The Bushes Say Spring,
But The Trees Are Not Convinced  (Plein air)

( 6x9 – Acrylic on canvas board – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $150 ) 

The weather here in Denver has been flirting with 70 degrees on several occasions, but we are having a late Spring. The lawns are greening up but due to several wet snowstorms the trees are being cautious. April is our second snowiest month. I was out looking for a spot to paint when I saw a young hawk gliding low over the small creek, shown in the foreground, so I followed along and set up my easel next to the stream and captured the light raking across the trees perched at the bottom of a small hill. The only colors visible were the pale green of the bushes and the light blue of the sky. Although the tree trunks had a breath of violet. I set up on a carpet of fallen leaves but my easel and camp stool ended up sinking several inches into the moist dark earth. The perfect growing medium for Spring to take root.

After the Rain

(4x12 – Acrylic on paper – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $100)

I was in the Texas Hill country recently. I drove down near San Antonio with my brother. On the way back we never hit any storms but could see them all around. This scene in the Texas panhandle is a storm we just missed. The intense raking light as we drove into evening. A distant farmhouse silhouetted against the trees yet to leaf out, with a darkening sky and just a hint of a rainbow peaking over the the rising plain.

The Nature Fix

I love this book! THE NATURE FIX is indeed a wonderful exploration on why nature in all its myriad forms does indeed make us happier, healthier and more creative. Florence Williams a former Boulder resident, who had moved to congested and noisy Washington DC was missing the trails and open spaces of Colorado. This became a genesis for her new book of why we feel so much better away from the city and out in nature. Her journey starts with Forest Bathing in Japan (see my 12/9 blog) and expands from there. She travels with various scientists and wise ones thru the US, UK, Sweden, Korea and beyond in pursuit of trying to understand and quantify the positive effect nature has on us.  She has a wonderful impish sense of humor and her engaging writing kept me turning the pages on this adventure with her.  As the world becomes more urbanized, I think this is a must read. Not just for landscape painters but for all who are enduring the maladies of the modern world and long for that connection that has been neglected or forgotten.

Return of Color - Daffodils

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

Out on a walk yesterday, these were the first daffodils that have presented themselves to me. Spring comes slowly to Colorado this year.

"Direct observation of the luminous essence of nature
  is for me indispensable." – – Robert Deluanay

Spring Forward

(12x12  –  Acrylic on canvas sheet)

I started out wanting to observe the change to Daylight Savings Time. Actually I prefer Mountain Standard when the sun is at its zenith at noon. I wish they would just pick one and leave it. Originally I was going to lay down coil spring shapes as only part of the underpainting, but then paintings have a mind of their own. I kept seeing spirals instead, so rather that fight it I went with the flow. And I like the result. 

In Colorado March and April are our snowiest months, but coming home Friday night it actually rained! I love it. The smell is intoxicating. The 'circles' in the painting remind me of raindrops hitting puddles of snow melt. 

Upon completion I flashed on the work of Robert and Sonia Delaunay and their wonderfully circular faceted compositions of vibrant color. They founded the movement Orphism which was moving beyond concrete reality into the non-objective. Sadly it came to an end with the advent of WWI.

FAT TUESDAY.  HAPPY MARDI GRAS!

March Snow

( 9x12 – Acrylic on canvas textured paper – CLICK HERE TO BID – Starting at $185 )

Happy Fat Tuesday! 

The average high for this time of year in Denver is a balmy 51 degrees. BUT, a storm rolled across the nation, and well... you probably experienced the result. Here, over the weekend, we had a record coldest high temperature of 6 degrees. (With a wind chill of minus -9). We spent the better part of Sunday enveloped in a proverbial snowglobe. I love the big flakes and atmosphere that steals the color from our sight. Usually its so dry and clear here you can see detail miles away. Atmosphere and light are a landscape painters best friends! I love color field painting, so this was an opportunity to get all gauzy, mesmerized by the view out my window...