Salida: Colorado Mountain Plein Air Festival, Sept 17-25, 2009

More on this later but for now here are the winning paintings, "Franz Lake Nocturn",11x14, (Best of Show) and "Morning on the Arkansas River", 8x10(Quick Draw winner). I had the opportunity to stay at Joshua Been's place (check out his website)and we painted a lot. The first few days were pretty cold and damp and I got snowed on about 5 times painting at about 10,000 ft. The rest of the time was beautiful Colorado dry Sept. weather and great for painting.There were a bunch of other crazy painters at this event too, including Connie Grant, Matt Klein, who I painted the nocturn with, and the ever nuts and hugely talented Carl Ortman. Josh, Matt and I went out the night of the opening and painted a few more nocturns on the Arkansas River under a clear and starry, half moon sky that was casting shadows and making a lot of the necessary values for a night painting. I'll upload the rest of the plein air paintings from the show at a later date.

Sonoma Plein Air May 4-9, 2009

Sonoma Plein Air, an amazing event I had the honor of being invited to, was a really great experience for me. We painted for 5 days, rain and shine, the beautiful California wine country hills and valleys. We were treated like royalty, wined and dined and introduced to collectors and art enthusiasts. I was able to stay with our good friends and travelling companions, Rick and Laura Tackett who live right there in Sonoma.

These first 5 paintings here are "When Life Gives You Lemons" (8x10, oil on canvas), "Tuesday Near Anderson Ranch" (6x12, oil on canvas), "The Strawberry Patch, Clearing Skies" (9x12, oil on linen), "The Night Watch At Sisters",(8x10, oil on linen), "East End of Town #2"(6x8, oil on linen).

ok, keep scrolling down for more images from Sonoma--I can't figure out how to get these closer together so for now, apologies about the format of how these look

"Sonoma Spring #2, Anderson Ranch"

8x10,

oil on canvas

Sonoma Spring #1

6x8

oil on canvas

San Sebastiani Morning

9x12

oil on linen

sold

Rainy Day Shopping

8x10

oil on linen

After the Rain

8x10

oil on linen

"Overlooking the Vineyards" (6x8, oil on canvas)

and

"Oak Hill Farms"

(9x12,oil on linen)

sold

"Monday Overcast" (6x8, oil on birch panel)

"Laura's Lemons #2" (12x9, oil on linen)

"Etre" (8x10, oil on linen)

"After The Rain, Anderson's Ranch" (6x8, oil on linen)

Telluride Plein Air June 28-July 4, 2009

It was really an honor to be invited to Telluride to paint in their event this year -- I was thrilled to be invited, and honestly a little imtimidated to be painting with all these amazing painters. I was put up for most of the week in a 2 bedroom condo right in town, so it was really convenient to painting the town. We were treated like royalty, the staff of the Sheridan Opera House was amazing and the artists were fabulous. I camped a couple of nights in the town campground, sleeping comfortably in my car as I like to do, on either side of the week I could have the condo for. Telluride is a great place to paint--lots of Victorian storefronts and houses, mountains, aspens, creeks, cabins, Telluride Funk, and of course, the free box(I scored 2 pair of fleece socks and a great pair of fleece pants for the cold mornings!) And sales were good too. Not to mention the best fireworks I've seen since the 1984 New Orleans Worlds Fair. The only bummer for the trip was the 11 hour drive home in holiday traffic with several accidents and one mountain pass closed completely. Why I didn't just stop off at Joshua Been's(one of the most fun people to paint with who lives in Salida,CO--google him to see his work) house to paint and stay overnight I'll never understand.

More images to follow. . . . .

Telluride Plein Air

From Top to Bottom:
"Alleyway Storage", 9x12, oil on linen

"Ready for the Fourth", 6x8,oil on canvas, SOLD

"Game Over", 6x8, oil on canvas

"Corral, West End", 9x12, oil on linen

"Avenue Cycles", 8x10, oil on linen (quick draw)

Victor Plein Air Event, Victor, CO Sept 3-7, 2009

"Afternoon Pastures", (6x8, oil on canvas), was chosen as the blue ribbon winning painting in this competition, seems I have bagged another best of show, so I cancelled the pity party I had arranged for Estes Park. I arrived on a Thursday morning with only a day to produce the maximum 4 paintings to enter in the show. I painted like mad all day, doing 4 studies during the daylight, one in Victor's only bar, and another 2 under a gorgeous full moon, until about 11:30 pm."Victor Nocturn #2", (8x10, oil on linen at right) and "Victor Nocturn #1"(scroll down farther into the next post) were the result.

"Soldiers Night Out", (12x12, oil on canvas, SOLD), and "Put Some Distance On It", (12x9, oil on linen, SOLD)also went into the show. The Event also hosted a "brush rush" on Sunday and a quick draw on Monday.

Additional paintings from Victor, CO

" Third Street", (right,8x10,oil on canvas), "Abandoned",(below right, 6x8, oil on linen), and "Victor Nocturn #1", (below right, 6x8, oil on linen). As up can see, Victor is a really funky town with lots of great stuff to paint--mining equipment, falling down, abandoned houses and buildings, trailers, treasures, and trash, rusted cars and trucks, and on every street it looks like you are on the set of a movie. Extremely paintable and awesome! A really enjoyable experience complete with all the lovely, giving, beautiful, different, and crazy characters who people the town. Beautiful scenery in the high country of Colorado!

"Shelf Road Composition", (6x8, oil on birch panel), and "Working Mine", (8x10, oil on linen)

Trolley Time, 6x8, oil on canvas

Estes Park Plein Air Aug 15-29,2009

Kawaneeche Colors, 15x30, oil on birch panel Moraine Meadows, Morning, 16x20, oil on birch panel

I participated in the Estes Park Plein Air from Aug 22-29, camping in the Moraine Park campground again for the convenience of being able to roll out of the sleeping bag and go out to the meadow. Another painter friend, Nicholas Reti (http://www.nicholasreti.com/) met me for a few days of camping and painting. Nicholas is great, always ready to go for it, so we were up before dawn and out in the meadow, already set up and ready to go as the light would begin turn the peaks bright pinks and oranges. Estes is a great event, lots of fun, and I get to see many old friends during the competition. It is always a joy to go paint with friends from around the country who show up for this, and to meet new artists and collectors as well.

Lynda Vogel and Kelley Kotary from the Cultural Arts Council of Estes Park Fine Art Gallery always do a fabulous job with this event--my work hangs in that gallery for the plein air. If you get to Estes Park try to stop in to see the show, it is up until the end of Sept. The other gallery that participates in this event is Earthwood Collections, run by some really cool folks, Anne and Ron.

While I didn't win an award this year as I have for the last 5 years (wow, THERE'S a pity party you should attend), I did have a blast as usual, and did do some interesting experimental type paintings and pushed myself a lot on a couple pieces that went into the show, even if the judges didn't appreciate them, I felt really good about them --these are the 2 at the top of the text.

The One I Should Have Entered

Dawn, Moraine Park, 16x20, oil on hardboard

More from Estes Park Plein Air

I was really fascianted with all the dead pines and conifers in Rocky Mtn National Park, especially on the western side of the park. They are really amazing with all the colors in them, depending on how long they have been dead or dying. They range from greys and browns and light tans (the longest dead) to orange, red, pink, lavendar, ochre, burnt sienna, and alizarin crimson (newer). I hope people will come to see the beauty in these trees and look at it as a part of the whole system nature has devised and the continual cycle of birth and death. This environment will look completely different in just a few years, but will still retain a sense of beauty and wonder. There will be many dead, red trees to paint, and I welcome the opportunity to do that.

Beetle Kill Beauty, 16x12, oil on linen Aspen Grove, 8x10, oil on linen

Moraine Park Magic, 6x12, oil on canvas

Rocky Mtn Dry Dock, 12 x16, oil on linen

Special Edition, 8x10, oil on linen

Door County Plein Air

I had the honor of being invited to participate in this really cool event on the Peninsula of Wisconsin, an area of the country I have never been to. I was there from the 19th-26th of July travelling with my painting and hiking buddy Debbie Kerr. This event is put on annually by the Peninsula School of Art.

As per the usual m.o.during most of these plein air events, we had about 5 days to paint around the peninsula and then display some of the work at a gala opening and silent auction on a Fri. night, and an opening to the general public on Sat. night. After a very intense and fun week of painting and schmoozing, I had 16 paintings, of which only about 6 got to hang in the show. I like to do a lot of work at these events so I feel like I have alot to choose from and can pick the best ones to show. Debbie was such a trooper, keeping my intense schedule, keeping track of things, helping me get where I need to go on time, and keeping me laughing the whole time.

We both absolutely loved the Peninsula, the farms and fields, harbors , inlets, and wetlands. I have never had the opportunity to paint boats, so this was fabulous. The peninsula is surrounded by water, Green Bay to the west, and Lake Michigan to the east, so you can catch a sunrise on Bailey's Harbor and a sunset at Egg Harbor or Ephraim the same day. We found the people of the peninsula friendly, wonderful, beautiful and you could just tell that they loved having the artists there. The folks at the art school (the administrators and volunteers) did a fabulous job of organizing the event and dealing with all the right-brained artists--they were an amazing crew of lovely people. I only hope I'll get invited back next year!!!

I gotta tell ya--I'm diggin this travelling artist life. I will post more about the other travels this summer (Sonoma Plein Air, Canyon de Chelley-AZ, Crested Butte, Telluride Plein Air, NJ, Estes Park Plein Air, Denver's Plein Air, and Colorado Mtn Plein Air--Salida,CO) when I figure out all this blog stuff --like how to post the images of the paintings I did.

Door County Paintings

And more Door County images:

Harbor Reflections, 12x16, Hickies Harbor Fish Market, 12x16, Lakeside Cottage, 9x12, Moonlight Bay,Evening 12x12, The Raven, 9x12(Sold)