FRENCH RIVER



      I like the water/sky effect on this one.

THE BRIDGE

     I was just looking for something a little more dynamic and different today. Gazing at water running from a bridge has always facinated me. It makes me wonder where all that water came from, what's the source, the beginning. Standing on a bridge makes me feel sort of suspended in time, between the past and the future...evaluating the choices I've made to get there and the ones I will make to get me where I want to go, and deciding where that might possibly be.

FAT FREE SHAD

     The two little lures are telling the "Fat Free Shad" to go out there and kick some Bass Butt.

Man On Train



      This scene again has that sun warming effect on me. My little dog is laying in the sun right now, soaking up those wonderful rays.
     After Christmas is over, I wonder at what Santa does? He's been so busy for the last couple months. I thought he might just shave off his beard and hop aboard a train like this fellow and travel from town to town. Just letting time drift by... nice and slow.

Vail Calf



      I guess I'm in the mood for farm animals. This handsome little guy was out playing around in this sunny meadow up in Vail, Colorado one day.

Soaking up some rays.



 

      Felt like doing some more of the Ghost Town chickens. They look so comfortable laying in the sun. If I was a chicken I could easily cozy up right there with them. That's after having my fill of grain and other interesting tib bits that chickens eat.

YELLOW CAR



      This was the first vehicle I saw when I walked up the hill to the old Ghost Town. It blew me away! I immediately thought that it was about the coolest car I ever saw. Something classy and yet rugged and almost timeless about it. The first time I painted it, I had to wipe it out, just wasn't working. I like this one much better.

DREAM LAKE

     I had to snow shoe a couple miles up to this spot twice to get this painting. The first time I got up there and started painting when a snow storm came up. I could barely see the mountain in the distance. The temperature really dropped and my paint was freezing. I put my tube of white inside my down vest pocket wrapped in a hand warmer. I finished the painting, but when I got it home I knew I had to go back and do another one on a sunny day, so I did.

"Here's Looking At You"



      First I wanted to say thanks for the comments I've been getting. They really keep me going.
     I have been having fun playing around with different materials and techniques lately. This painting had a lot of reduction techniques...I took about as much paint off as I put on.

BARN

     This is an old barn from around where I grew up in Kansas. These old barns like this are a dying breed and there are many of them still standing. Some people fix them up and re-paint them, but to me it ruins a lot of their character.

THREEBERRIES



Click Here To Bid

      I was just thinking while I was painting these strawberries..OH, OH. Well it just amazes me when I think of things in art that are so close to life. I was thinking of how as a beginning and growing artist trying to find a "style" or figuring out what and how I wanted to paint by looking at other artists. Artists in past history, but also more recent artists. I was always very judgemental and everything was black and white, I either hated it or loved it. As I got older and painted more, it seems like I forgot these questions and just painted what I wanted to paint, how I wanted to paint them. My appreciation of painting also widened. Even though I would never paint that subject matter in that manner, I still could enjoy it. It dawned on me how life is somewhat similar. A lot of time is spent judging other peoples lives, instead of appreciating the variety in life. Seeing other ways of living as individuals is so refreshing when I am not comparing to my own way of thinking or doing something. The other thing is that by being more open to these other ways, I can learn from other artists and other people all my life.
     Sorry, I'm usually not a philosopher. I think I'm saying this more for myself.

ALIEN LURES

     I have been trying to move recently and came across my old fishing tackle box. I opened it up and found all these Bass fishing lures. They make some of them to look like real bait minnows and then some to them look like abstract minnows...Ha!
     The little one at the bottom looks like he's saying something like "WOW, what planet are you guys from?"

GRAND CANYON 1

     I've been working recently with this square format, so I thought I'd try a landscape on it. It's different, that's for sure, but I am enjoying the variety.

DUDE ROOSTER



      This chicken really looked like the Cock of the Walk, or at least one of them.

GHOST CHICKENS

     Besides all the great old antique trucks and the Ghost Town Buildings, there were chickens running around. I picked up some beautiful feathers for my hat. I guess these chickens got along with the owners little chihuahua pup named "Killer".

"World's Ugliest Truck"



      When I first saw this truck it was like one of those breed of dogs that is so ugly that they start looking kinda cute. It grew on me after a while until I had to paint it because of the extreme character and a sort of social standing among the other old trucks in the lot. It was like, Man! this truck has seen it all!

THE GOOD LIFE

      I usually prefer to paint standing up because it seems my paintings are livelier and I can step back from my painting easier. Only problem is that my back gets tired standing. I'm glad that with my easel I can raise the tripod head and invert the panel holder to paint sitting down sometimes. Carol took this picture on a curve in Jerome.

   

A Day in the Red Rocks of Sedona

     One day Carol and I decided to take a break from truck land and go off down into the Red Rocks of Sedona. It was just a few miles down the hill from Jerome. We got out there pretty early in order to capture those purple shadows. It took a bit of a hike to get down to a good spot where you could see through the Juniper trees. This spot is looking toward the Palaki Ruins in the distance.




WHITE GMC




  

      I had been eyeing this truck from the time I first came up to the Ghost Town. I took photos of it, but Carol ending up painting it first; I think it was Carol's best painting of the trip.  I set up next to her the second time she painted it and we painted it together.

JEROME ARIZONA

     I have a couple posts today to catch up with Carol's. I have my nocturne done on the streets of Jerome. I have loved the little town of Jerome ever since moving to Arizona in 1975. It had been an old mining town (Copper, silver, and gold I think). It is built on the side of a mountain so many of the houses (many are Victorian style) are on stilts and the streets are curved and going up or down hills. There were a lot of hippies living there back in the 60s and 70s and I think there still are some there. The town has that cozy welcoming feel to it. The night we did our paintings outside the tavern they call the spirit room (stories have it that there are spirits from the past walking around and sitting at the bar on occasion), there was an open mic, so we got to hear some very fine singers. Carol sold her painting when the girl that worked there walked out and said "that is my car". It was a cute little Volkswagen under a yellow light. We had run into a painting friend of mine Mark Hemleben the day before and he was painting with us that night. Mark wondered into Jerome with a few bucks in his pocket 15 years ago and has been there ever since.




FIRE TRUCK

     I had walked by this old firetruck numerous times during the week and it didn't really spark anything. The night before I painted this one I had a vision of painting this scene looking at some other trucks in the opposite direction. When I got there, all of a sudden I saw these shadows patterns and the Fire Truck together and that was it. I got out a 12x16 and went to work.




  

'29 FORD AA

     Carol and I both painted this truck together. Well she painted it first, but I saw it first...HA! Anyway it had so much personality, it was like a Disney movie come to life. I think it had a water tank in the back, so probably was used to haul water for the mine maybe.



 

Before Sundown

     The Ghost/Mining site is on the side of a mountain so the sun goes down earlier than it does on the flat land. I knew I had less that an hour to whip this last one out. There was no time for thumbnails, etc., just get the paint up there. Actually I think it was one of my favorites..real simple and an unusual design.



 

'36 Corbitt Truck

     This truck reminded me of something they would hall Nitro in for the mines, very slowly that is. I walked around the thing for quite some time before nestling back in between a huge old crane and another old truck; In a spot that the ground was soaked with oil. I liked the close up on it, but when I go back I think I'll try one a little farther back.
     The Ghost Town has two levels, the upper one has an old one piston Lumber Saw that still works. They also have a loud steam whistle they like to blow ever once in awhile. The guys working up there probably have way too much fun. I told Carol that if I applied for a job there, it wouldn't matter how much they paid. Ha!

Trucks from the Past

     Well Carol and I made our way up through old Jerome and to the Ghost town on the mountain. It's like a grave yard for old trucks, but some of them are in mint condition and worth a lot of money. Carol said she felt like a little kid in a candy store when we first started walking in amongst these wonderful relics from the past. She found a handsome old red ford with 2 exhaust stacks coming up into the sky. I chose a sort of menacing looking Semi truck which I found out later was a '49 OSHKOSH.


      There's something about roaming around, peeking inside, and then painting these trucks....to smell the oil and dust, with the coil spring seats, and to bang on the door and hear that solid heavy metal sound...nothing like it!

Another Painting Adventure

     Carol Marine and I decided to embark on a short plein air painting adventure with trucks and planes as our main subject matter. She usually paints still life and I usually paint landscapes, so it was something different for both of us. We started down in Tucson, AZ at the Pima Air and Space Museum. We arrived late in the afternoon, but had time to make a quick tour. We ran around and found our favorite planes and ended up in a huge hanger where there were some old restored WWII bombers. There was a retired Air Force gentleman there who had flown these planes and he gave us the history behind them. He was very proud of the way Americans became a team during that war to do whatever they possibly could to win and save the freedom of this wonderful country. Women worked in factories and young teenagers were flying in these magnificent bombers to do their part in the war. We listened to him so long that the museum had closed and we had to get someone to unlock the door to let us out.
     We arrived back at the museum early the next morning and pick out our planes and started painting. It was very exciting to be able to paint these incredible machines from the past. I picked out a TWA plane because I'm old enough to remember the day when this airline was the largest in the country.


      Here is Carol painting what I had picked out as the ugliest plane I had ever seen. It was some kind of experimental plane with two props in the front. I loved it so much I talked her into trading it to me for one of my paintings. She is painting on the easel I invented (Art Box and Panel).

     Here is the other painting that I did that day. It struck me as being very small when I was standing in front of it.

Click Here To Bid

     We ended up leaving that evening and heading north to a Ghost Town just above Jerome, AZ. More about that on the next post.