"Morning at Superstition" 12"x16" (Click here to bid on eBay)

"Morning at Superstition"
This is my first post in about three months. For one reason or the other I've not
had the time or energy to paint in oils, but finally last month my wife's sister and husband, Jim and Ellen Heeney, visited the valley and one of the places we took them was a trip out to Superstition Mountain just east of here. The hike to the base of this cliff was enough to inspire at least one painting. I hope I can find a couple more scenes from that hike to paint again. I like this one because Spring makes even the desert green.

"Shasta Stream" plein air, 11"x14" (SOLD)

On my trip back from the Box R Ranch in Oregon, I stopped for a few hours and painted this scene of a small stream in the Mt. Shasta Recreational Park. I wasted a lot of time looking for a nice view of Mt. Shasta's peak but just couldn't find a convenient location to set up. Not knowing the area was a real problem. I had a few suggestions but I couldn't find them with the directions I was given. I was on my way to Auburn, California for some more plein air painting with Frank Ordaz, so I needed to keep it quick. I finally settled on this stream that finally caught my eye. His place was another four hours down the road and I knew Frank would know some better places to paint. Click on the image for a larger view.

"The Colorado Below" 9" x 12" (SOLD)

My last trip to the Grand Canyon yielded a ton of great scenes but most were shot with an overcast sky. This is one of them which I liked a lot but I can only imagine what it could have looked like in the bright sun or late in the evening. The park is so huge, it stretches just about 30 miles along the rim from Grand Canyon Village to the eastern most viewpoint near the east gate entrance. Unfortunately for me the western drive out to hermits rest, west of the Village, was closed to private transportation which cut 50% of the park out. I had trouble getting around in just half of it anyway. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Pucker Up" 8" x 10" (Click here to bid on eBay)

This is a pair of Sunkist lemons that I shot a couple of years ago. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Monument Valley" 6" x 12" (Click here to bid on eBay)

Monument Valley is located in the northeast corner of Arizona. It is not a national park like some wold expect, but is a tourist attraction run by the Navajo Indian Tribe and is actually called a tribal park. The roads into the park actually cross into Utah, before turning back south, into Arizona. The roads are also unpaved and are barely drivable with regular cars. Four wheel drive cars are very handy there. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Central Park Shade" 8"x10" (Click here to bid on eBay)

This scene is near Bethesda Fountain in Central park and very close also to the outdoor amphitheater. Central Park has many wide walking streets where no bikes are allowed. They seem to keep everything separated well in there. Click on the image for a larger view.

'Tea for Two" 8" x 10" (Click here to bid on eBay)

I've been doing a lot of landscapes lately and really needed to jump into something different, so here's a tea kettle. Back in South Dakota I had started to collect a few nice still life objects, but they have been lost in the ove. I still have ten boxes of stuff stored in our garage here that I don't seem to miss. I think I just figured out what is in a couple of them. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Merry-go-Round" 8"x10" (Click here to bid on eBay)

Looking for subjects to paint, I ran across some shots I took at a carnival a couple of summers ago. I had started a painting of a "Zipper" ride at the time I shot this group of images, but settled for the safer shots of caramel apples. Trying to match the surroundings of these objects are the tougher things to pull off with the colors and contrasts of the night. Click on the image for a larger view.

"The West Face" 11 x 14 (Click here to bid on eBay)

This is a scene I shot more than 5 years ago when we still lived in South Dakota, and we were on our yearly stopover in Phoenix at my sister-in-law's home. I was just starting to get back into oil painting and hadn't decided if I wanted to much in the way of landscapes, but this mountain face grabbed the setting sunlight so dramatically, that I had to try to paint it. I'm guessing I have painted Superstition at least 20 times now. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Rim Light" 12 x 16 (Click here to bid on eBay)

This is a view from the south rim of the Grand Canyon looking north as the setting sun hits the north rim of the canyon. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Just a Trickle" 11 x 14 (Click here to bid on eBay)

There was one nice gully in Monument Valley where I got a lot of great compositions. Whenever it does rain in that part of Arizona, the runoff must be pretty muddy and very red. Click on the image for a larger image.

"Castle Rock, Sedona" 11 x 14 (Click here to bid on eBay)

This is a view of the famous rock formation called Castle Rock in Sedona, Arizona. Also known as Cathedral Rock. I have painted this formation before, but without this much foreground water in view. The reference for this was shot in November so the trees are golden and the water is shallow. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Sedona Golden Stream" 9 x 12 (Click here to bid on eBay)

Taking the shortcut from Flagstaff down to Sedona takes you along Oak Creek Canyon. This scene was shot in the autumn of '06 on a clear November day. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Snow in the Shade" 8"x10" (Click here to bid on eBay)

One of my favorite memories of our trips from the Midwest to our kids homes in California and Arizona, was a three day stop in Jackson, Wyoming where I had two days of walking the paths up to Jenny's Lake and beyond to Hidden Falls. What was around the corner or down over a ridge was always a surprise. I have to disagree with the old adage: Travel the path less taken. I think the people that went there before me knew where the best sights were. Besides, there are thorns, bears and poison oak on those less traveled paths. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Big Shadows" 9"x12' (Click here to bid on eBay)

I was drawn to this image for the color and the drama of the shadows. All of the Grand Canyon is full of drama and it's hard to not see and interesting painting in every wall of rock or plateau. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Stepping Stones" 9"x12" (Click here to bid on eBay)

This is a more close up scene of some of the rocks along the shore of Lake Tahoe. Watching the light refract onto the golden rocks below is a mesmerizing experience. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Stream to the Lake" 9"x12" (Click here to bid on eBay)

This scene is actually a view of Fallen Leaf Lake, that is a lake just to the south and west of Lake Tahoe. The stream that feeds this lake is called the Glen Alpine Creek. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Pretty in Pink" 12x16 (Click here to bid on eBay)

This painting was really hard to photograph because it is all about the darkness of the objects and the saturation of those dark colors. I've tried to get it right for the third time. Click on the image for a larger view.

"A Nice Chair" 8"x10" (Click here to bid on eBay)

I can't get enough of the dramatic aerial perspective of the Grand Canyon where the shows turn brilliant blue and the rich hues dissolve to blued pastels. Click on the image for a larger view.

"Three Sisters Again" 8"x10" (Click here to bid on eBay)

I named this Three Sisters " Again", because I painted at least three views of this structure by now. it's in Monument Valley in the northeast corner of Arizona. There were many westerns filmed here including, The Searchers, one of John Wayne's best to name just one. Another popular spot for westerns to be filmed is in Jackson, Wyoming which saw Shane filmed there years ago. Click on the image for a larger view.