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. 

Fletcher Cosmos

 

11x16 acrylic on canvas, © 2016

Collection of the Artist

A family up the street was one of the first to come into our new home and meet with us. They became special friends. When they left the city for a warmer climate, I passed their house and the Cosmos were in bloom. This struck me as the Cosmos, a galactic flower, bloomed in array as if in the heavens. We too are orbiting in the Cosmos. Are we as beautiful as these—thank you, friends, for being in our universe if only for a little time.

Summer Poppies

10x8 acrylic on panel © 2014

Collection of the Artist

Driving down Center Street in Springville in the late summer afternoon, I had to stop. A house had poppies in bloom, and when the sun is just right the petals are luminously bright as if they were the source of the light. It was a quick stop, and now that we all carry a camera in our pocket, it was not hard work to capture a fleeting moment in time—memorialized in paint.

 

Cone Flowers and Daisies

14x11 Acrylics on panel, © 2008

Private Collection

As a second piece for the Judy Greff workshop, I thought I would take on flowers again. Flowers are never the easiest for me to get like I want them. They look great, but I struggle to make it how it is in my mind. I tried some new techniques and came away with two finished pieces from the experience.

I always have frames that will work for the paintings so that, when complete, I can have them framed immediately, which is always an amazement in class.

Wild Flowers

8x10, acrylic on panel, © 2007

Private Collection

An outing to Lauitzen Botanical Gardens yielded many photographs. This one struck me for the color and—Oh yes—flowers. Practice may make perfect.

Chrysanthemums

30x40, acrylic on studio canvas, © 2007

Private Collection

Marge has wanted me to paint flowers for the kitchen for years. We had a decorator come over and say that what we needed was flowers to bring the outside inside. We bought a print and had it framed and put it up. It never really did anything for me, and we gave it away. With this idea of having a large flower painting in the offing and Marge being a flower gardener I took some pictures in 2006 and decided to try my hand at flowers again. After painting Southwest Flowers, I had this idea in mind.

The concept was so clear in my mind, but the canvas became my battle ground.

Southwest Flowers

24x36, acrylic on museum canvas, © 2007

Private Collection

I am always up for a challenge, but all I can say is that flowers are my nemesis. So beautiful and so difficult. This was painted from reference photos.

Commission Sketch

16.125x31.25, acrylic on panel, © 2007
Collection on the Artist

This is a piece that I put together as a concept for a larger piece that would have had gilded sides with a rainbow of colored glazes and words written on the sides around the piece. No frame would be necessary. Only the left pane was completed from this original design.