I have had a busy couple of weeks. My wife and I spent some time hiking around Bryce Canyon and then  we travel to Escalante, Utah and hiked to and then waded through a couple of nifty slot canyons. I have often thought and sketched a few ideas about what a slot canyon painting of mine might look like. The problem for me is that a good photograph really captures the visual quality rather well. What I have yet to see in a good photograph is the closed in, deep inside the earth feeling that fills me when I am sliding sideways through some narrow gap in the rock. I believe sublime might be the correct word to describe what I am thinking about.   I just need to get a good solid  visual idea and then I’ll paint it. ( When my wife read this entry she suggested I should just start a painting and see what happens. I think she is right!)

Speaking of painting this week in my studio I have been creating a  small studio painting based on a plein air painting I did a couple of years ago up at the Sundance Ski resort. The day I made the plein air sketch was a memorable one, as a tall blond  young woman invited me to leave. She informed me that I was painting in an area reserved for mountain bikes.  Even when I presented her with my season pass which I had used to ride up the lift she was insistent that I leave so I complete the sketch at home. This version is a bit larger. I feel like it captures the day rather well. The day was a slightly overcast mid-morning in late June. I enjoyed several plein air painting outings in the Sundance  and Aspen grove area that summer in fact a large waterfall painting I blogged  about a couple of months ago started out as a small study, which  I painted standing just below the lowest snow field depicted in this painting. It was an interesting outing that day over by Stewart cascade, a few hikers who were visiting the falls stopped and visited with me. Painting is usually a solitary effort for me so it was a change to talk and paint it reminded me of my old high school days when art class was mainly gab session.

My first newsletter contest came to an end.  The lucky winner now has  her painitng.  If  you entered and did  not win you are in luck I will be  giving away another framed oil painting away in September of 2011 and you are already entered.  Any new readers who would like  a chance to win should, click the “win a painting” link at the top of my blog and follow the instructions.

Looking out my front window I see the storm last week left a nice white blanket on the upper halves of the Wasatch Mountains. The slope depicted in this painting already has a dusting of snow and most likely the snow making machines are running at night or they will be soon. I love the snow.( I am just not crazy about the cold). I can look at this painting and already imagine myself running down this section of the hill in three weeks I hope.sundance arttimpanogos paintingsutah canvas printsmountain bike paintingsmountain paintings

Fall is in the air. School has started. I find myself bouncing back and forth between my new art students at school and being out in the mountains on my annual fall hunting retreat with my brothers and my sons. In the past I have taken my paint box along to the mountains and worked some small compositions while not out hiking around the mountains. I have opted for my digital camera and sketch book this year. I plan on diving in to the studio and recording every wonderful moment I am witnessing. It is amazing to be out in the forest at 10,000 feet and just listen to the wind sing in the trees, or stand in a spruce thicket and have squirrels drop pine cones on your head as they scold you vigorously. It is cool to look up and see the early morning clouds just racing past as they catch those first rays of sunlight. In the evening the intense last orange-red sunlight on the tops of the peaks and edging the clouds looks like glorious glowing hot metal. As I list these things I am reminded that I spend to much time indoors. Well it is back to school and then back to the mountains.I love wearing my three “hats” this time of year, artist, educator and hunter its an interesting combination, I find myself looking for compositions or just admiring the way the light carves its way across a meadow while I am supposed to be hunting…… I guess that’s why I am not a very successful hunter. I almost always come home empty handed.
Watch for the new paintings coming soon……Cozumel, Arches, Buffalo Peak and whatever I see the next couple of weekends.
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About a month ago I went hiking and rediscovered the Buffalo Peak area near the Squaw Peak road (near Provo, Utah) Since then I have shared some of the results in other posts. I thought I would share these efforts today they are all four middle of the day as well as middle of the summer paintings meaning the sun was fairly high in the sky when the dark and light patterns were established. Which makes for high contrast and a bunch of green. Although summer has finally found its way up there and the undergrowth has browned and yellowed up a bit. All four were created using only the palette knife. I have a view of the north face of “Y” mountain from the Buffalo Peak trail in the works now and it is also a small knife painting and as I said in my last post, images from my recent Fish Lake trip are still floating around in my head. On the topic of images floating in my head, ideas from Cozumel and the amazing water and sky surrounding the island are always on my mind they just haven’t hit the canvas yet.(Perhaps all the floating images in my head are due to my ongoing exposure to turpentine.) If you are visiting my blog/web site for the first time make sure you sign up for my blog updates.

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I spent yesterday and the day before listening to a giant floor sander sand the oak floors above my studio and today I am breathing some interesting fumes from the finish being applied up there. It is a good thing though, the water that flooded the area had damaged the oak floor. Well enough of home repairs. I did get a little painting finished yesterday despite the distractions of noise and fumes. As I mentioned above I was working on a view of the the north face of “Y” mountain. The composition as you can see includes plenty of interesting foreground elements and the shapes of several nearby mountains. After looking at the painting for a couple of hours I have decided to try it again, only in the new version I will focus in on the unique geology and surface quality of the mountain and reduce the foreground and surrounding space to a minimum.
Today I worked up this study of the north face of “Y” mountain. I did try and focus in more on the face of the specifics of “Y” mountain. I eliminated most of the foreground. However, I could not help but put in some of those persistent balsam roots which are still struggling to bloom up on the side of the mountain. I like the alternating striped patterns that are created by the changes in the ground cover; meadows, stands of trees, and cliffs all mixed together with late morning light and shadow. I think I may find my jeep pointed in that direction again sometime in the near future There are many paintings waiting to be made along that one mile buffalo peak trail. to be continued…….landscape paintings

Greetings, I had the chance to go fly fishing with my son Nathan. We got up early and went up along the Provo river near Vivien park. The darn fish were not interested in our flies no matter how we presented them. We stayed in the cold water for about an hour and a half and along with whipping the water with my fly line I watched the sunshine creep down the south end of Mt. Timpanogos and bathe the canyon in bright August light.
Nathan and I decided to try our luck further down the river so we found ourselves near the mouth of Provo canyon standing in the water below the Murdock irrigation dam and finally we ended up on an old steel bridge, where we actually could see several nice brown trout feeding lazily in the clear shallow water. Fortunately for them (and us) they could see us too so nobody got hooked. After watching the fish for a few minutes I looked up stream to the east and decided I was done fishing and needed to get painting.
I wanted to capture the sunlight bouncing off the shallow stream contrasting against the shadowed foliage. I am still enjoying the palette knife. The way it deposits the color on the canvas seems good. I am painting another view from the old bridge. I will add it to this post soon.

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In this second version I tried to focus in on the contrast between the highlights on the water and the shadowed cottonwoods. Today I also worked on a drawing from my trip up to Buffalo peak. It is the view from the peak looking south towards the north face of “Y” mountain. I have also been working on some ideas from my recent family camping trip to Fish Lake.