"Dreams of Horses" watercolor, 6x11

"Dreams of Horses", naps on a hill

in the middle of the city.

Crows and seagulls caw and cry,

the reservation calls.

"Rez Dreams" watercolor journaling

He sees horses in the clouds
that stretch to the horizon,
they gallop off to the reservation
where the water runs clean and the air is pure,
where food is free and he feeds himself from the land,
where his prayers can be heard by the Creator,
not drowned out by the noise of traffic,
or sirens of the ambulance scraping the wounded
out of urine soaked alleys.

Air travel doodle, "What's Inside me" 6x11 pen and ink

It's been hectic between carpentry projects, fencing, field work and assundry other distractions. I'm posting excerpts from my journal as that is all the time I have to do and SOME people (Peter) are poking at me to keep up on my blog which is good as it should be my priority right behind painting.

I doodled this little piece on the 6 hour plane flight to DC. I was interested in where my imagination would go if I drew on only what I had in my visual vocabulary. We all have a vocabulary of x amount of words and I think it would probably be true of a visual vocabulary. It would be interesting to find out the disparity between individual's vocabulary. I'm sure some folks would be quite limited whereas artists and such who's business is to work that muscle would have considerably more.

I'm very glad to be home after the trip to DC but I found great inspiration and knowledge in the Jasper Johns exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art.

Johns is pretty far out there and really pushed the question of what comprises a painting. He did what I refer to as 'deconstruct' painting and the process of painting. I found myself far more interested in Modern Art as opposed to my favorites of the Impressionists but still got quite a bit out of communing with Monet's, "Rouen Cathedral" apprx, 2'x3'. It was great to be able to sit in a couch for a couple hours, get up and closely scrutinize, then walk back 50' to get the full effect of these jewells. As I have my own Rouen Cathedral, namely Coyote Mt., that I will be painting time and time again during different hours of the day and different seasons of the year, I have a model to compare to. Monet did many paintings of the Cathedral at different times of the day. Observing how thick the paint was I have to think he didn't do it all in one sitting although I like to think he did it En Pleinair.

The process I divulged was one that I have aspired to do working thin to thick letting the underpainting show through although Monet carried the process a step further by lightly staining the very thick impasto layer with a further accent. The overall achievement was a vibrating effect that I think was not only attained through color but also from the effect of the strokes of impasto that actually creates shadows such as would be found in a relief sculpture and augmented the effect of light in the painting. At first I was put off by what I thought was the lack of maintenance of the painting and that the varnish had been allowed to yellow to the point of being dark brown in some places but noticed that it might actually have been intentional on the part of the artist to accent the textural nature the stones of the cathedral would make. My notes tell me that of the two side by side paintings one of the direct sun was predominant high and warm values over cool closely related low values of hue, whereas the compainion piece done in the latter hours of the day had warm shadows and cool highlights although a very close value table between both ends of the predominant values.

When I have time I'll find some online examples of the paintings to add to this entry but for now I have to install a shower. It would be sad but I'm going to learn to tile which may lead to painting tiles and some tile installations of my paintings. Viva la Arti'st. or something like that.

Portrait study, 14"x16" oil on canvas board

I'm headed to Washington D.C. where I will stop and see George Catlins work that he did in the early 1800's. It is an amazing collection of over 400 paintings he did on an expedition out west just after Lewis and Clark came back from their historic expedition.
Catlin studied the lives of many tribes and did portraits of many tribal members in full regalia. His intent was to impress the literati of Europe with this body of work but instead he nearly went broke.
This is another study of my neighbor 'Hob0' as he is known by everyone, a.k.a. Henry Stensgar. Hobo feeds my horses and keeps the fire burning in the stove when I'm off on my jaunts. He is unique in that he lives off what he hunts and the salmon he catches. "Food in a can is no good." He is very traditional. Like me he was born 200 years too late although I think he would have had a problem without his glasses.

"Wilderness" 11"x14", oil on canvas board, Bid on Ebay

This painting is available on Ebay. Follow the attached link.

My fingers were pretty numb by the end of this session. I captured the light spilling down the trail to our horse pasture. The the warm light on the Pines is a perfect contrast to the cool shadows falling on the cold snow.

A fun little number that would be a refreshing memory of Winter on a warm summer day.

"Mist Rising", 3x4, oil on wood

February is a brooding time,
as if the sun is trying to find itself
a way to be,
but can't.
The sky changes,
the sun shines through,
briefly warming and melting.
Mist rises only to fall
as snow
on the next mountain.

The Betrothal that is Spring, 3x4, oil on wood

Treking through the snow along the river I set up my easel,

a duck splashes one foot with each wing beat into the air,

snow then sun then rain but always a cold wind.

There is a promise that Winter has locked away but cannot deny the betrothal that is Spring.

West Fork, February Thaw

Snowing one minute, sunshine the next. In between remodeling the ranch house and feeding horses I get little sketches done.

"Western Canook" 12x16 oil

"Snow Bunting, West Fork" 12"x24" oil on canvas

After a few days away from oils, I took my easel out to the barn and painted this view to the south, down the Sanpoil Valley from West Fork. While I was painting I was delighted to be visited by a Snow Bunting, a small finch like bird that I have never seen. I sketched it into the lower left corner as I didn't have my sketch pad with me. When I got my bird book out I was happy to see I could positively identify it and had done a good job of observation. It was a juvenile and a little more tawny than the adults but pure white with dark markings on its wings and tail. Memorizing visual images is the far easier than memorizing words, names or numbers for me.
It is 'break-up' in the valley and getting out of the driveway is a challenge. The days are getting warmer and longer. The river is rising. The eagles are nesting and sap is starting to rise in the red osher dog wood turning them alizarin crimson. I'm looking forward to capturing and being captivated by the colors of spring as they come on. The cliffs will be roaring with waterfalls and song birds will be returning. Life is good.