Before the Rain

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Back in September I took a trip with some plein air friends to the Tetons in Wyoming. This is the same group of friends I've gone up into the Sierra's with about 5 times before (if you've been following me a while). And although I had a WONDERFUL time with my buds, I didn't mention it here because I didn't come back with any good paintings. It was pretty humbling actually. I reworked each of my paintings using memory and photos, and this is the only one that turned out ok. There is an article about the trip out this month in Plein Air Magazine if you'd like to check out more about it all, and work by the other artists. It's a pretty great article!

About this particular spot: We were on the way back to our house one afternoon, and it was clearly about to rain. But we stopped at the river anyway, and we all set up to paint. Sure enough, about 5 minutes in it started to sprinkle, and then pour. Fortunately I had some photos from right before the rain, although the clouds were kind of reversed (coming in from the right instead of left). So I moved some things around, which is much easier for me to do in the studio, and voilà. It definitely captures the mood.

Busy Bee

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Missoula has a tiny public rose garden. Nothing compared to the great ones I had access to in Eugene and Portland, but at least it's something. Something, anyway, to this very busy bee.

Supporting Cast

 

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My husband built me a set of amazing shelves to hold all my still life "stuff". They take up an entire wall of my studio, and are shallow so that I can see everything at once (nothing is buried). They vary in height, but the ones for cups are short enough that the one above sometimes casts a shadow on the ones below. I have wanted to paint something like it for years.

My easel is in a pretty fixed location (because of the light), so I recreated the scene in my shadow box, using my new stripey cup as part of the supporting cast. The bounced light was quite a challenge.

Finding Common Ground

 

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I now have a whole slew of these little paper bits - different sizes and colors - so many that I had to start organizing them into categories so I could find what I was looking for! Ah the things we do for art.

Click image to see larger.

Florence Spotlight

 

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This was painted from my favorite reference photo from my last trip to Florence, Italy. I admit I stood there and waited for people to pass through the shaft of light until I got the perfect shot. But I was also waiting to paint it! Why? No idea. So here it is. I kind of completely love it.

Living on the Edge

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Here's another landscape from Utah, from the same area as this recent one. We were overlooking the Canyonlands, near Moab. One day we drove down into the canyon, on a tiny, dirt road that had recently been damaged by flooding, barely clinging to the side of a cliff. It was pretty terrifying, but our Jeep handled it just fine.

Primary Companions

 

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If you like movies about artists, a friend of mine sent me this page with a long list of them. I personally have only seen a few, but plan to check out more now that I've seen this. Enjoy!

Ruby Lake Rocks

 

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Another one from my Sierra trip. On this day I wanted to hike to Ruby Lake, which was quite a trek. I asked all my painting pals and had no takers, so I did it by myself. It was a lovely day. The shadows on these rocks changed super fast, so I took lots of pictures as I painted, and clarified it a bit more in my studio. I seem to be more interested in what I call "outdoor still lifes" than "landscapes."

The Big Bench

 

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I love this horizontal format, but they look so small here! Make sure you click on the image to see it larger. This scene is from references I took in Florence, Italy a couple years ago. I'm looking forward to going back someday.

Over the Top

 

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Here's a slightly bigger one that combines both the apples and flowers that I've been working on lately. I made the little vase with the knobbies on it, years ago. Starting next week I'll be taking another pottery class and hope to produce something else I can use in my still lifes. We'll see.