Paradise Lake

Paradise Lake
Oil / Canvas
24" x 36"

My studio painting from my plein air hikes up to Ptarmigan Lake. This is the lake on the way to the top lake. It apparently has no name so I'm calling it Paradise Lake.

High Altitude Splendor

High Altitude Splendor
8 x 10 Oil

Went back up the Ptarmigan lake trail again. Here's the one from the hike.

Ptarmigan Lake Hike

Made my first hike up the Ptarmigan Lake Trail by Cottonwood Pass, outside the town of Buena Vista. The trail was about 3.5 miles if I remember right. Took about an hour to get there. I was thrilled when I arrived at the the first lake on the trail. I took almost 200 photos!

I had trouble deciding what I wanted to paint because there was so many great options. I decided on doing a simple composition shown in the photo below.




One of the great views above the lake.




Here's me trying to cram all that scenery into a small 8x10



...and here's the painting. I'll be returning to this spot soon to paint some more views of this spot

Alpine Patterns
Oil 8x10

Road To Mountain Heights

Road To Mountain Heights
Oil 8" x 10"

Another Painting from the San Luis Valley.

Mountain Valley Patterns

Mountain Valley Patterns
Oil 8 x 10

I really enjoy painting the San Luis Valley. I have some plans in the works for future paintings from the area.

Sunrise Radiance

Sunrise Radiance
Oil 8" x 12"

Last Light On Challenger Point - Plein Air

Last Light On Challenger Point
Oil 8"x10"

Plein Air painting from yesterdays Sundown.

What I like about where I live is that I've got the Collegiate Peaks facing east for sunrise painting and the Sangre De Cristo range facing west to paint at sundown.

The light changes really rapidly at sundown. I think sunset painting is tougher because everything gets darker. You usually have to be prepared to continue to paint even when the light is gone and rely on what you remember seeing.

Heavy Snow

Heavy Snow
64" x 24"
Oil / Canvas

Twisting Aspen

Twisting Aspen
Oil / Canvas
8 x 6

A recent plein air painting from one of my favorite aspen painting spots up at the Shavano Mountain trail head. You can easily paint at this spot all day

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Autumn Aspen Grove

Autumn Aspen Grove
Oil / Canvas
24 x 20

Majestic Alpine Glow

The paintings below are of a view of Mt Princeton early in the morning above the valley I live in. The smaller one is the one I did outdoors on location. I camped out at this spot in order to get up at 5am to capture this light on the mountains. It doesn't last for long, the plein air painting took about 20-25 min to complete.

I then used a combination of photos and the plein air piece to complete the larger painting. I decided to paint it when the light is just beginning to hit the top of the mountain when the colors are the most saturated.



Oil - 18x24



Oil 6x8

Shining Through

Shining Through
Oil 16" x 20"

Experimenting with color some more....

The Intensity Of Fall

The Intensity of Fall
24" x 18"
Oil / Canvas

The Fall colors here in Colorado are so intense. It can be hard to believe how bright the colors really are, but they really are this way.

Lately, my interest in painting has been in color. I'm interested in how the impressionists used color to represent light. I've been enjoying studying the California Impressionists work. Particularly, I've been focusing on William Wendt's work. I've also been finding inspiration in Russian painters such as Sergei Bongart. I'm finding how it's so important to build a visual memory from outdoor field studies when you do work in studio such as I did for this piece. I had a photograph handy, but I relied heavily on my memory and imagination for it. You can't get much color from a photo. Photographs can control you, but when you use your memory you'll be free to push the limits.

Wildflowers

Wildflowers
12" x 20"
Oil

Took an impressionistic approach on this one. Played with thick paint - building thick paint on top of thick paint in order to make a more tactile look and get more variety in color. Detail picks are below:

Alpine Sundown

Alpine Sundown
Oil 8x10

Mt. Princeton Vista

Mt. Princeton Vista
Oil 8" x 10"

Plein Air from today. This is a view of Mt. Princeton above the valley I live in. It's challenging to drop in shadows from clouds while painting outdoors. They are always moving so it can be tricky to make observations of how they work. I had to conserve my white paint because I forgot to bring it, luckily I made it without using it all. The wind got really chilly towards the end of the painting, started to have shivering hands while painting (maybe the shakiness can be seen in the brushstrokes)

Autumn Brook

Autumn Brook
Oil / Canvas
16" x 20"

I've painted a couple Plein Air studies of this spot before and have always wanted to do a little larger studio painting of it. Plein Air is fun but I also really enjoy being able to layer paint in the studio and build up some texture and color.

Fiery Skies

Fiery Skies
Oil 18" x 18"

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