Cooney Lake

Here's another little study from Cooney Lake in the Sierras, up above Mono Lake. I could spend all Summer up here!

6 x 6 oil on Gessoboard

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Another Gray Morning

More cloudy weather this morning. But that's the way it is here this time of year. They call it May Gray and June Gloom. Time to "embrace the gray".

6 x 8 oil on Gessoboard

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Desert Wash

Been painting small for a couple of weeks but today I felt the need to stretch my arms a bit so I went a little bigger....

14 x 18 pastel on board

Caribou Ranch

​Today's painting is from a recent trip to Colorado. This is one of the many open space parks scattered through the Rockies. Great places to paint!

6 x 8 oil on panel

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Kolob Reservoir Road

Time for one more before calling it a day. 

This is a late afternoon view from Kolob Reservoir Road which runs along the back side of Zion NP. A great drive!

6 x 12 oil on panel

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San Pasqual Valley

More little daily paintings. Trying to create more "brush time".

It was still raining early this morning but when the clouds finally drifted off for a while it was very hazy. I like hazy....

6 x 8 oil on panel

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Borrego Springs - Palm Canyon

Today's and yesterday's paintings are from a recent trip to our local desert. The early and late light is always worth the trip!

This first one was done as the morning light was clearing the mountains and lighting up the head of the valley while the canyon was still in deep shadow.

The second was not far from the first - a little later in the morning.

6 x 8 0il on panel

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6 x 8 oil on panel

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Virgin River

It's been pretty cloudy around here lately. I was in the mood for some sun so today's painting is from my last trip to Zion NP. One of my favorite (and most frustrating) places to paint.

8 x 6 oil on panel

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Which way do we go?

I put the oil paints aside for the day and did today's small painting in pastels. Man! It's hard making broad marks on a little 6 x 8 piece of pastel paper!

6 x 8 pastel on Pastelmat paper

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Bishop Creek Canyon

More little paintings! This one is from a photo and some sketches I did last Fall in Bishop Creek Canyon. It was a spectacular year for Fall colors!

8 x 6 oil on board

Hotel by the Bay

Southern California's been in a terrible drought but for some reason we just started having a series of Winter style storms. Pretty unusual for almost June. But we need the rain. The positive side effect to standing and painting in the rain has been the incredible clouds we've been having. Fun stuff.

Today's painting was done down by the bay looking toward one of the resort hotels. Hoping for sun tomorrow....

6 x 6 oil on board

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Almost Daily

So... I've decided to start doing an almost-daily painting session. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy working small and how much it helps develop your skills. 

I'm not naive enough to think that I'll have the time to do one every day but when I can make the time I know it will help me work on some skills and bad habits and keep the "miles and miles of canvas" going. We'll see how long it lasts... wink emoticon

I actually started this a few days ago but here's today's effort....

6 x 8 oil on panel

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Hard to Believe

It's really hard to believe that it's just March. It was the warmest one on record here in Southern California. I mean, the weather's great! The drought... not so much.

At least it makes for great beach weather.

8 x 10 oil on linen panel

Back Again

A while back I went on about how I wanted to re-focus on this blog and back away from Facebook. After several months I've reaffirmed that idea so I'm back for another try.

A couple of weeks ago I spent a long weekend in the Eastern Sierras with California painter Frank Serrano and a great group of painters. The weather was incredible and I had a blast. I came back with a lot of photos and studies so I should have plenty to keep me busy for a while....

9 x 12 pastel on sanded paper

The Painters Den

I spend a lot of time outdoors and too much money on hotels. Used to tent camp a lot but I'm getting a bit too old to sleep on the ground so we picked up this little gem. Can't wait to park in up in the Sierras next spring!

Sierra Runoff

12 x 9 oil on linen panel

This Fall I took a trip up to the Eastern Sierras. Wow! The Fall colors were the best in many years. I did a lot of sketches and studies and came back with hundreds of photos to fuel me in the studio this Winter.

Neglected

It's been a very long time since I posted here on my blog. For some reason I've been putting most of my new paintings on my Facebook page and my gallery at Daily Paintworks. Well, it's time to catch up.

I was thinking of reposting my recent paintings here but there are so many that it would take many hours. So, if anyone's interested in what I've been up to you can stop by my DPW gallery at:

Daily Paintworks

I'm really going to try and make this blog my primary site for day to day updates and new paintings. I need to try and ween myself off of the Facebook roller coaster. It just gets so strange over there sometimes.

Please check back here for new paintings, updates and some future workshops and classes.

Oh. And have a very Happy Holiday season!

Evening Walk

12 x 16 pastel on sanded paper

We're having unseasonably hot weather again here but it's still cool in the evenings. Especially down by the ocean. This is actually one of our lagoons just inland from the ocean. One of my favorite places to paint and walk...

White Wall

8 x 10 oil on hardboard

It's been raining for several days but this morning dawned clear so I headed down to Mission Basilica Alcala in San Diego to meet up with the San Diego Plein Air Painting Group. The rain was still threatening so I looked for a simple subject that I could paint quickly. Beautiful day!

Clearing Storm - Sedona

24 x 12 pastel on sanded paper

I've been working on this for a while. I love the panoramic format and this time I decided to flip it vertical. What fun!