Merry Christmas!

Little Christmas Tree at Dusk

( 6x6 – Acrylic on Gessoboard – CLICK HERE TO BID – Staring bid is $100)

This is one of the few nocturnes I've created, one of the others being my my previous post, Light's Return. Both are from my imagination. Kind of my dream for a White Christmas, which is rare here in arid Denver. The littlest tree who always gets teased by the big trees, now gets to shine for the holidays. Its resplendent twinkle reflecting off the new fallen snow. Makes me feel like a kid again... 

“Blessed is the season which engages
  the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”
                                                                                                                                            – Hamilton Wright Mabi

Winter Solstice

Light's Return

( 12x12 – Acrylic on Canvas Sheet – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starts at $200)

Light's Return...in honor of the Winter Solstice. Looks like the longest night won't be so dark after all, with the almost full moon to be shining brightly!

This painting is 12x12" acrylic on canvas sheet. Canvas sheets come in a pad and are medium textured and light weight primed canvas made by Fredrix, which can be framed under glass or mounted on a panel or stretched canvas.

Last Day of Fall...

Teton Gold

Just under the wire on the last day of Fall. I wanted to show you an acrylic autumnal landscape I did back in 1983. Yep 35 years ago. I've been painting in acrylics a very long time! Since the early 70's actually. This piece was done in Liquitex acrylics, back when they were owned by Binney & Smith, manufacturers, at the time, of Crayola Crayons. Teton Gold is 18x24 on stretched canvas and was done from a photo in a book which I no longer have. But I just love the image and since it was one of my first, I decided, its a keeper...

Forest Bathing

The book, Forest Bathing – How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness, by Dr. Qing Li, associate professor at the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, and chairman of the Japanese Society for Forest Medicine is amazing! I highly recommend this read. He was one of the first scientists in the mid 80's to study Shinrin-Yoku, the Japanese term for Forest Bathing, which involves immersing yourself in a natural environment, using your five senses sans electronic devices and other distractions to decompress and restore. Tokyo is a particularly high stress environment, where people are being stuffed into commuter trains and workers are regularly dying from overwork. They have a word for that too: Karoshi. To counteract the detrimental effects of contemporary life, the Japanese have now set aside over 65 natural areas throughout Japan for the experience, which typically lasts from a few hours to several days. Dr. Li sites many studies from around the world of the positive effects trees and nature have on us. After all, the forest is where we evolved. Blood pressure and stress levels are reduced, immune and cardiovascular systems strengthened, energy, creativity, concentration and mood are improved. One study in London showed, in the areas that had more trees, fewer anti-depressants were prescribed! Even looking at pictures of trees has positive effects. I guess this is where I come in... Being an urban dweller myself, I feel the need, now more than ever, to spend more time in nature. That is why I have been painting more landscapes, both en Plein Air (outdoors) and in the studio. In some small way I hope to bring the healing power I feel in nature to the viewers of my work. Here's encouraging all to bundle up, get out there and commune with the natural world. Have you hugged a tree lately? 

Yellow Orange Red

(14.5 x 21.75 – Acrylic on Arches paper – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $550)

With every snow event, the colors outside my window continue to fade. But in my mind's eye, the memory of them burns brightly. 

This work is on Arches 140 lb Huile (oil) paper. Which is compatible with all mediums.

Image size is 14.5 x 21.75".  Paper size is 14.75 x 22.25".

Garden Trees

(6x6 – Acrylic on Canvas board – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $100)

This is a piece I did last fall but never published. It gets its name from the trees' location near a multitude of raised bed gardens on the west side of the property where I live. The trees were 'early adopters' of the fall season, where most were yet to change...

Quince Essential exhibit extended thru the end of the year

By popular demand, my co-exhibit of paintings and prints, (along with paintings by Sarah Margaret Wade), has been extended thru the end of 2018 at Quince Essential Coffee House. Swing by, have a cup and enjoy some art...

Quince Essential Coffee House
1447 Quince Street, Denver, CO 80220 (1 block east of Quebec)
303.955.2479   quinceessentialcoffee.com
​Hours: M-F 6:30am-6pm, Sat & Sun 8am-6pm, First Saturdays 8am-9pm 

Leaf Halo

(12x8 – Acrylic on Arches paper – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $150)

I've seen this several times. Coming up the walk to my place this time of year I'm always looking down to see what little gems of nature's debris the trees have left me. On these occasions I was greeted with a moist halo surrounding the negative space where leaves once were.  I'm sure there is a term for this phenomenon, but as best I can figure, the dew runs off the leaf creating the 1/4" or so halo and the wind blows the now lighter leaf away before the halo evaporates. In arid Colorado this is not a usual sight. Nature never ceases to amaze!

This acrylic work was created on Arches Huile (oil) paper, a 140lb (300gsm) cold pressed stock that is 100% cotton and acid free, and is suitable for oil based mediums, and acrylics, without priming. The image size of this piece is 12 x 8 inches, with the paper size roughly 13.5 x 11.5 inches

Happy Thanksgiving!

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
                                                                                                                                                                                                     -- A. A. Milne

Pinkie & Blue Boy  (Donated)

 7x5 –  Acrylic on Canvas board

Pinkie & Blue Boy is a painting I did for, and donated to, a service group in Chama, New Mexico who are raising money to buy new winter coats for under privileged kids in their area. They are selling holiday cards with this image: 10 for $15. The original painting as well as giclee prints are available for sale. The group is also taking financial donations. 

To purchase or donate, please contact Smokey at 303-520-4561 or email cuevadeluz2@gmail.com. Thank you for your kindness and generosity!

The title of the painting was borrowed from Thomas Gainsborough's famous portraits...

Goldsmith Gulch  (Plein air, finished in the studio)

8x10  –  Acrylic on canvas board  –  Click here to Bid  –  Starting at $200

I started this plein air painting later in the afternoon to catch the light raking across the tops of the bushes. I set up next to a little waterfall which serenaded me the whole time. The colors got more intense as the sun sank lower in the sky and everything began to glow! But as soon as the sun dropped below the horizon it started getting cold and breezy, so I packed up and finished the painting in the studio the next day. According to Golden Artists Colors, 50 degrees is the low end temperature for optimal adhesion for acrylic paints. And you certainly don't want them to freeze! So as we move closer to winter, my window for working outdoors is waning. Which means I may have to start working in oils, which are not as temperature sensitive, or take it inside and work on some bigger pieces. Stay tuned...

Eddie the Yeti

Click here to Bid   (9x12 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas)

Is Bigfoot just a shy Plein Air painter?

Bridge @ Expo Park  (Plein Air)

Click here to Bid  (8x10 Acrylic on Canvasboard - Starts at $200)

Here's another Plein Air piece done in Expo Park just a ways east of my place. It is accessible to me from the Highline Canal trail which wends it way for 66 miles thru the Denver area. It was built after the 1859 gold rush. Still plenty of gold in this scene! Expo Park has a rec center, but the large green space is used mostly as a frisbee golf course! There is a small tributary that widens into some small ponds and is spanned by a pedestrian bridge. That's were I set up, in the wild spaces where the sky and water meet.

To learn more about the Highline Canal:  https://www.denverwater.org/sites/default/files/LargeMapFINAL.pdf

Celebrate Denver Arts Week!

Visit more than 300 arts events at more than 100 museums, galleries, arts districts and venues all over The Mile High City! For more info click:  Denver Arts Week

Long's Pine Sunset (Plein Air)

(Click to Bid  –  10x14  Acrylic on board)

This plein air scene I did in the same location as Breath of Gold, only this is the view to the north. What a different 90 degrees makes! The sun was setting and the colors and shadows became more intense. Time to have some fun and break out the the purer shades of Phthalo Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Cad Yellow Dark and Cad Red Light! 

The space is an undeveloped 3-acre site right now, which will soon become Long's Pine Grove Park. According to the Arapahoe County website, the area was "purchased with Arapahoe County Open Space Funds, which require that the park development be focused on passive, open space related experiences." There is also the opportunity to connect the park to the Highline Canal Trail via a pedestrian bridge. Let's hope they keep the space 'wild' rather than sodded over and manicured. In my opinion we need more natural, water-wise open space in Denver and Colorado. 

"Let the beauty you love be what you do."
                                                                                                                                     -- Rumi

Happy Halloween!
Breath of Gold  (Plein Air)

(Click to Bid  –  8x10 Acrylic on Canvas Board)

I was at a little open space area by the Highline Canal this weekend and painted this plein air view to the west across the canal. Many of the leaves are gone now, but this stand of trees still had a breath of gold dancing throughout the trunks... 

Willow Glow  (Plein Air)

( Click to Bid  –   5x7   Acrylic on Board )

This is another plein air painting done at Bible Park in Denver. The snow we had a couple weeks ago happened while the leaves were still on the trees, so much of the color was lost and many leaves just turned a light yellowy tan. In contrast to that was a row of willows, their branches still holding a reddish grey color. Subtle splendor...

Bible Park Cottonwood  (Plein Air)

Click here to bid – 6x8  Acrylic on Canvas board

I was at Bible Park the other day. Named for James A. Bible, a 50 year employee of Denver Parks and Rec. The north side is a typical city park with mown grass and ball fields, of which Denver has many. But here on the south end it is untamed and natural with Goldsmith Gulch and the Highline Canal running through. I grew up around cottonwoods and are attracted to their presence. They typically grow around water. In the fall after the yellow of the leaves has turned to a light brown, the leaves tend to hang on for a while and when they are rustled by the wind, it almost sounds like applause...

Wash Park Fauve

(Click to Bid  –  6x12  Acrylic on canvas board)

My latest studio landscape is a bit of a high key colorist piece. It is of Washington Park in Denver. The view is looking west toward South Lake on a sunny day. I pushed the colors chroma, and made them very intense, as the Colorado sun can be. The title refers to the Fauvist painting movement that began around 1904, which included the likes of Henri Matisse, Andre Derain and even Georges Braque, who later became Picasso's partner in Cubism. The movement was characterized by energetic brushwork, jarring colors for the time, and a simplified, abstracted subject matter. At the Salon d'Autome of 1905 in Paris, the critic Louis Vauxcelles disparaged the painters as fauves, wild beasts, thus giving their movement the name by which it became known, Fauvism.

The Bike Picture

SOLD  –  9x12   Acrylic on canvas mounted on board

This painting, also know as Long Legged Woman has sold. I was downtown by MCAD, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, when I came upon this scene. It brought back memories of my first bike, which was a red one-speed, that we got from a Firestone Tire store on West 44th Avenue in Wheat Ridge, which amazingly is still there! It wasn't until I finished the piece that I came up with the title, when I realized the distance between the seat and the frame is sadly, much greater than my own... 

Happy National Coffee Day!

In honor of the day, I wanted to let you all know I have an exhibit up at one of my favorite coffee places. Quince Essential is in a cool old house built in 1893. I'm showing both abstract and representational work, from small to medium in size. I'm sharing the show with Sarah Margaret Wade, who is an art therapist and a recent transplant from Alabama.  

Stop in, have a cup and enjoy the art.

Quince Essential Coffee House

September 23rd – December 31st, 2018 (or there abouts)

1447 Quince Street (1 block east of Quebec, South of Colfax)

Denver, CO 80220

303-955-2479

Hours: M-F 6:30am-6pm,  Sat & Sun 8am-6pm,  First Saturdays 8am-9pm

Live, Love, Laugh and be Happy

Sold - 11x14 - Acrylic on Board

This is the commission I had from the couple who saw me working on a small plein air piece in BelMar Park, Lakewood, Colorado. It is basically a larger version of the original, with the finishing touches supervised by them. The title of the work comes from a song her father used to sing: When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along), written by Harry Woods in 1926, with Al Jolson recording the most popular version...

When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob Bobbin' Along 
When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin' along, along 
There'll be no more sobbin' when he starts throbbin' his old sweet song 

Wake up, wake up you sleepy head 
Get up, get out of your bed 
Cheer up, cheer up the sun is red 
Live, love, laugh and be happy 

What if I were blue, 
Now I'm walking through, 
Walking through the fields of flowers 
Rain may glisten but still I listen for hours and hours 

I'm just a kid again doing what I did again, singing a song 
When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin' along 
When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin' 
When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin' along 

There'll be no more sobbin' when he starts throbbin' 
There'll be no more sobbin' when he starts a throbbin' his old sweet song 

Roaming Free

Click to Bid  –  6x6  Acrylic on Hardboard

After 116 years, Barnum’s animal crackers are no longer behind bars and are roaming free! That is until they meet their mushy demise swimming in a child's glass of milk… The change comes because of pressure from PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who urged the redesign of the box. (See new box design below). The Nabisco product takes its name from the famous but now defunct circus which had its last performance in May of last year. Some animals were said to have been mistreated to perform tricks. So in changing with the times, our animal friends are depicted free to roam in a more natural habitat.

P. T. Barnum of Ringling Brother's Barnum Bailey's Circus has a Denver connection. 

He purchased 760 acres west of then Denver city limits in 1878. Legend has it that he bought the land to house his circus animals in the winter but the area was never used for that purpose. The acreage was then platted for residential development and to this day bears his name.

Crayons 7-2

Click here to Bid  -  12x12 Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

This painting is the second in a series exploring abstract linear compositions using crayons. It was completed in 2016. The first in the series was donated to Project Angel Heart's, Art for Life auction. Project Angel Heart was begun by Charles Robbins in 1991 to provide meals to those living with HIV/Aids. The mission has greatly expanded since. According to the groups website: "In 2018, Project Angel Heart plans to deliver 385,000 medically modified meals to at least 3,000 Coloradans living with life-threatening illness in Denver and Colorado Springs. We will serve children as well as seniors, clients as well as their families, and many individuals who are living in poverty. About 80% of our clients will live in Metropolitan Denver, while 20% will live in Colorado Springs. We will also modify meals for 65% of our clients, meeting dietary needs specific to their illnesses, treatments, religious beliefs, and allergies." I will donate 20% of the proceeds from the sale of this painting to Project Angel Heart. To learn more:  https://www.projectangelheart.org

Kountze Lake Afternoon

Click to Bid - 5x7  Acrylic on Panel  (Plein Air)

I spent yesterday afternoon out painting in Belmar Park, a nice 750 acre open space area in the heart of Lakewood just west of Denver. I found a shady spot to set up my easel next to the lake, with this view to the west. Just a perfect day. This acrylic has a Chinese red underpainting just like my other work, but rather that the linear structure of the still lifes,  I used a more painterly approach. I call painting outdoors my community outreach. When working along a trail, folks and the occasional gaggle of geese always stop by to see what I'm up to. On this outing I set up near the water by a park bench, coincidentally the couple who donated the bench came by to visit their favorite view, saw me there, and liked the painting so much they've commissioned a larger version!

The open space was originally owned by May Stanton Bonfils (1883-1962), the heir to the Denver Post newspaper fortune. (I worked as a graphic artist at the Post for 13 years.) The property was her summer residence, it had a mansion that was an exact replica of Marie Antoinette’s Petite Trianon Palace in France, which was built during the Great Depression for the cost of $1 million. Alas, it was torn down and all that remains is a marble boat ramp on the east side of the lake. Today there are lots of walking trails and a Hertitage Center were several structures have been moved and restored. 

Grapefruit with Spoon
on Green Melmac

Click to Bid -  5x7  Acrylic on Board. Starts at $100.

Melmac you say? It was a hard plastic multi-colored dinnerware popular from the 1940s thru the 1960s. My folks bought our set when I was just a little munchkin. I've still got a few surviving pieces that I continue to use today. The Color-FLYTE version I have has a slight mottled finish to it. Hang onto something long enough and it becomes hip again. This was my breakfast tableau, and of course a few cherries and blueberries snuck in...

Happy Labor Day!

"An artist is not paid for their labor,
 but for their vision."  -- James McNeill Whistler

    -- James McNeill Whistler, Caprice in Purple and Gold, The Golden Screen

Blue Berries Orange Shadows

Click to Bid - 6x6   Acrylic on Hardboard Panel    Starts at $100

I love blueberries! Especially wild blueberries. So good for you and great in a smoothie! I decided to leave the shadows a contrasting orange just to give the work a little more vibrancy. Or maybe because football season is upon us and these are the Broncos colors? Anyway, I've always liked the area on the berries where the petals, officially named corolla tubes, were attached. It kinda reminds me of the Mont Blanc logo...

In Cahoots

Click to bid – 6x6 Acrylic on Hardboard Panel

I didn't come up with the title for this one until I sat with it for a while. As I heard the story,  the root word 'cahute', is French for a small cabin or hut. The phrase was originally referring to multiple French-Canadian trappers living together in the same small space. By habitating in such close quarters they would of necessity have to be of like mind, hence the term: In cahoots.  You can almost hear the Canadian inflection when you say the words! Ya sure, in cahoots those.

Ruby & friends

Click to Buy  –  6x6" Acrylic on 1/8" Hardboard Panel

A ruby red grapefruit is joined by three friends, cherries, from the previous painting. Rather than the cad red light background behind the grapefruit, which would be lost showing thru the the orange tones, I took a page from the Impressionists playbook and used a complementary or opposite color for its underpainting. In this case the beautiful Cobalt Blue, which is also used in the shadows.

Cinq Cerises

Click Here to Bid    (6x6 inches – Starts at $100)

Welcome to my new blog! My inaugural post is fresh off the vine! And organic too. My latest work Cinq Cerises, (Five Cherries en Francais), 6x6 inches, acrylic in 1/8" board, is an acrylic painting style I've done for many years.  Unlike my landscapes in oil, this work is more line oriented and much higher key in color. I double prime the board to get a nice brushy texture and do an underpainting of Ivory Black and Cad Red Light before  brushing layers of color on top of that, which allows the underpainting to shine through and gives the painting a nice  warm glow. One of my early galleries liked my ink resist pieces. I liked that technique too, but it's very hard to control the final result. So, I instead started painting on black gesso and the works have evolved into what you see here.  ​I hope you like it...