10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper
Play this sound track: “Look mom, an eel!, a school of so many fish” Now roll the surf in the background. It was a beautiful morning.
Plein air – Kauai
Ironwood Afternoon
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper
Poipu Beach, Kauai, Hawaii – plein air
As my family fought the waves, I enjoyed the shade of this beautiful Ironwood tree.
Salt Pond
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper. Plein air
Salt Pond Beach – Kauai, Hawaii
Sunshine Valley
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper
I have left the intimidating mountains of Colorado, and am delighting in the more familiar mountains of NM, the light is incomparable.
Fire in the Sky
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper
I got up at 3am and hiked hard uphill for hours to earn this sunrise. I could hear John Denver singing “Rocky Mountain High” as I watched these colors change he was writing about a meteor shower, but this sure did look like fire in the sky, so I sang it anyways.
Occasion for Hope
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper”The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.” -John Buchan
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.
My impression of Evening Primrose
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper
There is beauty all around us, often mixed up in things that are not very beautiful. I paint exactly how the flowers feel, without the power lines, or houses, or cars. As I enjoy this year’s wildflowers I remember this quote from Monet:
“Try to forget what objects you have before you – a tree, a house, a field, or whatever. Merely think, ‘Here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow,’ and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives you your own impression of the scene before you.” -Claude Monet
Appreciate the beauty, ignore, or deemphasize the rest: That might be good advice to apply beyond landscape paintings.
Twilight – a time of pause
10″x8″ pastel on sanded paper
“Twilight – a time of pause when nature changes her guard. All living things would fade and die from too much light or too much dark, if twilight were not.” -Howard Thurman
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