Pushing the Color

 I recently painted a couple experimental compositions with a focus on vibrant color and abstraction.

"Grassy Hillside in Autumn"
Acrylic, 12" X 9"
Click on image to purchase

The colors on this small autumn landscape aren't too crazy except for the purples sprinkled throughout, the sky is mostly blue and the trees and grasses are yellow and orange, still the colors are mostly bright and vibrant.

"Tri Carb Hot Rod Rod"
Acrylic 11" X 14"
Click on image to purchase

I went more abstract with this one as a challenge to see how far I can go towards abstraction while keeping the subject recognizable. Parts of the old school hot rod are not fully defined, colors overlap in non-objective ways, random brush and knife strokes add variety to the blues, purples and oranges with touches of red and yellow. Finally I added lines, some random using paint pens and random splatters using fluid paint.

Both paintings are definitely attention getters, the color in the hot rod painting is especially vibrant, almost pushing into pop art territory. 

Another Sketchbook is Born

 Another new thing I decided to try recently is to keep a painting sketchbook.  Yes, paintings can also be sketches. There's definitely an advantage to painting in a sketchbook but it's something I've never done until now. What's the advantage? Just like sketching with drawing mediums in a sketchbook, paintings in a sketchbook are not precious like a painting on canvas can be.  Since artwork created in a sketchbook isn't so precious the artist feels more free to experiment. A failed painting on paper in a sketchbook is less painful than a failed painting at the easel, but even more important, the artist is less likely to fiddle with a failing painting, wasting time trying to save something that maybe shouldn't be saved. An artist is more likely to let a failed idea go when it's on paper.  So, the bottom line is that a sketchbook is for experimenting, for testing new ideas before attempting them on a more permanent substrate.  Also sketches are usually smaller and take less time, another feature that makes them less precious. 

All that said I did make three painting sketches that I think worked out pretty well. 

"Painting Sketchbook 1 Sketch 1"

I followed the same process with all three sketches. First I applied clear gesso to the paper, then sketched out the composition with charcoal.  Next I blocked in the composition with thinned acrylic paint, and followed that with a thicker layer, also applied with brushes. I then made more adjustments using brushes and then went over much of the painting with thick paint applied with knives.  Finally, I applied some marks using oil pastels to add detail and texture.  The scene above is a dirt road leading into Utah ranch land desert.

"Painting Sketchbook 1 Sketch 2"

This sketch is an autumn scene on a gloomy day with a dirt road rolling through farmland in the Ogden Valley in northern Utah.

"Painting Sketchbook 1 Sketch 3"

Another rural Utah landscape, this time in summer with a green farm field in the middle ground, barns, a silo and a granary on the horizon and the Wasatch Mountains in the background.

Autumn in the Mountains

 A few weeks ago I spent quite a bit of time hiking, sketching and taking photos in Big Cottonwood Canyon, the biggest canyon in the Wasatch Mountains here in northern Utah.  Using the reference material collected I made a couple different paintings based on a scene(s) in Brighton and I made them the same size and similar style so that could display well together.  They also are painted on cradled panels with the sides painted black and hanging wire already installed so they can be hung without a frame.

"Autumn Spring in the Mountains" Acrylic 20" X 10"

"Mountainside Rock in Autumn" Acrylic, 20" X 10"

A Six Day Blue Art Challenge

 Last week I participated in an art challenge put on by an administrator of an art forum.  The challenge was to produce one piece of art, start to finish, each day for six days and each piece must contain the color blue.

"Small Autumn Tree Study" acrylic, 8" X 6"

"Autumn Bushes Study" acrylic 6" X 8"

For the first two days I kept it simple and just painted two small acrylic autumn landscape studies with blue skies.  The first one is an autumn version of a summer landscape I did for the green challenge, the other just on an old photograph I took in Wanship, Utah.

"Tall Blue Trees" acrylic, 12" X 9"

For the third day I revisited my abstract trees series.  I started by adding texture using pieces of tissue paper wrinkled and fixed to the surface using gel medium.  Then I applied high flow paint and water and let it drip, then refined the composition and colors using heavy body paint applied with brushes and then added a bit of line work using acrylic markers.

"A Big Blue Barn" acrylic 9" X 12"

This one is a little out of character for me.  Ya, it's a rural landscape, and it's an autumn scene, but I've never painted a barn blue before, I don't believe I've ever seen a blue barn but I wanted more than just a blue sky for this one to comply with the theme of the challenge. The reference was a photograph I took in Liberty, Utah.

"Abandoned Blue Chevy Dump Truck" acrylic 11" X 14"

It's been a while since I've painted an abandoned vehicle so I picked one for the fifth day.  The reference was actually green but it's no big deal to make it blue.  The truck in the reference was actually in a junkyard in Nephi, Utah, I put it in a field backed with bushes.

"Blue 1935 Buick Sedan" pastel 12" X 16"

For the last day I really pushed my skills.  This painting was popular with the other participants but I'm not especially happy with it.  I decided to use pastel instead of acrylic for this one.  The painting is very loosely based on a vintage black and white photograph of a 1935 Buick driving in traffic on a highway somewhere in California. I focused on the Buick, removed the traffic and modified the background.

I've been doing a lot of challenges lately and am now rather burnt out on them.  I think this last one especially pushed me.  Time to do something a little different I think, maybe some pen drawing.

There's Just Something About Autumn

 I love autumn, the color palette anyway.  The season is nice too but at least where I live it's too short.  The colors start coming in during September and things start getting real colorful by late September and the temperatures start dropping below 80F.  The peak of season at least in the valley seems to be about the second week of October and temps start hitting the 60's and soon the 50's and by the end of the month we are in the low 40's and most of the leaves are gone.  Just that quick we go from hot and green, to comfortable temps with bright, wonderful color to cold, dreary and brown, all in the space of about 6 weeks. 

The funny thing is, while the autumn season is the shortest I believe the majority of my landscape paintings are of autumn...like I said I love the fall color palette. And so now in the dead of winter I can't help but paint yet another autumn landscape.

"Guardians of the Path"
Acrylic, 20" X 10"

Prints available

This painting is based on a scene along a trail I walk nearly every week at least once in the Jordan River Parkway in Murray, Utah. I took my reference photo recently so those skinny, tall poplar trees actually have no leaves right now but I couldn't resist painting them in their full autumn splendor.  The painting is mostly painted using palette knives but I kept the strokes relatively small and of course used thick paint and created lots of texture.

This painting is basically a sideways panorama, if you could call it that.  It is twice as tall as it is wide.  It's also painted on a cradled hardboard panel 3/4" deep which means it can be displayed or hung without a frame, the edges are painted black.  

Here are a couple close ups so you can see the detail and rich texture.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidkingstudioart/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkingstudio/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavidKingStudio

Leaning towards Abstraction

I'm sure many artists can relate. Sometimes you get an idea in your head and just can't shake it, and finally it doesn't matter what's currently on the easel, you have to set it aside and get that thing out of your head and in paint.
I experienced a bit of that this week.  The poor tractor painting has been on and off my easel for over two weeks, it came off again a couple days ago. I kept having in my head the idea of pushing abstraction even further while staying representational and using knives.  It's no grand idea, but it seemed like it might be a new development for me, so I couldn't wait.  I took the tractor painting off the easel and took a small painting I did years ago but was in an older impressionist style I don't really do anymore and painted the same thing over it but with knives and thick paint while keeping in mind to make it as abstract as I could but still recognizable.

Dreaming of Autumn

Like I said, this one is small, just 8" X 6".  I kept the same name "Dreaming of Autumn".  When I painted the original version it was August and it had been an especially hot and dry summer.  While I love summer I was feeling a need for a break and so I took a break mentally by painting an early autumn scene featuring a colorful field and aspen trees in the background.  The reference photo I used was taken at a rest area on the Monte Cristo road (state highway 30) in Rich County Utah.

I think I like where this is taking me, I'm sure there will be more experiments to come, maybe even a larger version of this painting eventually.

Oh, what about that tractor painting?  Here's a work in progress photo.  As you can see I'm using brushes, not knives and keeping it more impressionistic than abstract.

Tractor painting WIP

Daily Sketching Challenge May 2020 - Day 1-2

I've decided to challenge myself to produce a new sketch every day for the month of May.  Why?  Well, sketching regularly is just good practice for any artist and I've been very lax about sketching lately.  I'll try to post a blog about these daily sketches every day or two. Here's the first one,

Day 1 - Abandoned Tractor - Daily Sketch Challenge May 2020

Prints Available

Day 1 sketch is an abandoned antique non-styled Farmall tractor rotting in the grass.  The sketch is based on a photograph I took while exploring the "junkyard" out back at the Erickson Ranch in Wallsburg, Utah during the Antique Power Show. I used a Faber Castel Pitt Artist Pen which waterproof and watercolor paint to add color.

Day 2 - Autumn Landscape - Daily Sketch Challenge May 2020

Prints Available

Day 2 sketch is an autumn landscape, somewhere near a rural area with a bit of a fence line and a walking trail up the hill through the fields and trees.  Again I used pen and watercolor.  My reference photo was taken in Ogden Valley near the Pineview Reservoir in the town of Eden, Utah.

Mixed Methods of Paint Application

My latest painting was a bit of an experimentation on a couple fronts.  First, I was doing the same thing I've done with almost every painting lately, and that is pursuing the abstraction of the subject while maintaining representation.  In same ways I think this painting was a gentle nudge in that direction but in other ways possibly a bit of a pull back.

Click on image to enlarge

"Into Autumn"

12" X 9", Acrylic on panel
Original - $120
Prints Available

The other experimental part to this painting has to do with the title of this blog post.  As you can see this painting has the texture of a palette knife painting, except I didn't use just palette knives to paint this autumn landscape.  First I toned the panel using quinacridone burnt orange, a misting of water and a paper towel.  After outlining the basic composition with a brush I massed in the painting using brushes, but starting with paint mixed with glazing medium so it went on transparently.  After a few layers I started using more opaque paint until the painting was more or less blocked in, but at the same time it wasn't my intention to totally cover the surface, I like to see bits of that quinacridone poking through here and there also I didn't want the paint to get too finished before the next step.  Next I got out the palette knives, however I didn't put the brushes totally aside yet.  I kept one old medium size bristle brush out and used it to modify some of the palette knife strokes, in fact in some cases I applied a small pile of paint with the knife for the express purpose of hitting it with the bristle brush after.  I didn't want to go crazy with this effect so I only did it a few times and then finished the painting up completely using knives.  Here are a couple close up crops showing the texture, layers and the effects of using different application techniques.

Click on image to enlarge

Click on image to enlarge

I did have a reference photo for this painting, taken somewhere in Ogden Valley, Utah I believe and it was taken during autumn but it was early in the season so had more green than I wanted and I also took some artistic liberties with the composition and shapes.  I didn't want to focus on the photo too much anyway, hard to paint abstractly while looking at a photograph.  Notice I only hinted at the grass, in the photo the area to the right of the road had lots of tall grass and it's always tempting to put that in for me because I love the texture of grass, so minimizing that, only suggesting it I think helped to keep this landscape abstract.

Visit David King Studio Prints!

A Week for Sketching

I kept my art activities strictly to sketching and playing on the computer this week.  I don't know why, I just wasn't in the mood to pick up the paint brushes.  I think maybe I enjoy sketching quickly and loosely with charcoal rather than doing the tighter, more detailed drawings I've been doing lately.  I think charcoal is a good medium for studying compositions and subjects for painting.  It seems like many figurative artists use charcoal a lot for studies but landscape painters not so much.  Charcoal seems to have a kinship with oil painting that other sketching mediums don't have, I think that's because the marks made with charcoal are so malleable, they can be relatively easily be removed, adjusted and blended much like a brush stroke in oil painting.  Maybe these experiments in charcoal will lead to me giving oil painting a shot again.

"Roots I"

8" X 10" Charcoal on paper

Original - $80

I really like tree roots, especially those that grow from the bases of pine trees when the soil has eroded around them and they no longer have much more than rocks to cling to.  I found this scene in Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch National Forest in northern Utah.  This area is a short drive from where I live.  I need to visit the local canyons more often, I used to go up there nearly weekly, however the crowds have become kind of overwhelming.

The alternative to going up in the canyons is staying near home and visiting the Jordan River Parkway.  The Parkway is an oasis of nature running through the middle of the heavily populated Salt Lake Valley and even though it's very close by, (I used to walk to it) I don't visit it often enough.  Seems I've been getting more and more lazy every year.  Today I took a step to rectify that and went for a walk on the Parkway and I took my camera and sketchbook of course.

These were very quick and basic sketches, just ten minutes or so each with .9 mechanical pencil.  The idea was just to practice observation and get a feel for the sense of place.  It's easier than ever to take great photographs but cameras aren't experiencing machines, they don't feel.  I feel art should be about the human response to our subjects, not our response to an image captured by a machine.  That said of course I often work from photos, far more often than not.  Part the reason for that is the fact that I still work full time. From November and into March the lack of evening light limits me to only getting out on the weekends and even then the weather often does not cooperate, not to mention I have other interests and often they take up time on the weekends.  I believe a good compromise is to just take out a sketchbook and a pencil and make some direct observations of nature.  Not only is this good drawing practice but it fills your memories with sights, sounds, and smells that just don't come through in a photograph, even if you take that photograph yourself.

All that said about photographs I still take lots of them, (thank heaven for digital cameras!), here are a couple from today's walk.

As you can see while autumn is winding down it's still spectacular.  It was a perfect day for a walk, sunny and 60 degrees.

Autumn Draws to a Close

Daylight savings time has ended and most of the trees have lost all or the majority of their colorful leaves.  Autumn is a wonderful season but it is all too short.  Now we have freezing temperatures, at least overnight and daylight so short you blink your eyes and it's gone.  Now the transition into winter begins.  This time always induces a bit of melancholy in me, yearning for the summer past and dread of the coming winter.  Sorry, I just really dislike winter.  At least I can paint any season I want any time of the year.  Here are the last two autumn scenes I painted.

"Red Mountain Aspens"

16" X 12", acrylic on panel

This painting is based on a photo I took on one of my hikes in the Wasatch mountains.  The hike was during summer so obviously I took my liberties with color.  This painting was mostly done with a palette knife as well.  I really should have got out for an autumn hike this year, but I didn't, the painting will have to do.

"Roadside Attraction"

12" X 9", acrylic on 1/8" panel

I can't help it, I look at trees when driving, a lot, they are actually a roadside distraction for me.  Especially in autumn, not just because of the colors, but once the leaves start thinning out I see more of the tree's structure.  Whenever I see an interesting tree I have the urge to stop, get out of the car and photograph it, of course I have to resist that urge when on the freeway.  I decided to leave the palette knives on the table for this one and only used brushes.

Autumn is in the Air

The temperatures are dropping. I have to have my headlights on for my morning drive to work now.  The other day my windshield was covered in morning dew.  Even here in the valley some of the trees are starting to turn golden.  Yep, it's that time of the year when we get relief from the summer heat and nature starts to put on her annual color show.  While the trees are still mostly green around here right now I couldn't resist doing a small autumn painting.

"Autumn Delight"

12" X 9", Acrylic on 1/8" panel

But then again it doesn't seem to matter what time of year it is I can always find the motivation to paint a fall scene.  This painting was painted mostly with a palette knife and then finished off with brushes for a variety of rich textures.  I'm certainly in a fall mood now!

Daily Painting Challenge - Pastel Landscapes No. 1

I'll admit it, I've been in a bit of a slump lately.  It's not that I haven't made any art, it's that my heart hasn't been fully into it and so I've been kicking around from one project to another not really finishing anything, at least not to my satisfaction.  I decided it's time I gave myself a good, swift kick in the butt, it's time for a challenge.

It's been some time since I last painted with pastels.  Pastels were my first painting medium but I've largely abandoned them lately.  I enjoy painting with acrylics but I figure a change of medium might help me get out of my slump so I got the pastels out.  To really kick it in gear I decided to challenge myself to not only paint with pastels but to also finish one small pastel landscape painting every day for at least a week.   Hopefully this will create the jump start that I need.

Just like much of the country northern Utah is experiencing a bit of a heat wave, though if memory serves me 100 dg+ weather used to not be all that uncommon in July and August but by the way they are making a big deal of it the stats must say different.  Anyway, it's way too hot to be painting outdoors in the late afternoon, or evening and that's the only time I have available during the week so I have to settle for using photo references and work in my comfortable, air conditioned studio, boo hoo.

To cool myself down, at least mentally I picked an autumn scene and to help keep it simple I chose a nature scene.  I encountered this quiet, shady spot while taking a walk on the Jordan River Parkway in the Jordan Narrows section.  I enjoyed taking in all the various colors and textures of the foliage, trees, grasses and bushes while I rested a bit, of course I enhanced those things a bit in the painting;

"Quiet Moment"

9" X 12", pastel on paper

I really enjoyed getting dusty with the pastels again, this should be a fun week.

Resurrecting Paintings

I have a box full of rejected paintings.  Many of them are plein air paintings that just didn't work out, which is most of them since my success rate with plein air is very low.  The majority are studio paintings that I gave up on.  Then there are those paintings that I haven't given up on that just kind of hang around the easel.  Every now and then I put the painting back on the easel, fiddle with it a bit and take it back off out of frustration. I see potential there so it doesn't go right into the reject bin but I'm not sure how to save it, so it languishes near the easel waiting for another shot.  I have one painting that's resting near the easel that's been on and off the easel for over a year, but at least I haven't given up.  Every once in a long while I decide to look through the paintings in the reject bin and see if there's any potential there that I missed.  Today's blog post is about two paintings from these categories that have been saved, one a "hanger on" and one a "reject".

This painting has been on and off my easel for over a month.  I'd work on this painting when I wanted a break from charcoal drawing.  The painting just didn't seem to be coming together.  I thought the composition was solid but the execution was lacking.  Finally I decided it was "do or die" and got the palette knives out and went to town on it and threw lots of thick paint at it and pushed it all around, this is the result;

 

"Edge of Autumn"

Acrylic on panel, 12" X 9"

I acknowledge that it's a bit weird to be painting an autumn scene in the middle of spring but I just can't resist the warm colors of fall.  I was pretty happy with how this one turned out so I decided to go though the reject bin and see if there was anything in there I thought I could salvage with some judicious palette knife work.  I pulled out a few paintings, one an 8 x 10 failed plein air piece made it to the easel first.  Unfortunately I did not strike gold that time.  Either I need more practice with palette knives or not all subjects are good candidates for that technique.  Needless to say I won't be sharing that one here. 

However the rummaging through the reject bin did net me one little gem.  I'm not sure why I rejected this one, I just spent a few minutes with it and decided it wasn't half bad.

"Lone Pine"

Acylic on panel 8" X 6"

This was originally a plein air piece painted in Big Cottonwood Canyon about two years ago I think.  It was an experiment in taking different elements  from my surroundings and creating a scene on the spot that doesn't actually exist.  In this case the rock was in one area and the tree came from another and I combined them.  I think I moved the other vegetation around a bit as well.  In the studio I just adjusted some values and added a bit more color.

It's a good idea to save your failed paintings, besides giving you something to measure your progress as an artist against, as your skills develop you might find you can resurrect those failures and turn them into something worthwhile.

The Surprising Twists and Turns of a Painting

I've been on a bit of a break from the easel, either not doing much of anything or drawing or experimenting with sketches in other mediums.  I finally returned to the easel this week determined to paint a new painting start to finish, no breaks to work on something else, no drawing, no sketching, just focus on this one painting.  My intention was to paint a simple landscape but in a square format.  My reference was an autumn photo I took in Murray Park in which a brilliantly colored Chinese Elm tree featured. The rest of the photo didn't really interest me, just that tree, I figured I could make up the rest of the landscape from my imagination.  An hour into the first session I knew I was in trouble but I persisted.  After another hour I had to give it up for the night and I was thinking I might end up abandoning the painting altogether.
The next day while mulling the problem of the painting over in my mind this thought suddenly occurred to me, "What would an abandoned car look like in that scene?".  Of course the first thing I did when I got home was look through my photos of abandoned cars and I found three that I thought might work, out of the three I selected a 1960 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan that I photographed in a salvage yard in Nephi, Utah. The only thing I didn't like about the car is that it was white, but I'm a painter, I can make the car any color I want.  I loosely blocked in the car and decided I liked the new direction and continued. 
By the end of the second session I decided the addition of the car just might salvage the painting, however it still wasn't quite right, the landscape was still a little dull.  When I came home from work on the third day I looked through some of my landscape photos that featured wild ground cover such as grass, bushes and weeds for some possible ideas.  I didn't print anything out, just filed some ideas into my brain.  In the third session I refined the car some more and added some bushes, adjusted the tree a bit, and adjusted the background.  Now I thought I was pretty much done but something was still nagging me.  I studied the painting on the 4th day and finally it hit me.  I had created several parallel bands of space in what should be a pretty wild and disorganized space.  Our minds like to create order out of chaos and that is one of the enemies of a good landscape painting, too much order and a landscape will look unnatural.  In my case I had created a band of red bushes, then yellow grass, then car, then yellow grass and then another line of red bushes.  I altered the shapes of the two groups of red bushes to break up those bands, in particular I made sure they connected to the car.  Finally I decided to call it done.

"Under the Chinese Elm Tree"

Acrylic on panel, 12" X 12"

So, to recap: This painting started out as a portrait of a Chinese Elm tree in a simple landscape consisting of a field and a path...boring.  I then added an abandoned car to make a more interesting composition....landscape areas still too plain.  I then added bushes and modified the background, much better but too organized.  Finally on the last session I broke up the bands to make the scene appear more natural.

I'm sorry I didn't take progress photos, I didn't expect the process on this painting to take so many twists and turns.  There is still one question about this painting and it will just have to remain.  Is this a portrait of a tree or a junked car?  Both I guess but I'll live with that even though it breaks the "rules".



Back to the Classroom

It's become kind of a thing for me now, attending a weekly class during winter.  Since I work full time it's hard to work attend one of those week long workshops put on by professional artists, usually in another state, which means traveling time and expenses to boot.  So, instead I find a local artist I like who holds classes on a weeknight.  Last winter I attended classes with Candace Rideout  Getting input from a more advanced artist can be very helpful and keep you from falling into a rut.  After a while it's easy to miss fundamental issues that could be resolved to make your art that much better. 
Something as simple as repetitious patterns can seem invisible until someone else points them out.  Another advantage to attending classes is the opportunity to meet other student artists and feed off of each other's energy, everybody has something unique and valuable to contribute.  This winter I started attending classes with Susan Jarvis.  I've attended classes with Susan in the past but it's been over two years, I decided it would be worthwhile to go back.  This painting is the result;

"Kings of Autumn"

Acrylic, 24" X 12" on 3/4" deep cradled panel

Original - $265

While the reference photo was mine, taken in the Uinta Mountain Wilderness near Mill Hollow and the composition was mine Susan helped me tweak the painting to help me make it the best I can make it.  All those little things can add up to make a much stronger overall impact.



Going for a Walk

y favorite place for taking a walk is The Jordan River Parkway, a strip of restored/persevered natural space that runs through the middle of the Salt Lake Valley in Utah. In particular I enjoy the Murray-Taylorsville section, not only because it's the closest to where I live but because I think it is one of the most interesting sections.  One day in September I went for a walk there just before sundown and came across this interesting little scene.  In this small grouping of trees one had totally turned to it's fall colors and was even losing leaves, the others were only just beginning to turn.  This was the first definite sign to me that that autumn season was under way in spite of the unseasonably warm temperatures we were experiencing at the time.  I also liked the violet shadows cast by the tree behind me that created the perfect lead in, it was basically a composition made to order by nature, I just had to eliminate some of the background clutter, which consisted of bits of houses.

"Fall Begins"

Acrylic on panel, 14" X 11"

Original - SOLD

More Fall Goodness

This fall has been a weird one, the foliage in the valley isn't doing what I expected, some trees are bare but most are only beginning to turn, and it's already October 31st!  Crazy.  So, I dug into my photos from autumn seasons past to find good subject matter to paint in the studio.  I pulled out a photo I took in the small, rural farming community of Peterson, Utah last year.  The attraction was the bright red tree in the middle flanked by yellow-orange aspens.

"Autumn Barn"

Acrylic 16" X 12"

Original - $200

I actually ended up painting this one twice.  First I painted it mostly using brushes, but there was just something about it I didn't like.  I thought it was the red tree.  I decided to paint over the whole thing using a palette knife, I was even thinking I'd make the red tree more of a red-orange but in the end I decided to keep it.  I like it much better after going over it with the palette knife but I'm not sure why, all I did was make minor hue and value adjustments, I guess that plus the rich texture the palette knife creates was enough.

I haven't abandoned the idea of painting fall colors from life yet, in fact I painted outside today but the painting still needs some work so I'll post it later.

Just Couldn't Wait

We are having an unusual autumn this year.  The temperatures have been quite a bit higher than normal most days, even summer-like at times. This appears to have caused many trees to hold onto their leaves longer than normal, however some trees seem to operate on the clock regardless of the temperatures, maybe they are more effected by the days getting shorter and shorter regardless of temperature.  I took a trip up Big Cottonwood Canyon last week expecting to be treated to a magnificent show of color, I was very disappointed. Most of the aspen trees had already dropped their leaves, this time last year they were so bright as to seem to be on fire. I guess you just never know how the weather of the spring and summer will affect the trees during fall. I drove over the pass and into the Heber Valley which on first glance appeared to be mostly green still.  I was getting excited about the prospect of returning in a week or two to paint on the Middle Provo River, however when I got to the river I noticed something odd and disappointing, about half the trees were bare and the other half were still green.  The cottonwoods might still produce beautiful color but it will be spotty.  I've come to the conclusion that it might be best to just stay near home this fall, the best color might end up being right here in the Salt Lake Valley, hopefully plenty of it near the Jordan River, we'll see.  We don't have much color here in the valley yet.  I got impatient and pulled out a photo I took a couple years ago near the Jordan River Parkway and made a painting in the studio.

"Autumn Tree"

Acrylic, 16" X 12"

Original - $200

I'm very familiar with this little stand of trees as it is across the road from one of my favorite areas on the Jordan River Parkway in Murray, Utah.  The fall foliage on these trees was an especially bright yellow-orange.  I've even sketched this stand of trees in pen and watercolor.  Open fields like this in the middle of a neighborhood are a rare blessing nowadays, best to document them before they get developed. 

It May Be Spring but I Can't Resist Autumn

I've been a little slow to finish paintings lately, the tractor painting is still sitting the easel with no progress since my blog post about it.  However, I did finish a different painting that I started more than two weeks ago.

"Touch of Autumn"

11" X 14", Acrylic on panel

Original - $160

This painting is based on a photo I took several years ago up near Pineview Reservoir in Ogden Valley, Utah.  It was a dreary, overcast day which just wouldn't do, so I changed it be a bright, sunny day in the painting.  Such is the magic of art.

Number Four for 2015

I already have four paintings under my belt for the year and only one was 8x10 or smaller.  That's not counting the two plein air paintings that we won't discuss.  I haven't found my way back to winter though, maybe the next painting.

"Autumn Blaze"

11" X 14", "Acrylic on panel

Original - $160

This painting is based on a photo I took several years ago in Wanship next to the Weber River.  I'm thankful that some of the private land owners have cooperated with Division of Wildlife Resources to allow access to the river on their land.  While that access is primarily for anglers I've taken advantage of it to get access to landscape views I otherwise would not be able to see.  That's the case with this landscape, in fact I had a good visit with the property owner's horse while I was sketching there.