February 10 - The Four Seasons, Summer 5 x 7

"Summer Field" The final image of the four paintings depicting the seasons. The first one (Autumn, February 7) came from the source photograph, the other three are completely out of my imagination. The Color System makes it really easy to choose colors that work, and even change the season, because you have room to play since many of the problems are solved for choosing the color. I really enjoyed doing these four paintings, however now I need to produce some more serious work for galleries and the designer. Orignal 5 x 7 acrylic $120.

February 9 - The Four Seasons, Spring 5 x 7

"Spring has sprung, the grass has rizz, I wonder where dem flowers is?"...That's a silly ditty taught to me by my mother. Well, here are some spring flowers along the path, and a field of mustard with its characteristic lemon yellow flowers. We see the same barn off in the distance, and the purple mountains creating another complementary color scheme. Darn it! Guess I can't get too far away from those schemes since nature wants us to see it. Orignal 5 x 7 acrylic $120.

February 8 - The Four Seasons, Winter, 5 xx 7

Brrrrr!!! Yesterday's fall weather has changed with this decent snowfall over those fields and with the trees now completely bare. What a change from yesterday's autumn colors, yet the scheme is still blue and orange--just really subtle oranges! I think I'm going to enjoy spring when it comes through tomorrow! Orignal 5 x 7 acrylic $120.

February 7 - The Four Seasons, Fall, 5 x 7

Every once in a while I get a hankering to do a series of seasonal images of one scene. Thus today's painting, a 5 x 7 acrylic of a farm landscape near where I used to live, closer to Hemet. This is another of those places that is quickly disappearing, as the area is desirable to developers because it is flat, and lends itself to cookie-cutter tract homes. It remains there so far, yet I expect to find it missing in any month in the future. Now we will see it go through four seasons in the next four days--and here is autumn for your pleasure. I love the blue/orange play of color. The summer flushness is gone, and the field lays fallow for the coming winter (tomorrow's painting!) Orignal 5 x 7 acrylic $120.

February 6 - Sycamore Leaf, Acrylic Painting

Every day when I go out our gate, I pass a couple of huge sycamore trees with their characteristic mottled trunks and large leaves. They have been asking me to paint them, and although I did paint the trees up the canyon a few days ago, I knew I wanted to do a study of one of their beautiful leaves.  So today's 6 x 8 acrylic is capturing the unique beauty of these hand-sized leaves that have fallen and rustle on the edge of the road. The sycamores are the first to lose their leaves and the first to re-leaf in the spring. $120.

February 5 - White Still Life

My sister came over to visit for a few hours, and we organized the larger space that will host shows and students. In doing so, sorting the flowers into color groups for display and still life setups was part of the journey. I now have nice vases of reds, yellows, and greens, and this white pitcher of white flowers! It seemed like a fun thing to do to set it up on a sculpting stand and paint it--so here is the 12 x 12 inch oil for your pleasure today! $250
from the dailypaintings.com web site for this date.
When I slightly squint my eyes, I enjoy how the values hang together with the harmonious colors. Juicy, yet very subtle, and the light source is quite obvious! Such fun to stretch the still life muscles. Maybe another one tomorrow, while I work out the last minute details of another commission still here. Gotta get it right, darn it all.

February 4 - Cooling Off on the Paint

Sunday without television in our house means that there is no Super Bowl excitement, so I trailered Raindance and met up with about 20 other riders for a great ride around a large open area called Bonelli Park. Water crossings and many western riders enjoying the 83 degree day, and photo opportunities galore. Over three hours in the saddle and a great ride!
 Thus results this small 5 x 7 acrylic on really textured handmade paper collage, of one of the riders in the stream we crossed. Fun to completely get away from the oils and "play" in the acrylics!
 I'm also thinking about my own soon-to-be-underway trip to the Arizona mountains near the Chiricahua National Monument where I'll be on a working cattle ranch for a week, with some friends from the East Coast! Lots of great subject matter there, I'll bet. And I'm taking my paint brushes, of course!

SOLD to Mary Cadenhead of Brownwood, Texas