Recovered Landscapes

I recently cleaned up my studio.  Things were piled on top of things that were piled on top of other things.  The clean up became studio archeology as I pulled out paintings that I forgot I had.  I decided many of these paintings are ready to go into my Etsy store while others needed to be reworked first.  Here are a few these recently recovered paintings.

Parkway Spring

One of my few oil paintings "Parkway Spring" is based on a photograph I took while out for a walk in the Jordan River Parkway.  The Parkway can be very green during spring, a nice painting to look while we endure winter.  (click on image to purchase)

Barn by the Tracks

"Barn by the Tracks" has been one of my "love/hate" projects for some time.  I always liked the idea and the composition but not my execution of it.  When I pulled it out of my discard pile while cleaning up the studio I decided it wasn't so bad, except for one problem, it didn't match my current style.  So, I fired up the palette knives and painted over the whole thing using the existing brush painting as an underpainting and guide. I'm much happier with it now.    I don't remember exactly where I saw this scene, somewhere in Brigham City I believe.  (click on image to purchase)

Lone Tree

Prints Available

The painting "Lone Tree" was inspired by a visit to Fairview, Utah, a fairly remote, small, ranching town a ways south and west of the Salt Lake City area.  Fairfield is surrounded by open ranch land. On the west side in particular you might see plenty of cattle feeding amongst clusters of old oak trees that often have pretty odd shapes.  Odd natural shapes you say?  I'm on it. I focused on one interesting tree in particular for this painting based on photographs of the area, however I'll admit the real landscape around Fairfield isn't nearly as green. 

"Tree Stand"

This painting might look familiar, that's because "Tree Stand" is a scaled up version, (16" X 20") of "Tree Stand Study" a smaller, (8" X 10") painting I posted earlier.  The painting was inspired by a cluster of trees I used to pass by every day on my way home from work.  Of course these trees were stuck in a commercial area, storage units in the background in fact. Well that won't do so I "planted" those trees in the open countryside, in this case a fabrication of my imagination. (click on image to purchase)

Enter the Forest

I've been a bit slack about the blog, a little slack in general really but at least I recently finished another charcoal drawing.

"Enter the Forest"

charcoal, 10" X 8"

This drawing is based on a photo taken during one of my many hikes up in the Wasatch Mountains.  This one in particular was taken up above Lake Mary at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon.  I love how the density of the evergreen tree forest creates a sense of mystery about what one might find when following the path therein.  I tried to enhance the mood by making the drawing even darker than the photo, being black and white also enhances that effect.

I have a large drawing on the easel as well that I pick at every now and then.  Here is a work in progress photo of it.

As you can see it's going to be a mysterious forest drawing also.  I believe it will end up being in the neighborhood of 22" X 16".  Here is a close up of an area that is now mostly finished.

So you can see I'm still going strong on my charcoal kick.  I love the simplicity and kinds of mood that can be created with this basic yet challenging medium.  My charcoal fascination my never end.