Olive Tree, Study

11x14, oil on panel © 2017

Collection of the Artist

I like taking a class after I've been away from painting for a while, and in 2017 I took an adult Ed class at Utah Valley University. It was a very productive time for me, as I painted four other paintings in addition to this one. My focus was on getting the:

1. color right for the leaves, 

2. leaf texture right, 

3. gnarly wood,

4. atmospheric perspective in the background, and

5. ground color and grasses.

I like to challenge myself when I don't paint much just to see how I can perform.

Colorado Spring

 

10x8, oil on canvas board, © 2017

Collection of the Artist

When painting, sometimes everything works in your favor—and that is what happened with this painting. It was an adult education class at Utah Valley University, and I was using oil. I put a wash on the canvas. I mixed a dark with UM blue and Alizarin Crimson and put on the dark brush at the top and used a color shaper to manipulate the paint to look like canes. Then I used a brush and odorless mineral spirits to remove and draw into the wash of paint. I was surprised at how easily the paint began to reveal rock, and I added some thinned blue and opaque tans to solidify the rock formations. I finally added the wild flowers that were growing up through the painting.

    What I'm really saying is that in a matter of an hour and a half it had painted itself. Telling me what it wanted, which I did to reveal the composition. 

Recognition: It was awarded an Honorable Mention at the Spring Salon of the Utah Valley Artist Guild. The judge told me that was how oil painting was made to be. 

Deep Forest Fall

6x6 acrylic on panel, © 2016

Private Collection

I happened upon an image of a scene and interpreted it to be this small painting. In the fall of 2016 I exhibited it in a show. A friend who was helping with the installation saw the painting from across the room and told me she thought it was "stunning." That is not a word I often hear in conversation and was very meaningful to me. It was a work that came together rather easily and I believe that the freshness is what she related to. It must have been something that others related to as it was purchased. I sold two paintings in that exhibit—a novelty for me. I loved the painting and hope that whomever bought it loves it as much as I do.

New Mexico Chimesa

 

5x7 acrylic on canvas panel, © 2016

Private Collection

In 2012 we moved to Utah and made a journey to New Mexico to visit a relative. They were very gracious and took us around to see the sights. It was fall, and the Chimesa (Rabbit Grass) was in bloom. They were very striking to my eye. I didn't recall ever having seen them before, but I returned to Utah and they were all over in my neighborhood. It's funny that you can take for granted something close and have to make a trip to find that what you have next door is as beautiful as the same thing that you found in a far off place—the trip and its setting allowed you to have the sensitivity to see what is next door.

Forgotten Farm: Maple Street, Omaha

8x6 acrylic on panel © 2016

Private Collection

Sometimes you may drive down a street that you have done many 100s of times before, and you notice something out of the corner of your eye—a house nestled in the trees. You stop and take a picture of the event. Then years later you drive down that same street and there is a parking lot and stores where you once saw something terrific that stopped you in your path. So it was with this scene from Nebraska—an old farmstead forgotten by time. I painted it many years after the original event and took it to an exhibit and it sold. I didn't anticipate that someone might interpret the painting back to their reality and want it.

Mowing the Yard

16x20 acrylic on canvas, © 2015
 Private Collection

The man is resolved to accomplish a menial task. It is early afternoon, and the day’s work started with milking at 5 a.m. Now there is a moment to relax and let the horses do their job.

    Mowing the yard is a thankless task that must be done. Tired from the day, the man slumps on the mowing machine and lets the cleats of the wheels jostle him as they hit the hard ground and his thoughts turn to family and the supper that awaits at the end of the day. …or he may think of nothing at all, numbed by the forward movement of the mower and the relentless noise of the cutters—just relax and get this job done.

    The man is Charles Izatt; the place is his ranch in Thatcher, Idaho. The connection is that he is my wife's grandfather.

Rio Grande Gorge

24x36 acrylic on canvas © 2014

Collection of the Artist

My wife and I road tripped to New Mexico to visit her brother in White Rock. They were the most gracious of hosts and escorted us around to the sites that they had become accustomed to in the years of living in the area. Taos, Santa Fe, and Chaco Canyon were among those that we saw. We stopped for a vista of the Rio Grande Gorge that had been cut into the floor of the desert. It was fall, and the Chemesa were blooming. It was a beautiful day, a beautiful vista, and paint cannot not do it justice. 

 

The Gap in Hobble Creek

11x14,  Acrylic on panel, © 2013
Collection of the Artist

We drove up Hobble Creek Canyon looking for a place to paint at a later time.  We were coming back down the canyon when the beauty of the moment was one that could not be ignored. We stopped and took a picture of the road and the gap.  It was not a place to set up an easel so I contented myself to paint it in the studio. What a beautiful place to live.

Hobble Creek Glow

11x14, Acrylic on panel, © 2013
Collection of the Artist

My wife and I went on a morning excursion up Hobble Creek Canyon—about five minutes from the house. French easel in hand I found a quiet spot not far from the road where I could observe the morning splendor and the sounds of nature.  Any day painting is a good day.

Spring Thaw

10x10 Acrylic on panel, © 2013
Collection of the Artist

We took a spring trip up Provo Canyon to a cabin above Sundance Ski Resort. Here we found a small stream fed by the spring melt. I took several photos of the last vestiges of snow as they filled the streams. A quiet, peaceful time walking in the brisk air enjoying the sounds of awakening.

Blue-water Waterfall

14x11 Acrylic on panel, © 2012

Private Collection

The Internet is a marvelous tool for obtaining instructional content. I have been enthralled by the resources offered for free. I signed up with WetCanvas.com, and as a result, I was offered an opportunity to be a student in live web classes that were recorded for subsequent paid distribution. The process put me "in touch" with Johannes Vloothuis from Canada. Johannes, a professional artist, offered insights that were significant to my development. I can no longer look at paintings without his "commandments" of painting coming to the front of observation. Although I went to art school, I never could make all the connections between what was taught and the application in a painting. Johannes has a way of integrating the two. I don't necessarily agree with everything, but that's because of too many years in art history. I do, however, appreciate him focusing my attention on 15 or so commandments—they tend to grow and morph over time.

    This painting was the result of a class assignment to paint a waterfall.  I had never painted waterfalls, so it was a challenge. I never submitted this one for critique, but I learned from the critique of others' works—we all make the same mistakes. Someone once told me, "If we were all to confess our sins to one another, we would be stricken by the lack of creativity." So it is with mistakes in paintings; we all make similar, if not the same ones—novice and professional. Professionals look for and correct them, while the novice goes on unaware of their existence. Johannes taught us to look critically at our own work and correct the mistakes—if not during the painting process, after our own evaluation. 

    I like this painting that was painted with my artistic license to make it "real" rather than realistic.

Way West

14x18, Acrylic on canvas, © 2011

Private Collection

In the Winter Quarters Temple there is a painting by LaVoy Eaton which shows the Platte River and Chimney Rock in the early evening. It is a beautiful painting that I have enjoyed each time I was privileged to observe it. For those not of Nebraska, you cannot see Chimney Rock and water in the same scene unless it is raining. Nevertheless, with artistic license in hand I made a sketch of the general composition of the painting and decided to take my brush in hand to make a similar painting after his. I chose to have it a little later in the day and with more color on the horizon. One should never paint something just before a webinar on painting skies. You always will find something to correct and then correct again. I loved living in Nebraska, and I had a Great Grandmother born in a wagon bed just down the road a bit during an overnight stop at Ash Hollow. There is always a story to tell along life's trail.

Bullfrog Basin

8x10, Acrylic on canvas, © 2011
Private Collection

In early June of 2011, Lauritzen Gardens, Omaha Botanical Center, sponsored a paint-out in the gardens.  Artists from all over the city showed up on a beautiful Saturday morning with portable easels in hand and paints at the ready. They each positioned themselves along the pathways to paint that which they found most inspiring. It had been a long time since I had painted plein air, so with some trepidation I set up my French easel and started painting. I soon discovered my folly as Marge deserted me for less intimidating places. I had forgotten mosquito repellent. What made me think that Bull Frogs would live where there were no mosquitoes. They don't! I had paint all over my face as I would swat at the dreaded creatures. Well, I didn't contract West Nile Virus or anything of that nature, but I am not sure that the thicker parts of the painting do not contain encrusted bodies of my observers.

Loess Hills, East of Logan, Iowa

8.5x11 Acrylic on panel, © 2011

Private Collection

One thing I like about painting—observation. Once you start the process of painting, your heightened awareness kicks in, and you see things differently. This doesn't just happen when you have a brush in your hand, but before and after. Subtle color changes and the value shifts used to create depth become beautiful in and of themselves. Marge and I struck out to find beauty on a late autumn day. We came across a back road—dirt, of course. Who knows where, but there it was—beauty of place. The moment is memorable as you see the beauty of color, value, line, and stroke. I can never go back to that place except in the painting. Photographs never seem to capture what is really there. Sure they are good for details of shape, but not color, value nor finding it again. Maybe a camera with a GPS would be good, but I don't know why; I have a painting.

Forgotten Bridge

9x12 acrylic on panel, © 2011

Private Collection

When exploring the obscure areas of Nauvoo, IL on the East bank of the Mississippi River, we found an area that was used to drain the swamp to make the city. It still functions to eliminate water but has long been forgotten as serving as a bridge also. Beauty is where you find it; be prepared.

Recognition: Won an Honorable Mention in the Omaha Artists' Winter Art Show

Winter Fruit

10x20 acrylic on canvas, © 2011

Collection of the Artist

Hoarfrost appears silently, and when the sun comes out disappears as it came, but in the brief moments of the morning its beauty must be enjoyed.

Ranch Cloud

8x10 acrylic on panel, © 2010

Private Collection

When visiting my uncle's ranch at Flaming Gorge, UT we saw the most phenomenal sunset "just for us—Tender Mercies."

Mt.Timpanogos

8x10 Acrylic on panel, © 2010
Private Collection

In June of 2010, I attended an oil painting workshop with Bob Rohm on The Painterly Approach to landscape painting.  It was held in Fremont, Nebraska as part of the Association of Nebraska Art Clubs' (ANAC) annual conference. It is always an inspiration to be with people from all over the state who have come together from diverse backgrounds, because they feel a common bond in focusing on creating something that did not exist before. The workshop was excellent, and Bob is a great instructor and very helpful in directing people to change their individual modi operandi to assume more of what they hope to become.  In that setting, I painted this small piece.  It was challenging for lyrical lines to appear and to have the brush respond to unfamiliar approaches.  I think that the painting worked, and it reminds me of the evening spent walking along the Provo River with my family and the time I spent with a marvelous artist.

Arco Truck

8x10 acrylic on canvas, © 2010 

Collection of the Artist 

Art shows are motivational. In my case the Winter Art Show of Omaha Artists Inc. came up with the small-art format—two adjacent dimensions could not be over 18 inches. Well, we had taken a trip to Arco, ID two years ago, and I took a photo that I used as reference material on a friend's ranch. I decided that it would work into a nice composition, so I painted it and entered it into the show a few days later.

Mountains of the Lord

22x28 acrylic on panel, © 2008

Private Collection

   Commissions are challenging because what is in the mind of the patron may not be what I see as I work out the piece. I make a deal with the patron that I will paint what I feel they want, but they always have the option of not accepting it—it has worked both ways. 

   This piece was a challenge as I don't often paint man-made objects—buildings. It was also challenging because there are two specific places but not a specific location. Mt. Timpanogos and the American Fork Temple are in a relationship that cannot exist. Two very recognizable, special places with many memories and attachments—our emotional response to mountains is unique as our brains sort out the ordinary and make them extraordinary. They look much different in photographs than then do in our minds—the majesty is gone, and the extraordinary things become ordinary. 

    As I contemplated this commission, I sought images of both locations, the parameters that were provided, and inspiration to make it unique. I found that there was a knoll that I had not seen before in the photos and it was the location that I thought would be the site for the temple. Manmade streets and objects did not seem appropriate. Even access I would not explain. I sought inspiration at Adam-ondi-Ahman—the grasses and slope of the hill. I felt these would be appropriate inclusions. If you have faith, you can move mountains and temples and put Mt. Timpanogos and the American Fork Temple in a relationship that cannot exist. 

    I resolved the mountains in their majesty. Dark clouds threaten to engulf and yet are colored with the beauty of a hopeful sunset. A beaming white temple shines into the darkness and upon the clouds as if to break up their encroaching menace. The color of the temple is white yet is full of contrasts of cool and warm colors representing the contrasts of the world and of the spirit. 

    It wasn’t until I opened up the foreground with a pathway to the temple that the composition came to completion as we are all striving to walk the narrow path that leads to the mountain of the Lord. There we find our resolution and purposeful fulfillment of life’s journey. I spent a year with the painting and was constantly painting on it in my mind and in reality, as I would see details in my travels to include and color to adjust based on things I saw. 

    I lived with the finished work for several months and feel good about the outcome and feeling. It is unique and a vision that I pray will bring inspiration to those who view it.