Freer has many of the "Aestetes" such as Whistler, Dwyer and Twachtman. I didn't know that Whistler was so influetial on art history. He changed how art was viewed in his time by making a painting, 'art for arts' sake', a saying I have often heard but hadn't realized that there was an actual transition from allegorical paintings that told a story to what we take for granted today as the artists license to do his own thing. He also interjected "Harmony" into his paintings from observing Oriental art. The painting became an object in his own right. One of the most significant personal insights I got from observing Whistlers work some as small as my hand, was painting or rather drawing over an underpainting with thin washes in such a way as to allow the brushstrokes to appear transparent and delineate the lines of the form as you would with a pencil. The transparent veils of a woman's dress or japanese paper parasol achieving a translucent quality. He often painted on wood panels with thin washes over an underpainting. I hope I can remember to try the technique.


I have to mention why I was back in D.C. of all places for a horselogger/artist. As Secretary of the WPUDA we had to try to convince our NW delegation of the critical need to dissuade BPA from proceeding with deregulating our transmission system in the NW. Apparently we were successful as when we came back Steve Wright of BPA pulled out of the discussions which effectively kills the process although I won't be surprised if another 'for sale' sign gets hung on some feature of our federal energy resources. Stay Tuned!

"Fair Barn on the Sanpoil". I went painting with a group up in Republic. Got this done in about 3 hours. Lost the light but held onto the gist of it. Russel says I need to get away from mixing white with my colors and instead mix the next higher or lower value in intesity with the local color I am trying to portray. i.e. to get brighter cad yellow light, mix hansa or lemon yellow, to darken, mix cad red light or vermillion. 

Dance of the Cranes

"Dance of the Cranes"

Had a great trip to Seattle. Spent some time sketching in Pike Street Market. The folks hanging out (homeless?) will sit for a sketch. I pay them $1 for 15 minutes. Don't pay them for an hour or they just leave.
This is the view from the balcony where I stayed. It was a rare sunny day. Diffuse light. Great sunset that I captured in a watercolor.
On the way over I had the opportunity to meet artist William F Reese. We had a great visit and got to see his work. I soaked it up like a sponge and look forward to the opportunity to do so again. Bill has been painting all his life. Wonderful landscapes and exceptional horses. He's looking for a home for a life size skeleton of a horse! Nothing like the real thing to study from.
Came home to find that I had sold some paintings out of the gallery in Republic. Turns out most of my stuff has been purchased by other artists. Don't know if that's a pattern or just what that means. One of the things that Bill said, "Don't sell the painting before it is made." I certainly understand what that means. So many say to paint what you know, paint what your heart tells you to paint, and paint from nature to learn the right way.
Fall is coming and the days are getting short but the light is perfect. I'm not looking forward to it getting colder but I'll figure out a way to still paint outside.

A second visit to a great painting site. Indian Summer continues. It is warm and clear as the sun falls to the southern horizon. Deep ultramarine shadows amplify the gold and orange of softwoods. Alizarin crimson and burnt sienna blend with yellow ocher and yellow cadmium. Middle ground of green goes both ways. Warmed with ochre they turn gold. Cooled by bloom they become purple. I try to concentrate on brushwork. I utilize an underpainting by making it negative space but can't get away from blending color on the canvas to define shape. I seek to find a balance where brushwork doesn't disapear and the color of the underpainting combines with scumbled brushwork to achieve its complementary color as I did with the painting "Deep Lake" which is set aside as a favorite to strive for. 

I'm getting in "The Groove". There comes a point in the effort of developing a method that works that you find more success than usual. I think this is where artists get into a series, developing method and subject. 

getting there.........

Nora Jones singing in the background....."If I were a painter"....... "I'm dreamin of a place".........""and could paint a memory, I'd climb inside the sky to be with you"............

The war goes on and nature humbles the greatest nation on earth,

The place of art pales in comparison to what my brother suffers.

It's a little awkward for me to stumble towards some enigmatic goal of beauty in the face of suffering. The best I can do is to donate a piece to a local charity. Today in the gallery a nurse from the hospital came in and asked for donations for an event they are putting on for the damage done by the hurricane that devestated New Orleans. I gave 3 paintings. Meanwhile another hurricane even worse than Katrina storms down on Galveston. Oddly this is a good thing as it turns our attention to home and raises questions that challenge the purpose of the war in Iraq. Meanwhile fuel hits record prices and winter is coming.

As far as my artwork goes I've hit a new level.
I've started to gain "Sensibility", the ability to envision the subject in its entirety. The end result of an attempt to interpret what I see, what I believe and what I want to say. It's a pivotal place where what your efforts have amounted to enable one to express what is sensed. I have great expectations. My canvas is getting bigger my pallette is established and my choices difinitive.

Anyway......................... .......................................