Fall or Winter?

"Season's Change"

11x14 oil on board

This is the time of year that Mother's Natures seems unable to decide if it is autumn or winter.  Some days the temperature drops, the winds pick up and the snow begins to fall and I'm convinced it is winter.  Other days I look around and discover some trees are holding on to their leaves as if they too don't want winter to begin.

Zion Park

One of our favorite places to visit is Zion National Park.  I still remember my first time there and how the amazing canyons and towering rocks took my breath away.  No matter how many times I visit the park, I still find myself filled with awe.  The rocks change right before your eyes.  One time they are dark and almost without color and a few minutes later, they glisten and sparkle with color.  If you wait and are lucky, you might have a gentle fog roll in or a few snow flurries, depending on the season.  All are beautiful and remind me to stop and just enjoy this place we call Zion National Park.

"Zion's Fog"

11x14 oil on panel

Oil or watercolor?

People ask me what I prefer, oils or watercolors?  I love both.  I truly do!  Each have their own unique characteristic.  I never know when I wake up whether I'll feel the urge to paint with oils or watercolors.  Here is a watercolor that I'm entering in the local chapter of the Utah Watercolor Society.

Springtime

Spring has finally arrived here in the Cache Valley.

I love the way our mountains hold on to the snow while the fields are a study in abstract patterns.

There is never a lack of inspiration when you are living in a lush, green valley surrounded by mountains.

And spring is not spring without flower!!!!

Watercolor's bad rap

I have to admit that I love painting both in oils and in watercolors.  Luckily when I started painting I had no idea of the reputation that watercolor had for being hard to work with.  If I had, I probably would have steered clear of it but I didn't hear that it was supposedly the hardest medium to work in until much later.  By then, I realized the reputation was not earned.  Sure, you can't scrape everything off at the end of the day if you don't like your painting but you can take it to the nearest sink and wash almost everything off.

You don't have to paint from light to dark as most people think.  You can lift the darks and add light paint at another time.  You can erase only it is called lifting.  You can also get muddy colors but as one who enjoyed mud, I don't mind when colors get muted.  Mother Nature doesn't mind either.  Just look out any window on a cloudy day.

This painting was lots of fun to paint and I intentionally tried to use a muted palette.  I especially loved the way the sky came together.

Portrait or Landscape

Most artists have a favorite subject to paint.  For some it is still life, others love landscapes and others do mainly figures.  I don't think I've painted very many still life paintings but usually go back and forth between figures and landscapes.  I love both and never know when I enter my studio what is going to grab me that day.  Today it's a landscape.  Tomorrow remains to be seen.

Zoning out

It's been raining today with some pretty mild temperatures so I opened the window of my studio and started a painting.  After awhile, I began to wonder what it was I was feeling.  It took a bit to register.  It had started to snow and the wind was blowing it in the window and falling onto my canvas.  I know I often lose sense of time and space when I paint but this is the first time I got snowed on and didn't realize it.

"Golden Sky"

16x20 oil

Artistic Liberties

Like most artists, I will often take some artistic liberties with my paintings.  I will add something like snow on a mountain long after the last of the snow melted.  Or in some cases I will take it away, using my memories of greener times to influence my work.  I will often do a quick study while outside then work on a larger piece in my studio using the original study as my inspiration.  Light changes quickly so I will take photos to help remind me of what it was that captured my interest in the first place but photos never come close to capturing what the naked eye sees while out in the field.

Cache Valley - Enjoying Summer

I love getting outside to paint.  Everywhere I turn there is something new and different to paint.  The sun falling on a barn- the new growth on the trees - the snow lingering on the mountains - the newly plowed field.  I am never for lack of subject material.

Before I started painting I think I just wandered through life not noticing the shapes, colors and patterns that were all around me.  I saw trees, barns, houses, man, woman or child.  I labeled what I saw but it wasn't until I took up painting that I really began to think and see in shapes and values.  My family will laugh when I get all excited and say "Look at the wonderful dark shape and how it intersects with that light shape and how it connects and flows over to there!"  I wish everyone could sample seeing the world through the eyes of an artist but then maybe that's why I and others paint.  We want others to share in our experiences.

Second Cutting

16x20 oil on panel

Late Snow


18x24 oil on canvas

Signs of Spring

Signs of Spring

oil on panel 11x14

The valley I live in is surrounded by mountains and very beautiful.  I got an early start in my painting today and don't want to put my brushes down.  I sometimes feel guilty because I get so much pleasure from painting.  I wish I could describe the feeling inside but it is like no addiction I've ever had including chocolate!

Underpainting

This is the underpainting I started in the little time I had today to paint for a painting that I hope to complete tomorrow.  I didn't get to paint as long today as my husband and I went out for brunch and to get some more art supplies.  Now (late afternoon) we are heading down to Ogden for the First Friday Gallery Stroll and to dinner.

Early Snow

Early Snow 

watercolor 11x15

I did this painting last week during our church service and have donated it to be auctioned silently.  It was a unique experience painting during the service and I blogged about this earlier. I had one hour to paint and since I paint both watercolors  and oils with my easel totally upright, people in the church could watch what I was doing.   Before I started I was very nervous but as soon as I put my brush in the water a calmness came over me and the hour flew by.  Amy, the artist next to me shared that she had the same experience.  Maybe we've discovered the perfect solution to "artist block" - paint in church.

Inspiration All Around

Arches

oil on masonite 10x8

I began the process of painting every day about two weeks ago so already have some finished.  This painting was among the first I did in this marathon of painting.  I'm posting early as I'll be Christmas shopping today.  Yes, I know I'm late AGAIN but better now than the week after Christmas when everything is really picked over.  I do plan on painting later today so might add to this post after that.

Thank you for the wonderful comments I have been getting through email from many of you.  Someone recently asked me how blogging would help my creative process.  What a thought provoking question.  Right now I'd answer that I find I have this blog in the back of my mind so my senses are heightened to what's around me even more than usual looking for good painting subjects.  What I am finding is there is inspiration all around me from the most simple subject to the vast landscape.  My dream is to paint a variety of things until I naturally find what I want to paint the most.  So, over the weeks and months ahead it might seem like I am jumping around but that is intentional.

It is amazing how vulnerable blogging makes me feel.  Painting on its own makes me feel vulnerable because I open myself so much in the process.  Now to invite the world to look at what I've been holding in the privacy of my own home is really going out on a limb.  I trust your comments will be constructive yet kind.