Great show at Boulder City

This is a picture of former Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro presenting me with my third place ribbon in the fine arts division at the Art in the Park festival in Boulder City. This was such an unexpected and much appreciated award given by the Boulder City Hospital Foundation which sponsors this show. The fine arts section of this show had over 130 artists exhibiting. There were several hundred more artists in the fine crafts and traditional crafts divisions as well. This is the first time Bill and I have done a festival of this size. We had quite a strong wind both days yet big crowds of art lovers still came out to support the artists, enjoy great food and listen to all the musicians. We are looking forward to exhibiting in the 2010 show!

A photo of our booth showing the framed paintings as well as a couple of our display cases which hold original paintings which are either mounted on foam core or matted. I had about a dozen paintings in my framing room which I didn't have in the show because I ran out of time to mat them. So I have been busy since this show getting those matted and now I have a bit of a head start for the next exhibit.

Boulder City Art in the Part Festival!

The Boulder City Art in the Part Festival is coming up and it's going to be on October 3rd and 4th. I will have my paintings on display that weekend so we are busy matting, framing and documenting all of the fresh paintings I have recently finished. I look forward to the response to my latest work and I also will enjoy seeing what my colleagues have produced in the past year. Hope to see you there!

Sketchbook Pages

The page on the right has a few of what I call small treasures of Red Rock Canyon. The datura bush was blooming in the picnic area of Red Springs and while I was studying it a beautiful woodpecker landed in the velvet ash tree above me. I missed a shot of him though as they're very camera shy. The day I found the pine cones Bill and I had driven up one of the old fire roads to visit one of our favorite springs. The pinyon pine cones we found there were beautiful with the green tips of their scales contrasting with the deep sienna centers. If you look closely you can see a little seed that was left. We stayed so late it was dark as we drove back down the mountain side and in the headlights we saw a desert bighorn sheep crossing the road ahead of us. A full moon was rising over Las Vegas and the lights of the city were sparkling silver and gold and ruby. It looked like Christmas in the valley.

Study of Tenaya Tapestry

"Study of Tenaya Tapestry"
8" x 12"
Original Watercolor

This painting is a study I did last week in preparation for the full sheet painting I'm working on now. This one is on Arches rough 140 lb, although the big one is on Fabriano cold press 300 lb.
The colors in this digital photo are more vivid than in the actual painting. I'm still learning how to get an accurate color reproduction with my camera. The subject is a tinaja. Tinaja is a spanish word for earthen jar or tank. A tinaja is a pool of rainwater that collects in depressions in the sandstone. They can last for days or even weeks and so they are an important source of water for wildlife (or backpackers occasionally.) Tinajas are one of my favorite subjects for painting because they are pools of clear, cool water that reflect passing storms or blue sky or the rich colors of the sandstone that surround them.

Sketchbook Pages

I went out to our little flowerbed in the backyard this morning and painted this page. Some of the glazes are still wet actually. I discovered a new color yesterday through the thoughtfulness of Stan Fellows at his blog Sketchbook by Stan Fellows. (Thank-you, Stan) One of his entries shows his color palette and one of the colors-Holbein's Lavender-I had not tried before. In his beautiful paintings one could see that it is a luscious color. So I went down to Dick Blick and purchased a tube. I tried it out last night to paint a quick sketch of the salt shaker on the table and it was great for the shadow side of the white salt. Then when I looked out the window this morning and saw six new morning glories in bloom I noticed that just one of them was the exact color of this tube of lavendar. A little synchronicity to tempt me outside. So I dragged a couple of folding chairs and my palette and sketchbook out and just enjoyed myself. The lizards were once again playing tag on the block wall and they slowly venture closer to check me out. And a hummingbird flew by and decided to land in the willow tree just to my right and watch. She flew to the privet also just in front of me about eight feet away and then landed in the mock orange as well. She stayed there a while then flew back to the willow and stayed another five minutes. Smart little bird-changed her vantage point three times.

"June in Red Rock Canyon"
9" x 6"
Original Watercolor

I painted this little watercolor in my studio a couple of days ago from a reference photo taken over a year ago. Up in the desert in the spring of 2008 the indigo bush put on a rich show of color. These plants didn't bloom this past spring so I was glad I had gotten a few photos from the spring before. The painting is small so I didn't put in specific details of the flowers. I spritzed the purples in the foreground and then immediately lifted with a paper towel to give the plant a little texture. It is on Fabriano Artistico Extra White cold press. I can always count on this paper to allow me to lift for this effect. When this plant is in bloom there are acres and acres of the valley dotted with this intense purple. It is a pretty sight!

Sketchbook Pages

Last weekend I had a chance to do a little sketching in my yard. The sketch on the right is a pen and ink done at our piano teacher's kitchen table in May that I later put a color wash on. He has quite a color variety of rose bushes in his backyard and always has a few in a vase in the house. This sketch was drawn vertically but it works horizontally as well. The sketch on the left is the one from the front yard. I found some shade under our acacia tree early in the morning and sketched the yucca pods that are so heavy they are bowing over the stalk they are growing on. While painting a hummingbird came to sip from the tiny red blossoms on this stalk. She was not more than a foot away from me and she hovered long enough to take a good look at the painting. The colors must have attracted her.