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.

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. 

 

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.