San Luis Valley Colors (study)

San Luis Valley Colors
Oil 8x10

This is a study I did for a 30 x 40 painting I recently finished. Will post a photo of the larger painting soon.

Morning Light

Morning Light
13" x 19"
Oil / Canvas

Summer Aspen

Summer Aspen
Oil / Canvas
40" x 30"

A recent painting of an aspen tree I've always liked. My goal for this was to have thin paint in the background and really thick and dense impasto paint on the tree and foreground in order to create depth.

Detail pics below to see paint thickness and texture:

It's fun to find little abstract designs when you take detail pics.

Here's a side view to see the paint dimension

Big Sky Colorado Sunset

Big Sky Colorado Sunset
Oil 16" x 20"

I've been chasing the sunset a lot here in the valley. This is from a night of painting from the view at S Mountain. Some nights I luck out with a spectacular sunset and sometimes not so much. This was one of the better nights I think.

"Jess" Portrait Painting

Jess
Oil 24" x 18"

Me and several other artist in town have been getting together to paint the figure / portrait from life every Tuesday night. This is a recent portrait I did. Jess did a great job modeling for us!

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: