Sedona Afternoon (Click here to view eBay results)

These are typical rock structures that are all around Sedona. The variety of their shapes and colors are amazing, let alone the ones that are giving away to shifting soil. I'm no archaeologist, but they must be more than 100,000 years old, and how they were formed is beyond me, but they are great to paint. Click on the image for a larger view.

Sedona Valley (Click here to view eBay results)

Here's a view of one of the valleys that open up to the city of Sedona. The day was super clear so the haze wasn't very thhick. Something an artist lives for. Some people might call that air pollution, I call it character. The more dust there is in the atmosphere, the redder the sunset. This day had none. Click on the image for a larger view.

Red Cliffs (Click here to view eBay results)

Here's a scene of Superstition Mountain that I caught within the last couple of minutes of sun light. The sun sets so fast, that I don't know how plein air painters can possibly catch all the subtleties of a scene like this. Click on the image for a larger view.

Gingerbread Man (Click here to view eBay results)

Here's a painting of a gingerbread man that my wife found while we were staying in Phoenix. I tried to get a raking shadow to cross over the cookie for added depth, but that left me with shadowed milk that isn't very appetizing. Click on the image for a larger view.

Shady Seat (Click here to view eBay results)

This is the same tree as the trail down, just a view that makes the viewer look past the tree. This tree will be in shade for most of the year regardless of how sunny it gets. The south rim has mostly northern light all year except for the vegetation that really reaches out from below the rim to get even the summer sun. The south rim is the cooler side to hike on because of it's many spots of shade. Click on the image for a larger view.

Grandview Trail Down (Click here to view eBay results)

This is a scene that's just 200 feet below the rim of Grandview point. There is a sign at the top of this trail that talks about a Boston Marathon winner that died while hiking this trail in the summer. It's pretty dangerous all year round with wind and ice, but in the summer, the dry heat will drain you of all your fluids in a matter of hours. The tree at the bottom of this narrow stairway has a hundred signatures carved into it and also has a natural chair being created by one of it's roots. This same tree is the subject of my next painting. Click on the image for a larger view.

Wine and Grapes (Click here to view eBay results)

This is a painting from life that my son Jobey and I both painted from last Wednesday night. It was fun finding the items to paint, settling on a flannel pillow slip was odd tho. I know we could have looked a little longer for something more colorful. Click on the image for a larger view.

Twin Bluffs (Click here to view eBay results)

Here's a shot from the Lost Dutchman State Park in Phoenix. It's Superstition Mountain again, from another angle. It is protected from any further housing developments I believe, which leaves nice long sweeping shadows of cacti raking up the slopes instead of houses and garages.
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One Cacti (Click here to view eBay results)

Here s a scene I found within a photograph I took. I've been constantly amazed at how I crop into my paintings to show close-ups, and end up liking the close-up crop better than the full view. I always hated a zoomed out look of some paintings based on photographs, you know, where there's no logical place for the viewer to be standing, so I guess I've always been shy about painting from those. Click on the image for a larger view.

Sedona Eve (Click here to view eBay results)

This a second painting I did of Sedona, only this one was just after sunset when there was still a bright red sky illuminating the cliffs. Click on the image for a larger view.

Hermit's View (Click here to view eBay results)

This is a scene of a nice cliff shape near the Hermit's point locaion on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. I took most of my studio with me so I could paint in the hotel room the first night. I was too tired to unload it. I was able to get a good group of sunset shots that evening, but the next day was overcast for the sunrise till 10 am, and then it just got windier and colder the rest of the day. The winds were gusting to 30 and I had touble keeping the camera steady, let alone try to plien air paint. Click on the image for a larger view.

Chocolate Turtle (AVAILABLE)

I got kinda behind while rushing from our place in Phoenix, to our new stop in San Marcos. I have 5 new paintings to post in order to catch up.
This is a painting of a handmade chocolate turtle. We found a cholocate shop in Sedona, or the chocolate shop found us, we had to have one of these to paint and a 1/4 pound of fudge.a It should be illegal when they are work in the window, and the smell is being blown out onto the sidewalk with fans. That's like a Venus Fly Trap for humans. Click on the image for a larger view.

Sedona #1 (Click here to view eBay results)

This was a shot that I just about didn't get. The sun had set, and I was out of room on my camera's card. Beside that, I had forgotten my USB cable to download the images onto my laptop, so I thought I was done for the day. We stopped for a coffee when all of a sudden the sky lit up. The sun had finally set so low, that it was shining below the cloud layer that had hidden the sun for the last half hour. Suddenly we had some of the most dramatic scenes I could imagine downtown. We hurrried down the street to buy another card, and I was able to shoot another 20 or so pictures before the light died. Click on the image for a larger view.

Lost Dutchman Scene (Click here to view eBay results)

This was from one of the shots I took from my trip to Superstition Mountain this year. It's the closest, out of town area, in Phoenix, and has a classic desert look. The Lost Dutchman State Park is a really nice area to take a hike and spend a day exploring. There are more than 10 miles of trails to walk, that I think will take you pretty high into this mountain. I did about one half a mile...maybe. Click on the image for a larger view.

Stuffed Piggy (Click here to view eBay results)

Here's a pig we found at a local Goodwill, that I set up in one of the bedrooms for this shot. I was looking for some kind of dramatic light scene, where it looked like it was on a child's dresser, then I wondered, what would I want it to look like if it were my piggy bank when I was a kid. Believe me. it was never stuffed like this, but it's a nice thought. Click on the image for a larger view.

Plein Air Rocky Peak (Click here to view eBay results)

Here's the plein air piece finally. I touched up some of the sky, and carved the cliff a little cleaner along with some overdone shadows. The major drawing mistake I spoke about I never changed. The highest peak on the right is actually lower than the middle one, but who will ever know. I tried my best to resist the touch-up changes, but it's definately better. What I like most about the piece are the greys that actually don't show up to well in the photograph. In nature, I tend to see alot of colors that don't have a definate feel for any color, so I keep mixing the compliment of whatever color I start with, into that color to get a neutral that feels right. I think those colors are the best in any painting. There may be a color in htere, just like the musicain searching for the missing cord, that really makes a painting.
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Candy Cane ( (Click here to view eBay results)

Here's something that's getting to be a very common sight lately. We picked these up in western Nebraska on our drive out, from a small gas station in the middle of nowhere. I think they are left over fom 2002. Click on the image for a larger view.

Paint Tube and Brush (Click here to view eBay results)

I painted this painting from life. My daughter Kacey had an accident with her laptop last week, and we've been sharing time on my system, so I decided to set up something easy to paint. I just happened to have a tube of Cadmium Red handy, and I used the very same red, to paint the red. Is that a Twilight Zone episode? Click on the image for a larger view.

Last Light (Click here to view eBay results)

This isn't the plein air piece I thought I was going to post, but it's from the same place I went to paint that day. I have a drawing problem I need to correct on he plein air piece, and will post the before and after on that when I get it done, I was hoping to just leave it alone, but I know that it will be a better painting if I make the change, even if no one knows the difference but me.
This is Superstition Mountain from the Lost Dutchman State Park, east of Pheonix. Click on the image for a larger view.

York Peppermint Pattie (Click here to view eBay results)

This is a still life of a York Peppermint Pattie. Not my favorite candy, but maybe my favorite wrapper. I was finally able to go out and plein air paint, so the next painting I post will be a little different looking. Click on the image for a larger view.

Shady Creek (Click here to view eBay results)

This painting was created from the photoshoot of the Elfin Forrest area near San Marcos Ca. It was also the same place I found the scene of the sandbar last month. Click on the image for a larger view.

Grand View (Click here to view eBay results)

I painted this scene from a group of different photos that I photoshoped together to create one scene. I liked the sun raking across the cliffside from one photo, the atmospheric perspective of the blued back distant mountains and plains, and then the foreground sunlit ledge. Click on the image for a larger view.

Hard Boiled Egg (Click here to view eBay results)

I'm finally caught up on posting! This painting is part of a group effort to display all kinds of egg compositions. Micah Condon, the creator of the Daily Painters Blogsite, suggested the idea. All daily painters that would like to submit an egg composition were asked to post one by midmight Sunday. Please click on the daily painters blog link in the right sidebar to see what everyone comes up with. There should be 30 or so to check out. Click on the image for a larger view.

Lava Soap AVAILABLE

There was something about the green color and wet look that made me want to paint this bar of Lava. It's old school soap that I use to clean my brushes. Click on the image to see a larger view.

Tub Scene (Click here to view eBay results)

This is a painting I did from reference I shot in a hotel in Hot Springs Wyoming. I was careful not to let my camera get a bunch of condensation inside. It was real hard just getting the fog to stay off of the outside of the lense. I would get one shot for each time I ran in to compose a shot before it would totally fog over. I took some nice shots of the shower head spraying that I think will make an interesting image to paint, along with the nearly empty towel rack. Both coming soon. Click on the image for a larger view.

Two Palms AVAILABLE

Here's the scene out of the back yard where we are staying in Phoenix. Justin Clayton, another daily painter has painted palms before and he made them look so fun, that I had to try. I don't know if it's the case of the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence or not, but I defnately like Justin's renditions better. Doesn't mean I'm giving up tho, I just shot a bunch of pics tonight during "golden hour" that I can't wait to dive into sometime. Click on the image for a larger view.

Birch Trees (Click here to view eBay results)

I've always liked how artists can capture the pale skins of these trees. I think I'll try a bigger format sometime along with some better reference. This was a very grey day in Teton National Park. Click on the image for a larger view.

Oranges on the Limb AVAILABLE

I've been having trouble keeping up with travel, work, and getting a daily painting done, so I haven't posted any of my auction paintings for 5 days now. Hope to get caught up today. Click on the image for a larger view.