April 15 - Leaving with Mr. Ugly

Like after a long night in a bar, when everyone looks a whole lot better the later the hour, I woke up this morning and looked at yesterday's painting and said, "Yeow!! Who hit you with the ugly stick?"
OK, all right, so it wasn't that bad, but finding a need to "finish" it made me grab up the brushes and add one more layer. I sought softer desert grays, and made one of the palms shorter for better design (not like two equal eyeballs looking at you!). It's still just a 7 x 5 inch acrylic, but a nice one for $100, soon to be on the ebay store.
On another note, there are still some spots in the next workshop in June, at Shaker Village, near Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. You get to stay, eat and paint an historic town, and it promises to be a fun-filled acrylic three-dayer. I'll hope to meet some more of you in person! Check out the link for information!
Congratulations to new collector Denise Gutnisky of Covington, Louisiana, on her purchase of two paintings today from my collector's web site, "Evening at the Santa Rosa Plateau" and "Canyon Sunset". Thank you!

April 14 - Washingtonian Palms of the Desert

An evening out, with a strawberry margarita, some espresso/vodka and wonderful Italian cuisine, finished up with spumoni ice cream and I'm not bent for making masterpieces, I can tell you. But this 7 x 5 acrylic of the Washingtonian palm trees of the low desert came off the brushes in spite of the funny pleasure of good company and good food earlier in the evening! Discipline. Definitely. And certainty of knowing which color to use, and where.
Acrylics are wonderful, fast and flexible. Now that I have my new tripod for plein air, I think I'll switch back to oils. Betty Billups is back from the on-location work for the mural, and the painting--all 16 feet of it--is now in my outer studio. It will be fun to have her here working on it again!
Complete blog here.
G'night all!

April 13 - No bad luck here! Painting update and the Muse

When is a painting finished? Last night when this painting came to you, it was signed, and yet there was that itty-bitty bit of doubt that something was missing. Then an email from Cincinnati from a friend in illustration pointed the way. She acknowledged that the horse's stride would make those splashes, but that their repetition and cadence were eye-grabbing, even moreso than the horse itself. So, the solution was to bring the painting up for one more go-pass, and the addition of a large tree shading the water, and those splashes going down in contrast and becoming less repetitive. I also needed to lighten the distant trees making more value changes in them to create more form. Out came the plastic wrap, and up went the leaves (daub, daub, daub!). Once dry, glazes of other colors made those daubs much more interesting.

The lighting on this one tonight, for photography, isn't the best--tomorrow I'll cart it out doors and get an accurate one. Too much glare affecting the curve of values. I can assure you it looks much better in person!

So when is a painting finished? When you can figure out what to do, and when the muse stops poking you in the nether regions with his pencil. My muse is now snoring off a couple beers back in his corner.

Congratulations to Linda McFadden of Murietta, California, on her purchase of "Santa Rosa Plateau, Sylvan Meadows, April" from my big web site's page of paintings from the Santa Rosa Ecological Preserve. Thank you!

April 12 - Finished Rolex Competitor

I finished up the 12 x 16 acrylic of the Rolex Three Day Event rider, putting many glazes of gel medium and veils of color on the distant trees, the water and the rest of the composition to unify and create visual interest. It sure was fun to paint the water! Not at all like the photo, which showed a muddy, murky splash. I like the greens much better! I think I'm going to hold this one for a show coming up later this year. I think it might do well.

And congratulations to Charlotte McDavid of Birmingham, Alabama, on her acquisition of my painting of Vincent Van Goat. The purchase was made through my ebay store. That's a fast, easy way to make a purchase because of all the different ways of making payment. I like that it is up there 24/7 so many people can view the works.

April 11 - Celebrating 543 daily paintings today.

Now take a look at how this acrylic painting is developing! Such fun to add layers on top of what was there yesterday, and start to build the contrast and movement! Although my source material (Rolex, equestrian three-day-event) was much larger, I want the horse and rider to fit into the scenery, so as they head pell-mell through the water (yes, that will be water, just not tonight!), the surrounding scenery will play like the backdrop of a huge stage, with the spotlight on the rider and horse. Do you see how all that mish-mash of brushwork under this focal point now works like the myriad instruments of a symphony? All the players are important when brought together, yet each has its individual "loudness".
Couple other things. One, ebay hiccupped my store into oblivion, so I had to rebuild it with the listings for my paintings today. The link is here, and this'll allow you to revisit some of your favorites. I'll add more paintings in the next couple of days.

And I accidently deleted some forty emails from the google group that receives these messages. If you're wondering what happened, it was me. I do hope you'll email if you've missed a few days so I can put you back on.

April 10 - The Muse is Back, Acrylic Lesson

Now take a look at this canvas surface, and compare it to yesterday's underpainting. An idea of a painting has come to me, and it will be fun to pull it out of this sketchy-skritchy brushworked background! I have set up the major values and color scheme, without any focal point yet, as I want this background to play a subordinate part in this 12 x 16 acrylic. Yes, it will be horse-related! Even though you can see the underlying abstract structure of the painting-to-be, I doubt very much that you can tell how the finished work is going to look! That's the fun of being an artist--sometimes the path I take to the destination of a finished canvas goes through some mighty interesting territory!
The lighting on this will be overcast, and diffuse. There will be a bit of backlighting on this one though! (Oh, I do love backlit subjects...)
The entire blog is here.

April 9 - When the Subject Won't Come

Sometimes the muse that sparks one's creativity takes a serious hike. What do you do when the muse is on vacation, and you have to create? I find that if I'm IN the workspace, and start noodling around with a canvas, an idea will come. Thus it is tonight. After a LONG ride (again six hours in the saddle, pre-riding the trails on the mountain behind the studio for a ride scheduled two weeks from now), I have a mind of mush and the creative energy of a snail. So into the studio I go (the discipline of doing 540+ paintings in the past 18 months helps), and I get out a 12 x 16 board, and start "funnin' around" with some acrylic color and gel medium, alcohol (not for me) spray and daub a bit here and there.... and an idea starts. This painting is going to be a really textured pastoral scene, lots of blades of grass, bushes, and horses. Haven't figured out the lighting yet, but misty sounds good, as does low evening light across pastures.
I can see these paintings finished almost, once the idea is there. My muse is back home again, chuckling and chortling in the corner. I gave him a beer. Let's see where this one goes tomorrow, OK?
Complete archives of all those paintings here.

April 8 - Nearer My God to Thee

After thinking for many hours what I could possibly do that would convey my feelings, my thoughts, and share my heart with all of you, the following painting came into my head, and I could see it finished even before I chose the 12" round, beveled edge canvas. I found the material I needed, but wanted to place the lilies above the horizon, as if lifted themselves to the light. I turned the one to face that direction to make the connection. I have an inner feeling of great peace with the completion of this work, and am just humbled by the gift of art that I can share on a daily basis with you.

May you each have a peace-filled, loving celebration in the comfort of your places, based upon your own religious beliefs. The song "Nearer My God to Thee" came to mind as I put the final strokes on the lily. It's one I play on the piano almost every session.

This painting is for sale through my ebay store.

April 7 - Vincent van Goat

In getting ready to go to my sister's for a day-early Easter dinner, I painted this 9 x 12 oil of Vincent van Goat from reference material taken yesterday. Betty is just as good with a camera as she is with a brush, and the close-up reference shot of Vinny was just too good to ignore. I know I will treasure this painting of "my boy", one of the friendliest and willingest Saanen wethers I've ever known. He was born in Spring, and fell into my hands. i had Tappy, his mom, as a milk goat. He seems to be looking back over his own life, with many trails and places. New life begins in the spring--I discovered a nest of house sparrows in the electrical box of my camper today! But along with new life, comes the loss of old life.
House guest Betty Billups received news of the death of someone close to her, and she's heading north to the funeral. The mural will be on hold for a few days. So many people seem to die in Spring...I think that is purposeful, to get us to move on into summer and get on with our own living, and to rejoice with all the new life in the cycle of the seasons.

Many have asked what I'm going to paint tomorrow--but I have no idea yet, except to say it will be from my heart. Thank you for joining me on this journey.

April 6 - Plein Air as a Diversion

I finally pried Betty Billups away from her mural commission and said, "We need to go paint!" She listened, and we headed out with the pack goat loaded with our gear. Up the mountain behind my studio we went, and had a wonderful afternoon of painting--just enough time for her to regroup and we both painted while Vincent van Goat lay in the shade of one of the many rocks strewn around the landscape. After about an hour, we headed back another way, through the riparian habitat below the house--keeping Vincent away from the poison oak!

This is an original oil, 8 x 10 inches, for sale for $120 through my ebay store.

Congratulations to Debbie Sullivan--the first signup for the Georgia Workship in September!

April 5 - Gateways, Passages and Light

This 16 x 20 oil came off my brushes today and is called "Passages #3"; there is just a great load of symbolism in it for me. I travel the road in the lower portion never quite soaring though life, but with beautiful sights to see along the way. The fence represents the limits we place on ourselves, preventing us from doing more, sharing more, enjoying more. Notice how flimsy it is? It truly is a flimsy reason for not getting out there "off the beaten path". I am headed for the gate at the end of my life, and I know I will slip through that little gap when my time comes, and go into the area I can't see right now. That's where we all will be some day, and the misty blues of that distant place ought not to scare nor keep us from our journey. For me, I know I will meet my mom and dad, and as I age, many more friends and family will be there.
"Passages #3" is for sale from my ebay store for $400.

Congratulations to returning collector Cindy Jaeger of Quail Valley on adding "The Studio Cat (head study)" to her collection!

April 4 - My Journey Begins, Mom

Last year on this date, I painted a small 5 x 7 of an Oahu sunset, having heard from the doctor that Mom probably wasn't going to pull through this. My sister has that painting now. It's here. If you're interested, you can find the complete month ofApril 2006, and you can scroll down to the bottom to see the series. I don't know why I'm reliving that week, but I must, so the paintings are showing how different the perception is now that time has passed, and how I've dealt with the grief of losing such a treasured advisor and friend. I know I did some of my most powerful paintings during that week, especially this one.

Today's painting was done in a very short time, from no reference other than a small toddler in a dress throwing something--a photo I took ages ago--that started the process. The rest has come from my memories--Lake Barcroft in Virginia, where I spent age 8 through 12, being a tomboy. That's Beach 3 across the water, and that's me about age 11, complete with glasses, a totally outdoors kid. I'm tossing petals of memories from the basket out to float on the water, sharing some of them with you today and through this week. This 12 x 9 oil painting is not for sale.

April 3 - The Studio Cat 5 x 7 acrylic

The result of today's painting session is a closeup study of Pesto, one of the studio cats. She is a calico, and has the most gentle nature, but in this image, she is gazing with that typical "cat intensity". I'm painting her to celebrate the cover of the American Veterinary Medical Association--I've had many nice emails from folks out there who have seen the cover. I need to put it on my web site!

On a sadder note, each time I put in the date in the title, Blogger remembers what i last typed. And last year this time began the week of ministrations to my mother as she declined and died finally on the 8th. I wonder what I will paint on that day, this year?

This acrylic for today is SOLD, but was available through my ebay store here.

April 2 - Finished the backlit Pasture Scene, and April Fools for yesterday!

I finished the lesson painting in acrylics, spending most of the work on the details and glazing over to create the illusion of atmosphere and dust. These horses are in a drylot, which means dust and no grass--just hay in the feeder. I enjoyed making the highlights on each of the horses a slightly different color, and then unifying the complementary colors with the glazes using gel medium and thinned colors. I hope you enjoy it!

In other news, I received my advance copy of the American Journal of Veterinary Medicine, with my painting "Lesson Cat" on the cover. You can see the painting in September 2006 of my dailypaintings.com site! It's sold, of course, and I even had some folks trying to buy it again! Oh dear. Maybe I need to paint more cats... I do so love them!

Yesterday's silly Photoshop'd image of that celebrity had a few of you going for a while... April Fools!

Complete blog here.

April 1 - Portrait Commission!

I am so excited to share with you some really incredible news--I have been working on a portrait of a famous celebrity... can I possibly hold it in??? I could just die with the excitement of it ! I don't know why I've been so lucky, but her publicist has been on the phone with me for hours over the last few weeks. Sometimes things just happen the way they are supposed to, and this event is no exception. I'm presenting the finished painting here for you to see first, since it has been under wraps for the last few weeks. Yes, I can finally share! She's coming to pick it up tomorrow, and my husband is just BEYOND excited to actually get to meet this star when her limosine comes up the driveway. It has been quite a day! Now I don't want you to be envious... but all these daily paintings have finally paid off! I have to tell you that getting the chihuahua "just right" was a bit of a challenge, because he just wouldn't hold still for the photo session. However, I think I've successfully captured his manic look.

I imagine that this work of art will go down in the annals of history as a contemporary example of exemplary portraiture, don't you think?

March 31 - Trail Ride and 90% Finished Horses

After a six hour ride up and over the mountain behind my studio, I came home with one tired mare, and a bit achy myself. Organized trail rides can be great fun, unless you end up behind a complete idiot, which I did for part of this ride. Makes for some very challenging moments, however my mare came through fine. Today's ride was a good one for a pre-ride for the one I'm leading next month. Knowing how tired my mare is, I can easily see her in this painted pasture, resting with her buddies, glad to be home. So the painting progresses with real-life experience to back it up.


That said, tonight's work on the 11 x 14 acrylic brought it almost to completion, with the light just about in place, and with tweaking that will not majorly change it to come on the morrow. Most of the added paint is in the form of glazed layers, with come opaque areas created to bind and unify the colors and composition. Playing wiht the layers and texture in the foreground will come next, as will the dust, which is only partly in place right now. Fun!

Complete lesson here.

March 30 - Acrylic Backlit Horses, 11 x 14 Lesson Painting

Here's the second step in my painting process using acrylics. I go for the darks, laying in the abstract structure with value contrast and not worrying about edges at all. It is a lot of fun painting with different colors over the underpainting--one person said it reminded her of the cave paintings!
You can see the values and the backlighting coming to the fore as I put umbers, alizarin crimson, untramarine blue and yellow ochre mixes creating the value structure. I am not looking at any source material at this point--letting my innate design sense tell me where to put those darks.

Complete blog here.

March 29 - Beginning a Lesson Acrylic 11 x 14

I have had so many people inquiring about the upcoming acrylic lessons DVD that I can do no less but give you a lesson on how I handle acrylics. Although this one won't be in the DVD, you can certainly enjoy how it comes together. The first layer of this 11 x 14 canvas board is covered with soft gel medium mixed with a couple of colors to make a more neutral red orange, and then before it is dry, patted with a wad of plastic wrap to give it interesting texture, both real and illusionary. Those peaks of gel medium are then gently wiped away as it begins to dry, to keep the actual texture under control.
The second layer is again a mixture of soft gel medium, but this time with two blues. Only bits and pieces of these two layers will show through the final painting, but they will be ever so much more exciting than plain white canvas!
I now take a brush handle and sketch in the location of the horses, their shadows and the landscape shapes that will define this painting. It will be another pastoral scene, backlit, as I'm enjoying them immensely. (Perhaps that's because I've done with taxes and it isn't as bad as I'd feared?) No matter, painting is solace, rejuvenation and pleasure. Houseguest Betty Billups is up near Walnut doing her mural for the next couple of days, so life here is full of her paintings, but without her joyful personality.

Congratulations to Lorna McPhee of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on acquiring yesterday's Belted Galloway acrylic! Thank you!

March 28 - Belted Galloway Cow, 5 x 7 Acrylic

I really liked that pastoral painting of the two cows a couple days ago so since it is late and I'm a tad tired, I decided to just do a smaller version. But not the same, for that wouldn't be as interesting as changing the cow. So now we have a small black and white "Oreo" cow, called a Belted Galloway--an interesting breed, brought to my mind by one of the list artists in wood and who lives in Pennsylvania. He does the Belteds on wood for a niche market and has shared with me his process. So now a Belted Galloway comes full circle! SOLD.

March 27 - A Rose is a Rose 5 x 5 acrylic

A Rose is a Rose, and yet this one isn't really... it is done from a nicely colored SILK rose, yet it has done a Pinocchio-come-to-life under my brushes. This is a 5 x 5 inch acrylic, matching in texture the earlier peony from a week or so ago.

It is done wiht thin veils of dark values beneath and behind the flower, which is painted with white and other opaque pigments to have it float on the surface of the canvas. I learned this method from Al Brouillette back in the mid 80s. He has passed away, but his artwork and spirit lives on with his teaching.

This painting is available from my ebay store.

March 26 - Still Life with Betty Billups

Dueling Brushes!! Betty Billups and I laughed ourselves silly while we set up and painted these sunflowers tonight, starting at 8:30 tonight and finishing up an hour later. What fun!

We were painting kinda in the dark in the big studio, and both of us did 16 x 12 oils, each in our own style. Here's Betty's painting, full of THICK paint!



Mine will be going up on my ebay store in a couple days, but right now I'm HUNGRY! Painted right through dinner time!

March 25 - The Pastoral Cow Painting Finished

You can see that I kept the grays intact for this one, and held to the complimentary color scheme of purple and yellow green and the mid range of values. The highest value contrast comes in the vicinity of the cows, so that holds your eyes, and there is an implied line created by the direction of the cows (the way they are facing) that brings the viewer into the scene, and allows one to "visit" with the rest of the composition.
This original painting is available for $295 as an 11 x 14 original on my ebay store.

March 24 - The Pastoral Painting Continues

As you can see, this painting is all about the grays! As I move across the surface, I continue to combine mixes of ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, burnt umber, thalo green, yellow ochre and white to fill in the canvas areas that are distant and cool. I paint the near cow with some more of these mixes, and they are thin enough to be underpainted areas. As I paint, I am always mindful of contrasting areas, where the light area of a cow will be against a darker passage of foliage. And so the painting continues! 11 x 14 oil.

March 23 - How Now Black and Brown Cow? (Oil Lesson, 11 x 14)

Busy day today, getting ready for the get together tomorrow for plein air artists in Riverside to meet Betty Billups and her work here. She's been working prepping the many canvases that will be her four foot by 16 foot plein air mural next week, and I have been catching up on my bookkeeping and taxes. So tonight I started an 11 x 14 oil of a very pastoral scene--which will be focusing on grays. The color scheme will be complimentary purple and yellow green, and the value balance will be midtones. I'm looking forward to how this one will turn out! There will be some plein air painting in between the start and finish... the weather has been fantastic for the last few days--into the low 70s and breezy--perfect for on location painting!
My art instruction DVDs are here.

March 22 - Betty's Here

Betty Billups arrived this afternoon, and I had my eye on the skies all day, looking at the clouds. I did this because her mural commission up at Mt. San Antonion College is supposed to be with clouds over the San Gabriel mountains. I guess I got a few of them in my head, because when I came in to paint tonight, this 7 x 5 acrylic just FELL off my brush. We've had a great time talking and going out to dinner, and I'm so looking forward to the next few days.
This little painting is available for $100 from my ebay store listing.

March 21 - Jake Finished, 12 x 16 oil commission

A good day in the studio! I finished up Jake, the Beagle mix for my friend in Georgia, and have received the approval for it. I bet you didn't notice the halo suggested in the space above his mischieveious head, eh? He was truly a character, and it was my hope that I could paint him to life for the viewer.
I'm going to have an artist friend visit me this week, Betty Billups is coming in after driving around the Southwest plein air painting and gallery shopping/visiting. During these colder, snowy months, she comes out of Idaho and either goes on painting trips, or visits the galleries carrying her work. We met during a plein air event in Chico a couple years ago, and have enjoyed a vibrant friendship ever since. This will be her first visit to the new studio, and I can hardly wait to share it with her. BJ is the one who taught me that getting up before the roosters and first light was worthwhile, since you could paint the true dawn on location. She's a signature member of the Plein Air Painters of America and a dedicated artist. We'll have loads of fun painting together this week!

March 20 - Jake, Oil Commission in Process

I've started to add the color fields to the painting of the dog, creating some light and dark patches both on his body and also on the grasses behind and beneath him. At this stage, I don't worry too much about proportions--yes, I know his head is too big and his rear end is too small--because I'll make those changes as I progress. Earlier I wrote to another collector that my painting process is akin to sculpting in that I find the form and accuracy by removing and adding parts, reshaping the shapes that make up the animal. No careful preliminary drawing is part of my routine!
I think it gives the work I do more of a "hand made" look, which, along with the brushy brush work, pleases me greatly.
Complete blog here.

March 19 - Jake, Commission for a Friend

This commission painting will develop as a lesson painting, for I want to share with you how involved I tend to get when painting for people who have loved and lost their animal friends."Jake" was a friend and companion to my friend Fay in Georgia, and went missing last year. Not much can tear at the heart of a dog lover than the thought of losing a beloved pet, and not knowing the end of the story. My first dog when I got out on my own was a Beagle mix like Jake, and when I went overseas, I asked my sister to keep him for me, as I couldn't take him with me. Living with her wasn't the best match, and she took him to the pound and didn't tell me. By the time it came out, too much time had passed, and I couldn't find him. So I know that pain of losing and not knowing. When Fay told me about Jake, and how special he was, I knew I'd have to paint him.
So this is the first pass, sketch in oils, on a 12 x 16 canvas. I am so connected to this one already--getting leaky eyes as I do it, for the memories it invokes. Thank you, Fay, for the opportunity to do this.
And now my current dog is asking me to take her for the "night walkies", so I'll sign off.

March 18 - Black Angus Cross - Power on the Hoof, 8 x 10 Acrylic

Taking a small moment away from two commissions that need my attention, I brought out the acrylics again for this 8 x 10 of one of the cows on the Grapevine Canyon Ranch. I really liked the palette knife work on yesterday's Peony, so I wanted to continue with it. We saw a lot of heifers while we rode on the ranch, and because they are handled gently by the cowboys, they are not afraid when you ride close. It's calving time now, and many day-olds were on the ground with their mamas not far off. This heifer was curious about that person on the horse with the camera! Palette knives and gel medium gives this gem a depth and glow that can't be achieved with just a brush.

Available for $120 through my ebay store.

March 17 - Peony in Textured Acrylics 5x5 inches

Slipping back into acrylics for a while, I decided that the palette knife and a peony needed to meet up on a five by five canvas. I love these flowers, having seen them as a child growing up back east. They are sensous, fragrant and seem to contain a gentle spirit within. The palette knife was fun, quick and allows for some very interesting edges! The colors are much more luminous than the image, but it still brings me pleasure.
I've put it on ebay in my store, here.

March 16 - Arizona Morning Skies 7 x 5 Oil

This is the second painting started in my before-dawn painting session at Grapevine Canyon Ranch. After doing the dawn piece looking east, I spun the easel around and painted the clouds coming up over the Dragoon Mountains behind the ranch. I'm quite pleased with the design of this one, as it seems to hold one's eyes for a long time, enjoying the many vagaries of the edges of the clouds. I'd like to be there again, enjoying the morning light! This little gem is for sale for $100 as an item in my new ebay store.

March 15 - The Wrangler Painting, One More Pass

It isn't quite finished just yet, but well on its way. I have established the contrast of the sunlight on the forms and ground where needed, and reduced the general value of the shadowed areas to enhance the contrast. I used resin gel medium with my colors to glaze over the areas and reduce the values. Those wonderful Classic Oils are very versatile! One must not rely so heavily on source material that it takes away from the dramatic possibilities. I apoogize for the poor quality of image tonight. I took it in the ambient light of my studio, after dark. When it is finished and the last details added, I'll be sure to have an image taken outdoors to show the true colors and vagaries of value. Now off to sleep.
Complete blog with more images here.

March 14 - The Morning Wrangler Lesson Painting, Second Pass

The canvas is 98 percent covered now with the colors that will be the basis for the final pass. At that time I'll put in the details and the highest contrasting points of light. Squint your eyes at this stage and you'll still see the abstract composition in there--hidden mostly now by the similar values. If you would like a peaceful painting, make similar values--Edgar Whitney called it "Large Dark in Midtones", and this painting will fall into that value category. But the light passages will make drama, and take it to a different value structure--Small Lights, Large Dark in Midtone. If you're interested in Edgar Whitney's teaching, he wrote a book on (ulp!) watercolor painting. But the section on designing paintings is spot on for any artist. "Complete Guide to Watercolor Painting" is the title.
In this painting I'm finding the most pleasure in mixing the harmonious hues, keeping to the two color families of warm and cool where appropriate, and just enjoying the journey. I hope you do, too!

March 13 - The first pass on the 12 x 16 Wrangler

I prepped the canvas to get rid of the glaring white (which always messes the values and intensity of the hues I'm mixing) and then quickly delineated the outermost edges of the figure and the two horses. Now you can clearly see how I re-designed the structure, moving the heartbeats up and to the left, giving them all room in which to move. I added in the concept of the diagonal shadows in the foreground, cementing completely the diagonal "X" composition, without even putting in any details. The "X" is formed by the implied direction of the figures counter-pointed by the opposing lines created by the shadow shapes. It is true that the abstract structure of the painting needs to be strong enough to see at the simplest early stages, else the painting might end up weak and unexciting. Even without the lights that will come later, the design is pleasing to the eye. All of the colors are intermixes of at least two hues, establishing the grays against which the more pure colors of the blue jeans and sunlit areas will play. What fun!

Complete blog here.

March 12 - Lesson Time Again! Wrangler with Horses

I just couldn't put off painting this guy. This is Butch, one of the long-time wranglers from Grapevine Canyon Ranch, and the source material gathered from the early-early morning hours before breakfast brought me some wonderful sources! This is just great to make a wonderful painting! So the lesson begin again, here with the source material and the sketches that go into the establishment of design for the work. As you can see, I've moved the subject matter (horses and man) to the upper left of the rectangle that makes up the painting surface, because I need some space for him to move into, and also because I need to establish that this is a "ground" painting (versus a "sky" painting.) Tomorrow we begin the lay in and covering the canvas!

Complete blog here.

March 11 - Red Rock Country, Arizona

The second of the plein air paintings done on location at Grapevine Canyon Ranch, this is a 12 x 9 acrylic with loads of texture in the foliage, done both with palette knife and acrylic texture fibers (Golden product) put on before the glazing. The red manzanita is in the lower part, and the oaks and rocks of the distant peaks near the Cochise Stronghold convey the wonder and mystery of this amazing historic area. As I was working, I kept thinking "here is where Cochise and his Chiracahua Apaches rode". I almost expected one to ride out from behind a hill. I plan to return to this ranch and area, as every time I paint one of these (and also in the near future when I'm working from all my reference photos), I am filled with the simplicity and enjoyment of the experience. Available for $200 by contacting me. The rest of the blog is HERE.

March 10 - Home from the Ranch, but still thinkin' about it...

I'm home now, long drive through some sere and desolate country between Tucson and Riverside. However, my mind is still on the vistas of the grasslands and mountains of Southern Arizona, so here's the first of two plein air paintings I did while there. This one is a 5 x 7 acrylic ($100), entitled "Through the Gate and Left--Horse Trail at Grapevine Canyon Ranch". Long title, but anyone who has stayed there will know this area! I still feel as if I'm there, not sitting here at my desk in my studio again. It will be a few days before I'm settled back in, but my first job was to water my recent plantings! Tomorrow I pick up my dog from the kennel, start shipping paintings and orders, and sort through the mail. And paint!
The entire postings for the Daily Paintings are here. I'm updating the www.dailypaintings.com website only once a week, and I'll get after that later this week. It will have links for purchase, unless you email me directly.

March 9 - Thursday's Morning On Location Sunrise 5 x 7 Oil

One of the last mornings on the Grapevine Canyon Ranch... tomorrow I head west for the familiar home territory. I set my alarm to wake before first light, and stepped outside the cabin with my gear and caught the first rays of sunlight looking through the mesquite bushes and across the fence. Although only a 5 x 7 oil, it sure captures the joy I have at being here on this ranch, and that clear Arizona light. Painted quickly using the Color System for making good color choices, this was done with filbert brushes. I love plein air!
Get the daily painting in your email by clicking here.

March 8 - Another portrait of Sabino

Hard to believe the week is coming to a close--this has been incredible on so many levels--and enjoying every moment of it. Today was a painting day, and a day to just relax and rest. Before dawn I was up and painting, doing two quick oil studies of the sunrise and then the sun-drenched clouds. In the late morning I joined another friend and treked out into the national forest and did two full-blown finished paintings in acrylics of the vistas and rugged terrain. On location, and in this dry climate, the system for keeping the acrylics moist worked like a charm, even at 8 percent humidity!
But those paintings aren't today's work. They will show up on the days when I'm driving back home--serving as memories of the air and feel of Grapevine Canyon Ranch and Southern Arizona.
Today's painting is the 5x7 oil of Sabino, this time without saddle, to work on the color planes of the shadow areas. It is sold, and in the collection of Louise Mellon of Aiken, South Carolina.

March 7 - Painting the Cremello

Busy day today! In the morning after breakfast, the three artists gathered to paint the cremello horse (he is SO pretty!) a couple of times while at the barns. It was great fun to exercise the muscles of color on a white horse lit from above and behind. I share with you one of the two paintings I did, hoping that you'll enjoy the entourage of colors that march across the white hide of a white horse in sunlight! This is just a study, not a finished painting, so there is less concern about cutting off anatomy, or not finishing other parts of the image. I was focusing on the shadow patterns and the colors on the white horse... but I did spend a bit of time on my saddle!! Here's a picture of Sabino from which we worked.

March 6 - Another Day on the Horse

One of the greatest things about living on a working cattle ranch is the photo opportunities that abound in the wee hours of dawn. I was able to get out of bed and head to the corrals for picture taking as that morning light came streaming across the valley, almost horizontal as it lit the horses and wranglers in their morning chores. Then off to breakfast, and a return for a ride over the rangeland, "brush poppin" and going up to "the Fortress" near the Apache stronghold. Four of us were on horse back to do that this morning, and then returned to the ranch to do separate things. Me, I painted this first pass on a 12 x 16 oil of one of those "morning horses" in a different palette than the acrylic of a few days ago. I'm also sending you a smaller image of me on Socks, the horse I've changed to for the last couple of rides. He's more like my Raindance mare at home. With memories of knowing I was traveling on a trail used by Apache chiefs Cochise and Geronimo's people, I write to you in the evening of quite a memorable day! (And it is only Tuesday!)

March 5 - Desert Plants, Acrylic 9 x 12

This morning I spent several hours painting with another friend of mine, working on acrylics, sharing ideas for developing a looser painting structure and layers with glazes (a lot of which is covered in my Walter Foster book, Painting Horses in Acrylics). We ended up with about six canvases, and loads of learning. Today's painting is one that I finished to a happy conclusion in a 9 x 12 format of the agave and cactus which abounds in this area of Southern Arizona. We were inside, as it was still quite chilly until about noon, but were looking out a huge window to see these plants. And here's a photo of one of the Grapevine Canyon Ranch buildings and the desert landscaping. My goodness, there's that agave!

And you actually get TWO paintings today, as I'm playing catch up. Now we're back on schedule!
Today's trail ride was really challenging, up through a canyon, out over the top and then back down to the ranch through some stunning Arizona backcountry. My saddle is getting broken in, and I'm grateful for a steady horse under me!
Blog here.
Replies always answered, and thank you for allowing my art into your life.

March 4 - Backlit Sunrise Horse Painting

Time for acrylics again! This 9 x 12 painting was done from another of he morning ranch images, and is done in those wonderful acrylics. Even with the low humidity, I can continue to work with them, creating the luscious layers of color. Would you believe that this painting started out with a layer of dioxazine PURPLE and thalo BLUE under all those wonderful grays? It creates a sparkle that is just wonderful to see in "real life". I do so love backlit subjects, expecially when the light creates strong value contrast.
Yesterday after the ride I was "lope tested" so I can go on the advanced rides for the remainder of the week. According to my friends who've been here an additional week, some of the advanced rides are VERY challenging. I can hardly wait! Here's a small photo of me on the cremello horse Sabino, near one of the watering holes on the ranch. Yes, that's my new saddle, and yes, that's a calf who wants to play!

More photos will be coming tomorrow, and most all will be on my blog here.