April 28 - LONG ride, and 95 degrees

I thought you'd enjoy seeing the terrain I rode over with 20 other riders today. I led a ride up on Box Springs Mountain for my riding club, and we enjoyed five hours in the saddle with a lunch break, and some quite steep pitches. This image isn't a painting, but shares with you that being almost 60 doesn't mean one has to slow down at all! I love to ride Raindance, and today's ride with friends and cowboys was a real corker.

Tomorrow I'll begin the big paintings for you. Tonight I'm dog tired, and fun relatives are visiting, so I will get some sleep and hit the brushes tomorrow!

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April 27 - Desert Plants from Arizona 8 x 10 acrylic

Thank you to all who wrote saying they were getting their morning (mostly) fix of daily painting emails! I'm so glad to hear from you and yet I worry about those who said they weren't getting them! Still haven't figured out what's going on.

We all wonder when a painting's finished, right? When can you stop? Well, in my case, I know when a painting ISN'T finished--it shows up without a signature. I ran across this acrylic, started while in the Arizona mountains at Grapevine Canyon, and decided that it needed to go the mile to the finish line tonight. So what did I do? I added the necessary contrast to perk it up--using layers of acrylic color to both bind and unify the design, creating the spiral wherein your eye traverses around the image, and finally finding a resting point somewhere in the middle of the cactus on the left--between the areas of yellow ochre and violet. Another artist might work an additional umpteen hours pulling out all sorts of details. I tend to stop when I get the visual feedback that the design is working. This original 8 x 10 acrylic will be going up on my ebay store in a couple of days for $120.

Tomorrow I lead a ride of perhaps 20 riders up my mountain and out on the trails for a five hour ride. I'm looking forward to it, although the temperature finally went above 85 today. Warm! And then company is coming over for an overnight and movie in our theater. I hope I can keep my eyes open!


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April 26 - Skies Over Sylvan Meadows, 12 x 9 Oil

The second of the two paintings done on location on Wednesday--found out that there were others there painting, but we didn't get in contact/phone numbers in time, so Betty and I just painted our brushes off and then went to dinner. This one happened later in the afternoon, when the "mare's tails" of clouds were coming in to indicate a change of weather. Wonderful skies, and Betty is such a sky painter, that it was fun to do one while she was nearby.

Today I said goodbye, as she left for parts north on her way home to Idaho. I'll miss her, but we both benefited greatly from the time together, and she stored about 25 of her paintings here for the show this September! They'll continue to inspire me.

One of my little paintings from 2006 is going to be in an 8th grade English literature textbook to be published next fall. Funny how stuff happens. I paint a pair of socks because I run out of new ideas for subjects to paint, and THAT painting is selected for publication! Amazing who is coming through my web sites, isn't it? It's going to be tied to a poem about socks. It's from the month of August 2006 (opens new page), created on the 25th of that month, so scroll down.
I'm getting ready to start the big paintings after I finish up one commission, and I'll do those as lesson pieces for your enjoyment.

For some reason several of you haven't been receiving "the dailies" and I haven't been able to figure out what's going on. I hope that the glitch in the 'net is open again. I would always check the blog if I've missed a day. The link is below.

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April 25 - Sylvan Meadows Water Trough, Oil

On location this afternoon painting with Betty Billups, who will be leaving after a grand visit with me for the past month. I'll miss her humor and good friendship. We went up to my favorite places to paint, the Santa Rosa Ecological Preserve near Murrieta, hoping to meet up with other Plein Air Artists of Riverside (PAAR). A horseback rider said she'd seen one other, but we didn't find her. Now I've brought Raindance up here to ride myself, and know the area well. Thus I decided to paint the water trough where well water comes in and over flows to water the thirsty horses. This is a 10 x 8 oil, and will be up on my ebay store in a couple of days.
Interesting that using a new tripod had me standing to paint, and I can see the difference in my horizon lines in this piece. The horizon line is well up above the mid-point of the painting. (This is good.)
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April 24 - Zebras and a New Show

Sorry about the late post on this one. Our Netgear wireless hiccupped last night (at midnight) so although I was having the best of intentions, nothing hit the airwaves!
I have a bit of news to share with you, which happened because of my web sites and blog. I've been contacted by representatives from the Colony Theater in Burbank to hang a show of my large African wildlife works during the run of a play with that theme this fall. They are interested in the big pieces, and I have three in the series which were found on my big website. (Scroll down). In the series are giraffes, cheetahs, and elephants. I need to fill it out with BIG canvases (4 x 5 feet and larger!) of zebras and lions. Oh! I do love to paint large!

So I start with some small studies, which are actually nice little paintings. This is an 8 x 10 acrylic study of a Grevy's zebra. I'm thinking I don't want to do the pencil-striped zebras for the big one or else I'll be completely nutziod when it's done! Yes, there are zebras "of a different stripe" out there!

This original is available through my ebay store for $140.

Congratulations to new collector David Eversdyk of Angleton, Texas, on the purchase of "Pasture Light", an original 24 x 30 oil from the big website
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April 23 - On location once again

I have to admit that painting along side Betty Billups (or at least in the vicinity of) sure kickstarts the color and choice of subject! There is pure artistic energy when artists get together to paint, and even moreso when the artists have as many miles of canvas under their brushes as Betty and I.
I encourage all artists to get to where they can be influenced by others (classroom, workshop or just getting together!) because it is true that the sum is more than its parts when applied to artists painting together!

This 12 x 9 oil came off the brushes as the day turned cooler and windier on Earth Day. I love the way the fog comes in over the Cleveland National Forest and the coastal range of mountains in Southern California. Since I considered the buildings to be incidental to the scene, they are bit players for that sky. Interesting though, that the light posts jut up into that space, connecting and also saying "look at me" the way humans and human-created things tend to do.

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April 22 - Earth Day Plein Air

Off to the celebration of Earth Day and vendors in a local shopping center. I painted this 8 x 10 oil feeling as though I was being disloyal to my own definition of Earth Day standing where I was. I left out the hordes of people--guess I'll add 'em later.
This shopping complex and bunch of homes sits on what used to be an old quarry which had gone below the water table with the result being two lakes. A haven for wild birds, these two lakes with their island were stopovers on the flyways of migrating birds. What has replaced them is two concrete-edged-and-lined ponds with a man-made waterfall between them. No self-respecting migratory bird would waste their time in those waters. Anchored with a Starbucks, the stores and other vendors did a thriving business with balloons, politicos celebrating relationships with developers, and "working to the betterment of the community" speeches. Bleagh. I noticed no birds anywhere on the grounds.

I hunkered down and looked up and painted clouds. Did a second one which I will share with you tomorrow.


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