Plein Air Painting in the Tetons and Yellowstone

Grand Tetons in the early morning with a partly cloudy sky and cool breezes

Mt. Moran in the late afternoon

Me trying very hard to get the right colors mixed!

At the end of Lamar Valley in Yellowstone.

Just back from a wonderful trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone! We went up for the last weekend of the Fall Arts Festival in Jackson, so much fun and energy flowing there for the arts!  Camping and painting the gorgeous scenes all around us and of course lots of excitement with the wildlife too. Big Bull Moose staying in our campground so every morning was filled with taking photo's of them.  We take this trip often but this is my first time to get to paint En Plein Air in the Tetons and I must say it was intimidating looking up at the scene and knowing I had to get those shapes correct because they are the most photographed and painted mountains around. When I started my first painting of the Tetons it was early morning and cold...brrr, I was determined to give it a go anyway, I started my sketch, got it down, started painting, made a mess....wiped it off and started all over, the second try went better but I didn't have time to get the sky in because I was just shivering too much by then and ready for a HOT cup of coffee. In the late afternoon I was able to paint again, the gorgeous scene at Mt. Moran, this painting is my favorite of all of them that I did on the trip.  After four days in the Tetons we moved up to Yellowstone and spent another four blissful days there.

A very inspiring trip with 2,850 photo's taken, thank God for digital cameras!  Look for lots of art work to come featuring some of our greatest National Parks.

Have a great day!

Quiet Reflections

18x 48 x1 1/2 oil on hardboard -
No frame required for this painting the sides are painted black for a clean modern look.

A painting with both palette knife and brush work to get a nice effect of the smooth water and the textured grasses. This painting gives me a calm feeling and is one I can look at for a very long time and meditate on all the colors that are reflecting in the water. The golds from the trees in the distance reflecting catch my eyes in the pond and keep me in the water. 

I hope you can have a calm moment and reflect on all the good in your life.

In the Studio

18x48 current project in the studio

20x30

Two large paintings that I'm currently working on in the studio, the 20x30 is a large version of the small study I did standing in the river while camping a few weeks ago and is almost complete and sitting on the drying wall while I contemplate the final touches to make it sparkle with life. The top painting is one I've thought about for a very long time, I did a small 6x8 study of it a couple of years ago while my son was fishing, the granddaughters were picking wildflower seeds with grandpa and their mom who is a photographer was busy taking her own photo's, we ate KFC out of the back end of the truck and had a wonderful day....Yes, I think about all of this while I'm putting the paint on the larger painting and I have high hopes for it to turn out as wonderful as our day was!

Check back next week to see what happens!

Gold in the Canyon

 

20x24 Oil on linen

Where I live here in Northeastern Nevada it is gold country. Gold is in abundance deep down in the ground and gold mining is the main source of income for a lot of families in this territory. The Ruby mountains were named after trappers found red garnets in the 1800's and named the Rubies after their ruby color.....I enjoy watching them turn red in the sunsets most evenings and thought that was why they were named the Ruby Mountains for a very long time. Well, despite the history lesson, I found Gold in the Canyon.


Hope you have a lovely day!

Fresh fruit & flowers - Palette Knife

11x14 Palette knife Oil on linen panel

Details show the wonderfully thick paint

Amy and Susie in the ZONE!

 

Another shot of serious painters at work

The girls came to my studio garage to paint with me yesterday! We had such a good time painting a staged still life in oils in my space, with plenty of room for everyone to spread their wings and make a mess if that's what they wanted to do. I don't have people come to my studio often...it is my domain if you know what I'm saying... a place to let loose and make my own messes and believe me I make plenty of them!

Yesterday's objective for me was to paint a still life using only palette knives! A challenge that I wasn't sure how to approach but as the hours ticked by it just seemed to paint itself...some days it happens that way, but most of the time it doesn't. I'm very pleased with this painting at the days end.

Thank you for stopping by!  Have a beautiful day!

Camping and Plein Air Painting Weekend

8x6 Oil Aspen tree trunk study

Painting under the awning at camp

8x10 Oil Thomas Canyon Hike study - we didn't make it over ridge when my partners gave up on me.

My tired painting/hiking pals

After a long hike back to camp, a popsicle treat. Bailey pup was exhausted, not to mention my husband was too.

Painting my heart out!

8x10 Oil Thomas Canyon water study and my favorite of all the studies from the weekend

6x8 oil  old beaver pond area with a beautiful stand of aspens. I've tried painting this area so many times and believe me I'll be back there soon to try again. So many GREENS!

We had a wonderful weekend camping, hiking and of course painting this past weekend. Our puppy (Bailey) did beautiful with the change in lifestyle and having to be attached to the leash most of the time. She passed the test camping trip and we are looking forward to a week long camping trip to Wyoming in September.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful day :-)

Summer Aspens

16x12 palette knife Oil

This painting is very loose with lots of paint. I had a plan for this painting but as usual when I pick up the palette knife the paintings seem to go in a whole different direction. I am happy with this painting even though it wasn't quite what I had planned on. I will probably paint this one again with the brushes to see what will happen.

Hope you enjoy the painting. Thank you for stopping by!

Blue Pottery

11x14 oil on Raymar Panel

On a rare occasion I will have my Thursday painting friend come out to my place to paint. We are so comfortable painting in her little kitchen where everything has it's place that we don't change it up much....might mess with our Mojo! if you know what I mean. However a few weeks ago she came here and we painted some of the wonderful pieces of pottery that I own, each piece is cherished mainly for the great memories they hold in how I manage to collect them, usually while we're on a vacation.

I can see some things I would do differently now with this painting as far as the composition is concerned so I may set this up again and see what happens.

Thank you for stopping by!  Have a great day.

Rush of Yellow Lupine

8x10 oil on linen

I went out last week one day on a photo shoot and the wildflowers in this spot were spectacular. Spring was slow to arrive this year...actually I think it skipped us completely and now we are in our summer season. We are the lucky ones without the extreme heat, enjoying the 80 degree temperatures, LOVE this kind of summer.

Thank you for stopping by!  Yes, training the puppy has slowed me down a bit but I am sure enjoying her and the kitten. A whole lot of laughter at our place. :-)

Winter Symphony

Palette Knife on gessoed hardwood panel 13x18x1 1/2

Spring/Summer is slow to come to us this year. Strange weather indeed, so instead of waiting for the fall/winter to post this painting I decided to go ahead and post it now. A very lovely painting with lots of paint but there are some areas with very little if any paint that gives it the sparkle of sunshine glinting off the snow.

Meet my new assistants!

Bailey the pup

Jake the kitty

Bailey 6 weeks old

Jake 5 weeks old

When the work day is done the fun begins! 

Have a nice day! Thank you for stopping by.