Wood Duck

Just as I was about to call the gallery in McCall that carries a couple of my paintings they beat me to the punch. Basically they wanted to know if I had some smaller paintings for the holiday crowd...the kind that were less expensive because the economy is kind of soft and art isn't moving real fast. So of course I told them sure and decided to paint a couple duck paintings before next week. Ducks really aren't my thing but this 9x12 turned out fairly nice.

King Of The Flats

I just finished this one this morning and it went faster than I expected. Sometimes paintings do that and it's always a pleasure. This is 18x24 and I especially like the atmosphere (it's Katmai National Park in Alaska). The brown bear turned out well without it standing out too much from it's surroundings. This integration is important to achieve a realistic rendering of the entire scene. I like it.

Another Painting

I'm now working on a nice bear painting in an Alaska setting and it's turning out nice. I guess paint what you're good at and one of mine seems to be bears. Got some snow last night so used the snowblower this morning to make sure it was working. A bit hard to start but eventually ran ok. Thought I'd just give you another painting to enjoy so here it is.

I like moose too...think it's the challenge of painting their antlers. This was a big hit with the kids at the summer art show.

It's Just Today

Believe it or not I'm sort of multi-tasking...at least the way we do it in the mountains. Of course I've got another painting started down in The Cave and for the last couple of days I've been managing some knives for sale on ebay...did I mention that I've got the archery bug again, first time I've had it since I was a kid so I bought a bow (traditional long bow) on ebay and some arrows. I'll have to wait until spring to set up a target but at least it's another thing to look forward to. Thought I'd put up a small landscape for you to look at if you'd like. It's Mt Oberlin and Mt Cannon in Glacier National Park (Montana). Now back to multi-tasking...am supposed to write the "Christmas Letter". I know...I know......

One Of My Favorites

This is the larger version of one I painted a couple years ago when I was still living in Boise. The funny thing about this painting is that I remember I wasn't really in the mood to start one but thought I'd give it a try. Sometimes a painting just seems to paint itself and this was one of those times. When I finished I thought it was good enough to enter in Art For The Parks, a national artist competition, but then discovered the 16x20 format was too big for the minis and too small for the regular competition. So I actually repainted it in 18x24 which you see here but it was not accepted. Oh well. Anyway, it's the first time I discovered that a yellow ochre glaze can work wonders on the right animal.

Final Cougar Painting

This is it...the final of the cougar painting. Am pretty satisfied and obviously did alot of things to it between the last time and now. Actually it's the first good cougar I've painted...the others just did not look right. Anatomy is sometimes difficult. You will note I deliberately kept the background and the foreground reasonably simple to not detract from the animal. Hope you found it interesting going from the initial sketch to the finished animal. I still like the title "The Stalk". Let me know if you think of something else.

A View Of The Cave

It's Thanksgiving morning and that's always big meal day for me. Of course I'm going down to the cave to work on the painting which I may show you later. In the meantime I thought you might be interested in this one picture of the cave. It's the room where I moved some of the equipment from the garage to work on knives this winter. What you see is a drill press, scroll saw and a vise. All that needed besides the belt sander which, of course, remains in the garage because of the dust. It's 8 degrees this morning and still no accumulation of snow. From my upstairs window I can see Tamarack Resort has some and I know they are making snow.