In Sight

2008-07-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

Timpooneke Stream
8x10 oil on board / plein air

Saw this stream running by Timpooneke trail head, up American Fork Canyon, Utah. An interesting stream to start with, the angle of the afternoon light gave it a golden glow. Everything sparkled. What a delight to paint the back lit brush against the shadowed woods .

Available for purchase. $100 unframed.

2008-07-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

Timpooneke View of Timpanogos
8x10 oil on board / plein air

Mount Timpanogas is a favorite destination of hikers in the Provo, Utah area. This is the Timpooneke trail head for Timpanogos. The painting shows Timpanogos in the far distance. Two ridges must be ascended to get to Timpanogos. At this time of year, there is too much snow for the safe ascent of ordinary hikers. The next day our family and their significant others hiked halfway up the second ridge before snow and just being worn out took it's toll. Beautiful country, lupine, indian paintbrush, and other colorful wildflowers were out.

The painting was done using a simplified palette of ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, white, alizaron crimson, cadmium red.

Available for purchase. $100 unframed.

2008-06-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

Wildflowers at Pine Island
9x12 oil on board / plein air

Every year the wildflowers come out under the trees and along the rivers in SouthEast Minnesota. When I saw them come out this year, I returned to the Zumbro river bend at Pine Island and had a delightful morning painting. I haven't been able to identify the flower precisely, but friends have suggested wild phlox (dames rocket). If you're interested, I painted the same location last June, but the wildflowers were past.

Available for purchase. $125 unframed.

2008-05-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

Spring Field
9x12 oil on board / Plein air

The freshly plowed fields had such lovely reds and browns. The furrows of corn were just coming up, leaving rows of stubble green. The light was rising from the left and showed the depth of the distant trees. I decided this field would never look just like it was today and had to paint it.

My palette is titanium white, um blue, cad yellow, naples yellow, cad red, viridian and alizaron crimson (mostly for darks). The wind whipped up as the morning went on. It was good to get out of the wind.

Available for purchase: $125 unframed.

2008-03-02T10:32:00.000-08:00

Golden Angel
8x10 oil on board / plein air

An Angel Moroni statue sits atop (almost) every Mormon temple. The is the one on the St. Paul temple. It is low enough to get a good view of. The sculpture is by Arvid Fairbanks, and it depicts the angel heralding the return of Christ. This is in the morning east light.

Available for purchase: $100 unframed

2008-02-23T15:52:00.000-08:00

"Plummer Building"
8x10 oil on board / plein air
The Plummer Building is one of the earliest buildings still remaining on the campus of the famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. It is a highly ornate building. At this size, much of the ornateness is lost, but the grandeur of the building is still impressive.
This was painted on two successive Saturday afternoons. Among the tall buildings, the shadows came early and my fingers quickly got cold.

$100 unframed. Click "Contact me" above on the right.

2008-01-26T20:17:00.001-08:00

Essex Brooklet in Winter
8x10 oil on board / Plein air

The temperature warmed up to 20 today, and the sun came out. What a wonderful day to go on location. This little brook meanders between a hill and a rise in local Essex Park. The sun was low and lit up the hill in warm light. I hiked down to the stream bed and set up. I could see animal tracks in the undisturbed snow. The reflection was delightful. Had to finish quickly when the sun started going down... so did the temperature.

2007-12-02T20:38:00.000-08:00

Wetlands Iced Over
9x12 Oil on Board / Plein Air

2007-10-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

Hunter's Moon
8x10 oil on board / plein air

These trees in a local field glowed in the early morning light. The full moon was just setting. The first moon after the harvest moon is called the Hunter's Moon, thus the title. It was a challenge to capture the colors and yet distinguish the trees from the distant hills.

$100 unframed.

2007-09-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

North Shore Sunrise

9x12 oil on board / plein air

Traveled to the North Shore of Lake Superior. This is near Cascade Creek. I got up early while the rest of my party was still sleeping, and was treated to this fantastic sunrise. The edge of the lake was barely discernible from the sky. The puddles and trickles of water on the rocks reflected the light from the morning sky.

$125 unframed. Link to details and purchase information

2007-06-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

Green Canyon
12x16 Oil on Board / Plein Air

Green Canyon, near Logan, Utah on a crisp June morning; the sun pushing away the cool of the shadows. The feilds of dry grasses glow in the morning light.

I grew up here, at the foot of Green Canyon. In my youth I camped several times with the Boy Scouts up this canyon. On boring summer days, we would pack a lunch and hike up near the rifle range and collect bullet shells, or bring home rocks as trophies.

We return nearly every year on vacation to visit our families, who still live here. On this day the temperatures were cool enough that my hands got cold while running before sun-up, but later when painting, the sun came over the mountain and became brutal. I was happy for an umbrella.

$180 unframed. Link to details and purchase information

2007-06-16T20:16:00.001-07:00

Barn and Truck
9x12 oil on board / plein air
I've seen this old barn several times as I drive past to other painting spots. The light was just right today. The hills of the field seemed to make waves of the grass and corn.

$125 unframed. Link to details and purchase information

2007-06-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

River Bend at Pine Island

9x12 Oil on Board / Plein Air

The dawn mist was just burning off the river and the grasses on this early June morning. Rich light beamed from the left and brilliantly back-lit trees. A few wildflowers remain from their peak, a couple of weeks ago. I started this piece then, but when I returned today they were mostly gone. This is a bend in the middle fork of the Zumbro River as it flows through Pine Island, Minnesota.

Sold.

2007-06-04T06:17:00.000-07:00

Waste to Energy
8x10 Oil on Board / Plein Air

This power plant in Rochester, Minnesota converts (burns) waste cleanly to create electricity. The early light on a May morning streaks from the east and makes the complex glow. My canvas was pretoned in a naples yellow. I blocked in using orange and red for the light and dark warms, and alizaron and violent for the shadows. You can see this underpainting in the transition between blocks of color. For the sky and the grass, I tried a new technique of using a turp-thinned brushwork wash. It left an interesting texture of blue over the orange in the sky, and green over the red in the grass.

$80 unframed. Link to details and purchase information

2007-05-19T19:10:00.001-07:00

Early Morning at Mayowood Lake
8x10 oil on board / Plein Air

Glowing early morning light set the tree tops on fire against the shadowed hills at Mayowood Lake near Rochester Minnesota. I toned the canvas orange and painted with a red underpainting and used Alizaron Crimson a lot in the shadows. I'll have to go out early in the morning more often!

$100 unframed. Link to details and purchase information

2007-05-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

River Wildflowers
8x10 oil on board / Plein Air

I'd gone out intending to paint a nearby river, but as I set up I saw these lovely flowers in the deep shadows on the bank. The spoke louder to me than the river. Spring is here and the colors are so rich after the bleak colors of winter.

$60 unframed. Link to details and purchase information

2007-05-07T19:41:00.000-07:00

Spring at Snelling Lake
6x8 oil on board / Plein Air

Snelling Park is a beautiful park on the Minnesota River and the trees were just starting to leaf. An overcast day threatened rain, but the sun came out for just a little before it started to sprinkle. The lake is in the left center distance.

$60 unframed. Link to details and purchase information

2007-04-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

Boundary Waters

Some buddies talked me into going up to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in Northern Minnesota. Everything there must be canoed and carried in. I put together a portable painting setup, loaded it in waterproof bags. We went before the regular season, and had the place to ourselves. Both of the paintings were painted plein air in the Boundary Waters.

Boundary Waters Daybreak

9x12 oil on board / Plein Air

On the shore of Four Town Lake in Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This was the view from out campsite! The sun from the east sky is baking the rocks on the near shore. The trees tops on the island on the right are just starting to catch the light. The reflections in the water are almost like a mirror. I thought about naming this "Perfect Morning on Four Town Lake". You can see why.

$125 unframed. Link to details and purchase information

Lava Flow Rapids at Four Town Lake
9x12 oil on board / Plein Air

This is the river output from Boot Lake as it cascades into Four Town Lake over some volcanic ledges and boulders. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is a treasure of mixed volcanic landscape, interconnected lakes and islands. I was drawn to the transition from explosive rocks over the rapids to the calm lake.

$125 unframed. Link to details and purchase information

2007-04-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

Chateau Theatre
11x14 Oil on Board

The Chateau Theatre in Rochester, Minnesota is is a registered historic place. It was quite the place in it's day, with stained glass windows, generous seating, and beautiful faux castle terraces inside on the walls. In the era of multiplex theaters, a single theater like this was not financially profitable. It's now taken over by a book store. Yet, the memories live on. It takes on new life in this painting.

$150 unframed. Link to details and purchase information

2007-04-01T18:19:00.000-07:00

Kite Festival Washington DC

5.5 x 8.5" / ink and watercolor on paper

A personal greeting and hand painted postcard from Washington, DC. We've been visiting my son, who works at the Council of Economic Advisors. We happened to be here during the annual Smithsonian Kite Festival. Thousands descend on the Mall in DC with kites in hand for a day of unusual and competetive kite flying.

The colors were glorious. This scene is eastward down the Mall, with the base of the Washington Monument as a backdrop. Several stationary flags in the ground provide a colorful backdrop to the event. The sky abounds with kites, most too small to depict in a painting. Hundreds of fantastic kites of all descriptions.

Afterward, it was plein air painter's heaven, with the Smithsonian galleries nearby. We saw several outstanding works of art including Degas, Boudin, Home, Rousseau, Redon. Boudin has an entire collection on display of lovely plein air work.

__________________

2007-03-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

St. Mary's Hospital Tower at Mayo Clinic

12x16 oil on board / plein air

The tower of St. Mary's Hospital at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota welcomes all who come seeking healing and the best medical help. It has an impressive dome on top and is much like a fortress of security to those who enter in.

On this March afternoon the clouds roll by but the late day sun still basks the building in a warm glow.

$200 unframed. Link to details and purchase information

Detail of the tower:

2007-03-10T21:10:00.000-08:00

River Bend
8 x 10 oil on board / plein air

Painting at the end of the day, I was worried there would be too much shadow. Instead the sun lit the tops of the trees on fire and sent wonderful ribbons of light to play on the snow and reflect in the water.

$100 unframed. Link to details and purchase information

2007-02-22T18:56:00.000-08:00

One Room School
6x8 plein air / oil on board

This is the Hadley Valley School House, which is has been relocated to the Olmsted County Historical Society. It's an original one room school house. I've been itching to paint it for a while. It had to be a morning painting because of the way the sun make shadows -- in the afternoon, the front is all shadow. We've had a couple of days of temps above freezing, which helped the grass show up. But it was nippy this morning. Thank goodness for pocket heaters in my gloves.

This is actually the second time I've painted this school building. The first time was 7 years ago -- helping my son on a Boy Scout Eagle project... back then, we were repainting the windows with latex paint!

The school house is a living historical building. Desks and a coal stove from the period are inside. Students come for on-site learning and are taught what it was like to learn in a one room school. They use slate boards and there is a dunce cap.

$50 unframed

2007-02-03T07:22:00.000-08:00

Ditch in Winter
6x8 oil on board / plein air

I painted here just two months ago (see Ditch), but snow has given it a totally new look. Where was all the water? Running below the surface of the deep banks of snow, just showing in a few spots. The shadows made rich deep contrasting color to the warm sun reflecting off the snow. Temperatures were just above freezing... it was a joy to be out.

2007-01-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

Nature's Fireworks
6x8 pen and watercolor / plein air

You wouldn't know it, but there was a 24th of July parade passing in front of me as I painted this bright red crabtree in Utah last summer. Oils and an easel were much too big to take with me on a family outing, but my pocket sized water color set fit easily in a back pack. The parade of local fire trucks, dairy princesses, and children dressed up as pioneers was fascinating, but moved much too quickly for me. There were sure to be fireworks that evening, but this tree against the bluish mountains was all the fireworks I needed for inspiration.