Cowboy Funeral

I have continued to fill in the cowboys and tried to balance out the background light with the shadowed figures. I want to keep them from being silhouettes so that there is enough interest to want to go back and look at the painting again. I will try to keep the background light and uncompeting with the main characters. I will continue to work on the lighting and shadows and refining the overall feel.

A New Trail

I guess I am writing this mainly to myself. I have been tending to my aging mother who passed on to be with God and her family on November 8, 2010. After spending 2 to 3 hours a day for the last 8 months with her, it is now time to return to my art. I found through all this time that painting is something that can be done any time but to create art and do the best you can do is not something that can be done with out complete devotion to it. It is time to get back to work. I warmed up with a little 9x12 of String Lake near Jackson Hole Wyoming. It is a wonderful little place with lots of atmosphere. You can hardly go wrong in any weather or time of year. I also have gone back to painting The Funeral piece and will show you how I am progressing. I have worked one part of the painting all the way to the foreground and in to the distance to try to establish some feeling of depth and see if I want to make changes

Headin back to Dubois

After spending almost two months in Ohio it is time to get back out to where I belong. Tending to an aging parent in Ohio is a tough part of life but it is a necessary part of life. Now is the time for a few weeks in Wyoming to paint and recharge the old batteries. "End of the Day" was a fun low light paintng to do. I have started a "Cowboy Funeral". I took a progress picture as I started here. I roughed in with burnt umber over a pretty red canvas. I am hoping it will subdue some of the color and at the same time warm it up a bit. I will try to show this painting as I progress but it will have to wait until I return . I will see you all again in September.

Hi Folks, It has been about 2 months since I have had access to my computer to keep up with what is goin on. I sold two out of three of those paintings I posted last time. Right after the Cincinnati Nature Center Show we headed to Smythwick, South Dakota to do some roundups and branding along with some good western eating and hospitality after the roundups. It just didn't work out that way since it rained and rained and rained. The corrals were so muddy we thought we might lose a calf or even a cowboy if we tried forcing a branding. So Kathy and I did some real cowboy work of cleaning out the barn and just checking on the calves to see that they had their heads above water.


After a couple of days with no dry weather in sight we headed for our home in Wyoming and some good times painting and hiking. There was the annual Antler Rendezvous the 2nd week in May and also the annual pack horse races the following week in Dubois. Even though it was still a little cool they both were well attended and it made for a real western welcome.

We were able to get in some nice hiking including horsecreek where we saw these Elk.

Elk and antelope were everywhere this spring. Maybe the wolves are keeping them at a lower altitude and we are seeing more of them like these ladies with their calves. While hiking up near the Wiggins Fork of the Wind River I took a pictue of kathy and didn't notice until I was posting this blog there is an antelope grazing on the hillside behind her. We were a little nervous about bears in that area and we thought we were keeping a watchful eye, I am glad the antelope was not a bear.

My long time friend Bill Brady was visiting so we had to go to Yellowstone only 70 miles west of our home. We saw lots of Buffalo and a beautiful snow covered parting shot of Mt. Moran.

Now if you think I saved no time for painting you would be wrong because I was able to squeeze out a few miniatures 6x8 and a couple of larger Indian portraits. I did a nice little buffalo painting but in my rush forgot to get picture of it and it has been sent off to the Wind River Artist Guild Show.

Latest paintings

I have changed "the Arroyo" again by pushing the background way back and I think it helps this piece. I believe I am finished with it. I have redone the foregound in "Above Horse Creek in Autumn" and made the colors a little deeper to make it read better and finally I did a little cloud painting of "Clouds over the Gros Ventres".

Dressed to Kill

Since I am on a run of posts here I might as well bare all and show you the other painting I have been working on, a figurative one. I am not wild about it either, that is why it is on my blog rather than my web site. I wanted to do this portrait since the model, Jay Redhawk is wearing my replica bearclaw necklace and the shield that I made. It is just kind of dull and flat and I am not sure how to cure it. Painting over it with another subject usually does it but I am not ready to give up on it yet.

Above Horse Creek in Autumn

I am trying to do a few of these scenic paintings for a nature center fundraiser n April. I don't know how well the western scenes will go over in Ohio but we will find out.

Arroyo at Dennison Ranch

Well I was not happy with the Dennison Arroyo so I worked on it a little more. I am not sure I helped it much but I tried. I am mostly a figure painter so I have to push myself a little to do scenery and plein air. I have started a smaller 8x10 fall scene titled "Above Horse Creek in Autumn" which I hope is better and will post soon

Dennison Ranch Arroyo

Finally the snow has begun to melt and the air is beginning to warm. Life is looking better and I finally have had time to get back to the easel. Deadlines for upcoming spring shows have something to do with it also. I am finishing up a 11x14 piece "The Arroyo" done in oil. It is of an arroyo on the old Dennison Ranch outside Dubois. I have wanted to paint this arroyo for some time and finally got to do it.

Quest for the Ivorybilled Woodpecker

I just returned from a very chilly week in the Cyprus Swamps of North Florida hunting for the allusive Ivorybilled Woodpecker. The morning temperature ranged from 13 degrees above zero to 22 degrees above zero. It was sunny so the afternoons warmed up into the 30s and 40s. We were not successful this trip in verifying the existance of the Ivorybill but it is a 500,000 acre swamp we are searching so it is a little like a needle in a haystack. I did get a nice picture of a Redshouldered Hawk though. Our team consisted of 18 artists, scientists and adventurers, as well as a videographer. We hope to have some paintings and a video as a result of our trip.