When I wrote a recent post, “Why Artists Should Blog“, I left out a very important point: the value of the community’s collective knowledge and feedback. Perhaps this was obvious, but it struck home with me tonight as I was honored with the “Director’s Choice Award Purchase Prize” for my painting Moraine Park Sunset, after … Read more
This morning about 60 artists gathered downtown for the “Quickdraw”. For those of you not familiar with this, it is a timed plein air competition. We had 90 minutes to create a painting, 15 minutes to frame, awards are given and a live auction of the paintings closes the event. I was surprisingly calm…joked around … Read more
Another gloomy, gray day this morning. Oh well. I decided to go out anyway and find something to paint, not expecting anything. I ended up doing one of the best of this week (I think)! I swaped out “Moraine Park Sunset” from the competition, as judges generally like larger works. I still think it’s one … Read more
I need to select paintings to frame tomorrow and Friday for the show. This is my current take on ranking them. The first 3 (in red text) will be jurried as part of the competition, the top 5 (green text) will be left with the gallery and the remainder come home. What do you think? … Read more
I met Ron Schlorff and Julia Seelos today on a riverbed inside Moraine Park for a morning of painting. I had a back spasm this morning (I have a herniated disk), so decided to take it easy. I found a spot in the shade and sat down to paint the work below. Time for a … Read more
I set out to paint a large sunset tonight, but I could tell the combination of low and high clouds would not produce much. Instead, I sat down and painted the same stream in Moraine Park. Sorry, nothing clever to say for myself (I’m beat) so here’s a quote that fit this painting for me: … Read more
The “Art Spirit” is with me today–another clear morning to paint. As planned, I headed to the Alluvial Falls so I can expand upon my initial study and paint a larger piece. I think this turned out well, although I’m still not sure that a) the source/direction of the light is clear enough (separation between … Read more
Ah, another nice nap today before going out in the afternoon to paint until sunset–what a life! I ended up at Moraine Park, one of my favorite spots so far at the park. I met another group of artists to paint a spectacular sunset. To make things even more interesting, our usually quite stream was … Read more
Another beautiful morning…I’m definitely detecting a pattern at Estes Park: nice mornings, followed by rain around 12noon. In the afternoon, sometimes it clears, but so far not often. The light at Bear Lake was perfect. I ran into Scott Loyd Anderson (of MN). Nice guy. Set up just 30-40 yards away. We both found spots … Read more
After a good burger at a local cafe–and a 90 minute nap 🙂 –I continued my painting adventures here, as usual, without the full cooperation of the weather. Oh well. At least the clouds/sky are dramatic. They’re always changing which puts my plein air painting skills to the test. I painted the study below in–I … Read more