Sunset on the Elbow River

A big thank you to VIVA gallery for sponsoring my exhibit 'Deep Snow High Mountains' during the month of October. And a big thank you to everyone who purchased a painting. The response to these paintings was heartwarming.

     Now the paintings are on display at the Driftless Cafe through the holiday season. On a chilly day, stop into the cafe, have something wonderful to eat, and enjoy the paintings. Lately I've been enjoying my favorite pizza, affectionately called the "Figgy Piggy".  Mouthwatering bacon, figs, blue cheese and garlic aioli-an unbelievably good combination. But really, you can close your eyes and point to something on the menu and it will be excellent!

     There are more 'mountain paintings' in progress so if you've seen the exhibit at VIVA, stop in at the Driftless Cafe sometime before Christmas to see what might be new on the walls.

     Since Deep Snow High Mountains went on display at VIVA gallery in October, I've been working on catching up with garden cleanup, hauling hay, and generally getting ready for winter. The warm weather has allowed time for the fall outdoor work that didn't get done while paintings were being finished in September. Besides, when it is 60 degrees, with a warm breeze, and the oak leaves are russet and golden in the sunlight, staying indoors just doesn't make any sense. The wind whistles through the eaves blowing leaves up toward the clouds on a sudden gust, warning of changes soon to come; so I know there will be plenty of time later to stay inside and paint. 

     See you at the Driftless Cafe!

Chinook

                                         Between the Clouds - oil on canvas 18"x24"

  All the snowy mountain paintings are done and on their way to VIVA gallery. But the scenes of those beautiful, amazing mountains are still filling my head, so I'm going to keep painting for a while. Remember to stop by VIVA gallery in October and take a virtual tour of some of the seldom seen places from the back country trails of Canada's western mountains.

        
     
   

Painting Snow Hoodoos

Snow Hoodoos Near Balu Pass

    This is the second painting, just finished, from our Canadian backcountry travels, featuring one of my favorite things - hoodoos. Some of you may know hoodoos from the deserts and 'badlands' of our western states but snow can also make more temporary hoodoos.   
   Alberta has famous hoodoos out in the dry prairies near Drumheller. Travel west through the mountains, past the front ranges and into British Columbia where the snow is usually deep, to find snow hoodoos. I have seen hoodoos in Banff National Park, near the town of Banff, but deeper into British Columbia hoodoos are bigger and more easily found. They form over trees or rock and often have a mushroom shape where protected from wind.
   'Snow Hoodoos Near Balu Pass' takes us into the Rogers Pass backcountry. Rogers Pass area in the Selkirk mountains is well known to Canadian skiers for steep, avalanche filled valleys, spectacular scenery and challenging skiing.Snow here can be several meters deep and the sheltered valleys allow hoodoos to form.
   These hoodoos formed over rock outcroppings. They are 6-8 feet wide (2-3meters). Sometimes there is enough space under one to stand up inside it. Carefully!
   Beyond the hoodoos and out of sight in the painting is Balu Pass, a lovely open ridge surrounded by higher peaks with lots of open space for an afternoon of telemarking.

   This painting was started by doing a color palette to decide the basic range of colors and values.
Ken DeWaard , I'm thinking about values!

 
   Values from dark to light were made for three blues; cerulean, cobalt and ultramarine. Then I made samples of these colors with black added.

   Early stage of the painting I try to get the basic shapes and values. Still not very efficient with that so often redo it several times.

   What seems like a simple, one color snowfield quickly turns into a complex mix of shapes and values. Trying to keep it simple here but those details creep in all too soon. At this point I forgot about taking pictures for a while. I'll try to get more of each stage of development on another painting. This has been changed and changed again, before ending up as below. My photos don't show the values completely.

   

Deep snow, higher altitude and dry clear air can cause snow to intensify colors and seem luminous. The photo does not quite capture that so I'll keep trying to get better pictures.

 
 Now I'm doing sketches for figures, and thinking about where they will be placed in the scene. One of the pleasures of these paintings is the figures in them are my friends. This painting features Bob and Fritz. I make sketches of skiers in different positions, using a photo reference for how their clothes or packs look. My photos taken while negotiating trails and carrying a heavy pack are quickly snapped and oriented on the large expanse of scenery so figures tend to be small, dark and indistinct against the brilliant white surroundings and don't offer much information for later use.
   Once the figures are in the scene they bring perspective and scale to the long range view and the painting is finished. For now. It goes into hiding for a couple weeks, then I'll look at it again and check for anything that needs adjusting.
 

Snow Hoodoos Near Balu Pass 20"x16"

   Thanks for checking in. I appreciate comments! If you like this blog, please share with your friends and on FaceBook or other social media. Then, go outside and enjoy the day.

   

 

 

 

Sunrise On the Trail to Bow Hut

 

   This painting was a lot of fun! It's been many, many years since I've painted a wall sized mural and since starting to paint a couple years ago, have been using canvases no larger than 9x12 inches.  This 48x36" canvas was given to me by a friend. There are a lot of unused art supplies in people's closets, and I am the fortunate beneficiary this time.

   After preparing the surface, it was ready to become my first large painting. Time to paint!

   For many years we did extensive back country skiing in Canada. Everywhere we went offered spectacular scenery and lighting. Trying to get photos of the gorgeous light and colors wasn't possible with cold hands and a very basic camera and I always wanted to paint what I saw. The scene on this blog's home page is my first mountain painting (8x22") but the big canvas inspired me to do another backcountry scene.

   I started by making color samples and value studies.

   The photo reference was one hazy mass of vague shapes due to the glare from the low morning sun. Many ski trips found us far from the road by the time sunlight reached the valleys. This was a beautiful time to be in the trackless snow fields under towering peaks.

   There are numerous problems with the above value study; primarily the light is coming from all over the place! Hmmmm....should have looked a bit more closely before putting all that paint on....

 A few more value sketches were done then I just jumped in and laid out the idea on the big canvas.

      Building values.....

     I don't like the direction this is going. At this point I painted over much of it and made it much lighter in value, and changed the light to come from the left side of the picture. The sun is still behind the mountain, the night's clouds are breaking up and floating away in the warming (relatively speaking) air and each angle of slope reflects a different amount of light.

  

    This is starting to work better but it's a long way from finished. I've saved adding the people into the scene until now. There were seven of us on this trip but that was too many for this picture; but since everyone is bundled up and unrecognizable, we can each imagine we are there in the picture.

   By this time life got a bit complicated due to the need to wear a Big Black Boot for 6 weeks.

Suddenly I was very appreciative of Frieda Kahlo's  challenges, and her courage and commitment to her art.

   Oops, there are some awkward things going on with the clothes and positions of people, not apparent in this dark and blurry photo so this is still very much a work in progress. Shadows, clouds, people...all need some adjustments. Keep working!

   This painting took about two weeks to do. At this time it's 'finished'. The quotes mean it gets put away for a while, then taken out to review. Anything that shows up then gets fixed, or if it's the best I can do at this time, it's really done.

   Thanks for checking on this blog; Please share and let me know what you think.

Painting the Winter Landscape

   A rainy December day with clearing skies brought dramatic lighting to the bare fields along highway 80 north of Richland Center. There were beautiful scenes to paint in every direction. This small study shows early afternoon light flooding the fields. An abandoned farm is spotlit on the hillside and water puddles in the fields reflect the changing sky. A few minutes later this scene was completely changed to dull colors and flat clouds. Color notes taken on site, then the painting was done in the studio.
   Pastel on sanded paper 10" x 8".