10″x8″ pastel on sanded paperPlein air of fly fishing in turquoise lake. Beautiful day! My cast iron skillet awaits.
A Day at Turquoise Lake
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper, Plein AirLeadville, Colorado- 10,200′
Today was a fine day for fishing, or canoeing, or paddle boarding, or sailing, or hiking, or picnicking, or painting! 
Or just enjoying the view!
Shotgun Storm
10″ x 8″ pastel on sanded paper
Beautiful thunder clouds across West Texas. I captured them from my shotgun studio.
Time is a funny thing. People have a way of discounting big blocks of time as unavailable. Much of my art is made in these blocks. I take full advantage of waiting time: waiting for appointments, planes, soccer teams to warm up before the game, and ballet classes to finish. Travel time is also a great time to create art, if you have a wonderful spouse (like I do) who not only prefers to drive, but also operates a motor coach as if it were on rails.
After the fires last week, I was so happy to drive through these clouds.
Ojitos First Light
8″x10″ pastel on sanded paper
Ojitos Canyon is on the Continental Divide Trail. I painted this just after dawn.
Chimney Rock
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper
Plein air
Let’s Take This Side Road
8″ x 10″ pastel on sanded paper
“Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.” -Erol Oman
We are driving across West Texas today. The wildflowers have been delightful! I love all to imagine what is down all those side roads. And to further imagine what would, or could happen when we get off the beaten path whether it be the highway, or just the course we are heading.
My lap studio.
My Favorite Lace
Rainy Day Flowers
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper
A warm, rainy day-this is how it feels when friends get together. Friend refreshes friend then, as flowers do each others, in a spring rain. -Rumi
Rhia
Three hour session with a lovely model Rhia. No measuring, or rules… just finding my way through the shadows and lights, just like a landscape. Lots of squinting and correcting: lighter, darker, warmer, cooler. Attempt no. 3 painting a portrait from life in oils went much smoother than the first two. Practice works. Now…who wants to sit still for 3 hours?
Pursuing Portaiture
I am enjoying the challenge of painting people from life. Today I visited the Sorolla exhibit at the Meadows Museum. It was outstanding, somehow he painted huge (9×10 feet sometimes), outside with many people, and often waves in them. I don’t know much about his method, but I plan to learn. I am utterly inspired. If you don’t know his work google: Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida and look at the images, or better yet…head to Dallas before April and see the largest collection of his works gathered together in the last 100 years. The Meadows museum is on the SMU campus. I wandered the exhibit with a group of artists, and we had a special appreciate for his work, his brushstroke, color, and paint application.
Perhaps I will tackle one of those monumental paintings one day.
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Children on The Beach, Sorolla 1903
Children Running Along the Beach, Sorolla 1908
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