While hiking with my family up near Buffalo Peak a few days ago a cloud shadow passed over as I was crossing one of the meadows along the trail and the contrast between to hazy pinkish summertime Mt. Timpanogos in the distance and the shadowed cool maple trees and meadow in my foreground caught my attention. I determined that I would give that contrasty feeling try. At the request of my internet guru Daniel I have included a short little tutorial on my working methods the subject is sketching landscape values with gray Prismacolor markers. I use them both in my sketch book and at times as an under-drawing for painting the advantage of using the markers is that they come in ten different values so if I draw my design with a light marker I can then fill in different values rapidly with the other markers in my little video I use a 30% 70% and 90% cool gray markers. I have painted over Prismacolor markers with oils and acrylics and I have never had any problems.

It has been a while since I have been able to paint. A short list of distractions both good and bad which have kept me out of the paint might include; slot canyon hiking, holidays, hikes, 5K runs, playing with grand children, bike rides, professional conferences, final testing, graduations, home repairs, flooded basement(I am not kidding) the list could go on. Finally I was able to get out and draw and photograph some landscapes to paint. Last week I went to the ridge trail above American Fork Canyon an area where I have painted before on several occasions. This week went up the Squaw Peak trail above Provo and did several drawings in the Buffalo Peak area. I have painted near there before but I was impressed with the location and I plan on working there again soon. I have included a studio study which I made yesterday (July 15th 2010). The main problem I was trying to solve aside from capturing the essence of the place was the mass of yellow balsam root flowers and the texture their very green foliage presented. I think the palette knife helped me capture the “feel” of the foliage. I am still working on ideas from Cozumel and Arches hopefully my schedule will let me squeeze them in soon. Below is a mostly silent video of this painting being made.

I stayed home from my day job on Friday and had a few hours on my hands so I painted a 20 x 30 oil painting which is pretty much what I do. What makes it unusual is that I sat down to paint with a couple of brushes and began the under-drawing with a brush and when I started to mix up a tone with my palette knife something told me to put the paint on with the knife. I did not touch a brush till I signed the painting. Those of you who have seen my work for several years know that many of my plein air works are knife paintings. However it has been almost a year since I painted solely with a knife.

Knife painting allows me a textural or tactile quality that I rarely find with a brush.

As I have stated before,  I was awe struck with the powerful beauty of the Caribbean Sea pounding the east shore of Cozumel, Mexico. I can’t help but try and capture it. This knife painting gave me something….. now I need to build on it.

I have not forsaken my Moab and Arches work in fact I feel that the same energy I get from the palette knife in the beach painting may help me in the Arches.

Enjoy the video its in HD! ( Thanks to Daniel) Watch my Ebay store for smaller plein air works and a couple of mid sized works. Contact me if you are interested in any work on this site.

Greetings, here is a  time lapse video of me painting a small (11 x 14 inches) color-value sketch. This type of small painting or sketch will help me as I design and create a larger oil painitngs.  One thing I discovered as I made this little sketch of Turret Arch in Snow was an interesting rhythm  created by the alternating snow and sandstone patterns on both sides of the image.  When I create the larger painting I will try to emphasize those patterns. I also discovered a value shift I need to make between the sky and the sun lite  sandstone. Ideas like these are just a couple of the reasons why I like to paint smaller versions of the landscapes I eventually paint large.

I hope you enjoyed this little video. If  you are interested in this little painting or any other works you see here contact me. Check out what I have on Ebay this week.

If you like this painting or any others like it contact me by e-mail.

Greetings, here is the time lapse video of my most recent oil painting of Utah. I hope you enjoy it. Next up Double Arch in the snow.One of my next posts will be an update on that painting!

If you are interested in this painting or one like it please e-mail me for details or check my home page for paintings for sale. Check my ebay store out, see what plein air or small studies I have for sale or auction there.

Here is the complete time lapse vidoe of me painting my first version of Corona Arch.

I hope you enjoy the audio track I added. My sped up brush made kind of an annoying static sound. If you are interested in this or any other paintings hereon my web site e-mail me.

Here is the video link to my new Corona Arch painting time-lapse video. I enjoy watching my own Utah oil paintings grow! You can see the first two phases of painting which I use both in the studio and outside”en plein air” First I draw the basic shapes and fill them with value (dark or light) using turpentine or a similar medium. Second I block in large areas of color usually avoiding the edges or any real “detail”. In the next video you will see me make adjustments and do what little detail I include. I like to shoot for suggestion instead of description this is a battle for me as it is for many artists.

I hope you like the video. If you like the painting or one like it e-mail me for purchase details. Check my Ebay store this week I have a palette knife painting of delicate arch up for auction.

Wow! that was fun. I liked seeing myself in action. I plan on video taping again when I work on larger paintings. When it warms up outside I’ll need to pack an extra tripod and a few SD cards and catch the fun of plein air!
Watching myself finish this painting made me think about how or when a painting is finished. In my work it is usually a point in the process when things I try make the painting look worse instead of better or when I look at it and it says all it can about what I saw or thought while I was out with my sketchbook or camera. Enjoy the Video.

If you would like a painting like this or like any other on my web site shoot me an e-mail. visit my ebay store and see what I am auctioning this week.

It has been a busy week for me. I was able to work on my “South Window” painting. I did a quick block in which is pretty much normal for me in the studio. I like to see everything kind of complete so I can judge my color and value choices as I complete the painting. The video below is step two in my studio process. Step three is by far the most difficult and time consuming part of my studio painting process, I plan on doing a time lapse video of step three also. I will post it next week.

I will be posting a few more of my “found paintings” along with descriptions of where and how I paintined them in the next few days. Watch for them in my Ebay store.