Fires in the West

11x14 acrylic on canvas panel, © 2020

Collection of the Artist

We drove to Tooele, Utah on a warm summer's day for a barbeque in the back yard of my wife's nephew's home by the lake. There were lots of fires in the Western United States at the time and the sky was more atmospheric than usual. I saw this scene and immediately took a picture. Time is of the essence as the conditions can change and you would not think of painting what came later. So with some cropping in PaintShop, here is my interpretation of that day and time—it became immediately one of my wife's favorite paintings and gave her peace and serenity every time she passed by it.

Lake's End

11x14 acrylic on canvas panel, © 2020

Collection of the Artist

When on an outing around the bottom of Utah Lake, you have to always be aware of what is around you as you find beauty everywhere. We lived on the prairie for 40 years, and when we returned to the mountains we came home to their comforting protection. There are those who feel that mountains are closing them in, but when you have grown up in the mountains, they feel their height and strength are liberating when you return to them.

A Trail Less Taken

11x14 acrylic on canvas panel, © 2020

Private Collection

My wife and I took to the road one afternoon on the south side of Utah Lake. A road appeared that was not used much; it circled an area that is marshy when wet. The distant mountains and the smoke in the air from fires filled the atmospheric conditions with nostalgia—a wistful feeling of wanting to see where this road (as well as the one we were on) would take us.

  Some people in their lives find that they are on a path that is not usual for the time or the group. It is a difficult road to travel, but the benefits of the trip and the glory of what awaits makes us feel that a trail less traveled is a road that is fitted to our wants and desires.

 

You Can't Go Home

11x14, acrylic on canvas panel, © 2020

Collection of the Artist

When I was a young person, I would visit a friend on his ranch in Idaho. He lived across the way from his grandfather's house, which this is. I was stricken by the beauty of the place. It seemed placid and cool. There were big cottonwood trees behind the house or to the left which shaded the yard. It had a big front yard in which a band of the Blackfoot Tribe would come and camp. On one occasion we went out to the teepees that were in the front yard, and the women took a piece of paper and drew around my brother's hands and around my feet. In about a week we went back and picked up leather gloves with a beaded gauntlet and moccasins with some beaded decoration. The gloves were well used and are gone, but the moccasins I still have in a shadow box in my studio.

    My brother and I went back to the area on a nostalgia trip and it was sad to see the house now. I realized some things are better to remember how they were and not how they are, because you can't go home and find that nothing has changed.

Here is the shadow box with the moccasins, a tomahawk (made in Japan) that I purchased at the Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone Park, an arrow head that my brother found, and a dream catcher made by the woman that put together the box for me. 

Along the Platte

16x10 acrylic on panel, © 2020

Collection of the Artist

One grows accustomed to the surroundings after 38 years in an area. So it is when you live in Nebraska; it has it charms—weather not being one of them. Flat land, which is what Platte references, albeit flat river. Evening has a charm of its own, and the warm tones and cool water give the nice yin-yang feel to this piece.

    I love the reflective nature of water and the movement challenges it presence to art.

Hope Over West Hills

16x20 acrylic on canvas, © 2020

Collection of the Artist

There was a heavy storm in Springville; it was dark and foreboding. There was a pandemic getting started. I had gone up the mountain and was coming down when the clouds parted and the sun broke through and everything was better. There is hope, and we can get through all of the craziness that is going on. A patch of blue and gold-lined clouds makes one think tomorrow will be better because it is good right now.

Forest Respite

 

11x14 acrylic on canvas panel, © 2020 

Collection of the Artist

Part of the process of becoming a better artist, at least historically, is to "channel" the work of a master painter—such as Albert Handell. I have studied Handell and his technique for several years and thought I would see what I could learn from emulation. It's harder than it looks to be simple.