Sunset, Morro Bay

Love those colorful sunsets! I have entered this painting into the Oil Painters of America western regional show, along with the oil painting of the buffalo in the great plains. We'll see if anything comes of that. This was an interesting exercise, much harder to paint natural-looking water than I thought. The little tiny dots are birds flying home to roost on the rocks.

El Dorado

We recently spent a wonderful week at Moab, Utah. This oil painting is of a rock formation in Arches National Park. The formation near the left of the picture is Balanced Rock. I named this painting El Dorado, as I imagined the conquistadors riding across the desert and seeing this formation shimmering in the sun like a lost fortress made of gold. I am entering this painting in the Paint the Parks 100 competition.

In the Garden of Flowering Fragrance

And now for something completely different...This is the new Chinese garden at the Huntington Gardens, Pasadena, California. They brought Chinese master craftsmen over in shifts to construct the bones of the garden. I wanted to achieve a dreamy effect and just let the paint flow.

Delicate Arch

More red rock from Arches National park. This is a formation called Delicate Arch. It is said to look like a cowboy's chaps from this angle. This is on a height which gave a great vista off to the east toward the Rockies in the distance. The canyon was tinted a pale green with the spring shrubs which had not yet shriveled to brown. Rain passed through which make the sky more interesting to paint. This is an 8x10, done in a more realistic style. I plan to enter it into the Paint the Parks competition.

Speckled Iris

My watercolor teacher is vacationing in England. A couple of the students got together to paint, and this was the result. This is taken from a photo shot by Tony of the iris blooming in our front yard. The petals really are speckled as shown. It is always a challenge to get the deep tones for shadows.

Book Cliffs

Grand Junction Colorado is bordered by large, worn-down mesas. This is a portion of the Book Cliffs, which runs for miles on the north side of the valley. The colors are very delicate, this picture is a little brighter than the original. We stayed at the Gallery, a local bed and breakfast. I painted this the night we stayed, and showed it to the proprietors as a sample of my work in the morning. They have agreed to hang my work for sale!!

The Three Gossips

We visited Arches National Park during our family trip to Utah in 2008. The scenery is so amazing that you actually get jaded after a few days because everywhere you look is a great view. We hiked around the base of massive red rock outcroppings. I sketched this in the field and painted it later. Despite the strong colors, this is a watercolor miniature 3x5 inches. I may do this again as an oil painting.

The Windmill

I completed this painting during a recent vacation to Colorado and Utah. There is an agricultural area by Grand Junction, the "wine country of Colorado".

Christmas Cactus

This is a walk down memory lane. This was painted about 3 years ago, and was the first time I achieved the proper "watery" effect when painting. This was a class assignment. I spent 2 hours drawing the flowers. When I put the paint onto the pot, it started running all over and I shrieked out loud, "It's ruined!!!" My watercolor teacher told me to let it dry, and this wonderful glazed pot was the result. 11x14", original watercolor.

Squashy Buildings 2

My friend Karen challenged me to re-create the squashy buildings. This is another 8x10" original watercolor. It was surprisingly hard to achieve the rainy effect a second time. I think I like this painting even better than #1. It must be the purple flowers in the foreground! This is in the private collection of Karen Hilb.

Squashy Buildings1

An earlier impressionistic building, this 8x10 original watercolor is part of my "squashy buildings" series. It is in the collection of Vicki Hilb.

The Old Mill

This is an original watercolor, 11x14", not quite in my usual style. It is much more impressionistic that I normally paint. I really like the soft and hard edges. This was a challenging study in perspective, as there are 2 vanishing points, both of which are off the edge of the paper.

High Surf

Returning to the subject of water, here is another "wave" picture. I love the energy of this wave, with the foam blowing off the top. Would you believe, the rocks were done by crunching saran wrap into the wet paint? This is a watercolor original, 11 x 14".

A Walk in the Woods

I'm quite pleased by this 5x7" watercolor painting, which was a quick study to capture mood using a limited palette of colors. The people walking in the distance anchor the picture and lend a sense of scale. This was recently accepted in a juried show by the California Art Club.

Yellow Dog

Continuing my efforts to boost production, I am experimenting with painting oil paintings in 1 or 2 sessions. My first dog picture, I may do a series on this one.

Creating an Oil Painting - Zion's The Watchmen

This is the final image, after color correction. You will notice that the forested hillside on the left is now rocks and scrub, to match the hillside on the right. Further color correction modified the appearance of the rock formation. Final detail of the plants in the foreground and the colors in the shadows have been completed. I submitted this painting to the centennial Zion National Park art show. Sadly, it was not accepted. So I got my revenge and sold it...

Creating an Oil Painting - Zion's The Watchmen

Day 3: At the end of a long painting session, I had color on the entire painting. However, some bits are too pink and others an unnatural shade of green. I also realized the water was still tending to float above the ground, and there are no pine forests on the mountain side at Zion, which is a desert environment. A final color adjustment was required.

Creating an Oil Painting - Zion's The Watchmen

Day 3: Working on the natural color on the left side of the painting. You can see the colors are out of balance, with the grass near the waters edge looking too yellow, and the pine trees glowing blue-green instead of olive. I reviewed the instructions and discovered I had to paint recognizable plants that grow in Zion as part of the competition requirements. This required a greater level of accuracy and detail.

Creating an Oil Painting - Zion's The Watchmen

Day 2: The hill and foliage on the right side is detailed with an over painting in more naturalistic colors.

Creating an Oil Painting - Zion's The Watchmen

This is the underpainting, all tones of lavendar, blue and pink. The water is more completely painted. Notice it almost floats above the surface ofthe painting compared to the land...