Morning Coffee, Dessert and Coffee, Snowman

Wow what happened to December. Not much painting took place this month especially later on. We spent a week in Sedona, AZ in early December and I painted a couple of oils from the patio at the place we were staying. Sedona is a haven for artists and there is a new painting every direction you look. The first painting is of Coffee Pot Rock early in the morning. I guess one could call this "Morning Coffee" 5"x 7". I was very enthusiastic about this beautiful scene until I saw what it looked like in the evening. I had to repaint the same rock formation with the fading winter light. The colors were astounding. This one I'll call "Dessert and Coffee" 8" x 10". The rest of the month has been spent in Alaska with family and even though I had great intentions of doing a Christmas Card painting, I didn't quite make it happen until it was too late to get it printed. I'm adding that painting to my blog as well since it is really a winter painting. I'll try harder next year to get one finished in time to send out for Christmas. The final painting I did this December is called "Snowman" 8" x 10"and is from a collage of several photos of our children when they were young and their dog Sparky.

Rampart of Stone

I learned this morning that I received a second place award for my pastel painting Rampart of Stone in a local art show. I completed this painting for a show at the St. George Art Museum called Visions of Zion. The show was judged by a local well known artist and it always makes an artist feel good to have their work judged to be worthy of an award by another artist. The painting depicts the Great White Throne, which is possibly the best known land mark in Zion National Park. Zion and is one of my favorite places to paint, draw and take photographs. We live only 45 minutes from the park entrance so it makes it easy to access the park at all times of the year. If you visit us Zion will most likely be the place we want to show you. Thanks for viewing my artist blog and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season. 9 x 12 pastel

Canvas A-LA-Carte at Blue Raven Studio

The owners of Blue Raven Studio and Gallery in Kayenta are starting a new and fun program for anyone who wants to paint whether or not they have ever held a paint brush in their hands. They have ask me to create a couple of easy paintings that anyone could enjoy and have a positive experience creating their own art. This is what I came up with. Either painting can be completed in under two hours and hopefully will be a fun time for all who participate. Hope to see you in the studio to paint along with me as we recreate these and other fun art canvases. 16" x 20" acrylic.

Old Work Horse

What is it about old vehicles that make artists want to paint them? I always have a great time when I paint old trucks, cars and now this tractor. I’m not too sure what vintage this “oldie but goodie” is but I’m sure it goes back a ways. I photographed this tractor while heading for a hike near Zion National Park called the Eagles Crag. It’s a beautiful place to hike if you are looking for great vistas of Zion’s temples. To get there cross the Virgin River at Rockville and head toward Grafton but stay to the left and head up a very steep hill. High clearance vehicles are advised and don’t attempt the road if it has recently rained. I’m sure this "Old Work Horse" hasn’t moved in years and is waiting for you to take a photo of your own.

Canvas and Cocktails

I’m back from my trip to Denver and boy did I have a great time. The first couple of days I spent with my sister and brother. My sister, Sally and I attended a canvas and cocktail class and had so much fun I’m hoping I’ll have time to do the class again the next time I’m in Denver. This is not serious art but is for anyone who wants to explore their inner creativity. The instructor was very up beat and helpful with anyone who desired additional instruction. This was a step by step procedure that lasted two hours and I’m posting our results on the blog. The rest of my stay was to have a reunion with sorority sisters I hadn’t seen since graduation from college. What a great bonding experience that turned out to be. All in all it was a great trip to Denver. I’m going to the Zion art show this evening and hopefully will get a chance to meet some of the really great Southwest artists who have been painting Zion Canyon this past week.

"Pumpkin Time"

Fall is in full force in Southern Utah so I decided to paint something seasonal. This little oil (5" x7) was a lot of fun to paint and reminded me of all the years we carved pumpkins with our children and how much fun they always had at Halloween. I hope my children are continuing the tradition with my granddaughters. I am heading to Denver for a few days to see family and some old college friends. Should be a great time and I believe the weather will be perfect. My sister and I will do a canvas and cocktail class....should be interesting. I’ll post our paintings when I return to St. George.

"Sun Going Down"

It’s been a few weeks since I last painted and I feel a bit rusty. Between moving back to Utah and having company my time has been limited to family which I believe should always be first. I just completed my first painting since returning to Kayenta in Utah. In this painting I have tried to capture the moodiness of the late evening just before sunset, as the sun moves down the red cliffs and casts the desert in shadows leaving the tops of the cliffs as if they were the embers of a dying fire. I call this painting “Sun Going Down”. We attended the auction for Xetava Gardens Café the other evening and I am pleased to say my pastel painting “Passing Storm” sold for over $500.00. “Cheyenne Man” is still for sale in the cafe.

"Passing Storm" and "Cheyenne Man"

I'm finally settled again in Utah and back to blogging. I has taken a while to get back to doing art and I must admit the paintings I am posting today were done last year. I am donating them to Xetava Gardens Cafe here in Kayenta. They are doing a fund raiser auction to improve their kitchen and although this isn’t a non profit we are friends with the owner and want to see his restaurant succeed. The first painting is done in pastel and is called “Passing Storm” the second painting is an oil painted from an historic photo of a Cheyenne Indian man. I have joined the emerging artist studio in Kayenta called the Blue Raven you can connect to them at this link http://www.blueravenartstudio.com/ You can connect to Xetava Gardens Cafe at http://www.xetavagardenscafe.com/ It’s good to be back on the desert and in our home in Kayenta.

Finger Lake and a Colony Barn

I had good intentions of painting at least one painting while we vacationed in Tahoe with the family. I should have known better. With everyone around for the family reunion, life just got in the way. At any rate I have a couple of paintings I completed earlier this year that I have wanted to post.The first painting is of Matanuska Peak from Finger Lake in the Palmer/Wasilla area. The second is of a Colony barn that is now located on the fairgrounds in Palmer, Alaska. It is a good example of the style of barns you find in the Mat-Su Valley. The Alaska State Fair is held here in late August/early September each year and if you are interested in livestock, and huge mutant style vegetables this is the place to see both. This year the largest pumpkin grown was 1019 lbs. and the largest cabbage was just short of a world record set last year at 127 lbs. My remaining days in Alaska are growing short and I need to accomplish some yard work so my painting time will be very limited and I may not get any other paintings done until we return to Utah. Stay tuned.

Red Beets

Abundance in this life is what gives us feelings of happiness and joy; and not just about the physical possessions you own or your financial net worth. True abundance and true joy comes from having valued relationships, doing the things you love, good health, and a life that lets you live according to your values and beliefs. I have one more definition of abundance....and that is our summer garden. We grew a wide variety of vegetables this summer and in spite of all the rain it rewarded us with great abundance. We love red beets both the tops and the beets and when I saw this bunch fresh from our garden I knew I had to paint them. 6" x 8" oil

The Birches

We live beside a lake in the wild woods of Alaska where ferns, mushrooms and mosses grow in abundance. The woods are mostly birch and aspen and have grown skyward 70 feet or more. The trees shelter and house a multitude of bird life and normally I don’t pay them much attention, but on the rare occasion when the sun has come out this summer the trunks of these trees reflect the most amazing colors. I have tried to capture those colors along with a bit of our lake in this painting that I call "The Birches". Oil 6" x 8".

Hay Bales

This was painted at the Matanuska Experiment Farm in Palmer. They have a number of research and demonstration projects that may be of interest to anyone who has questions about agronomy or horticulture. My interest is in the old barns and buildings that are located on the property. I loved the way the shade draped across the road leading to the old cow barn. The hay bales added another point of interest in this painting, and once again one of the mountain peaks that surround the Matanuska Valley towers in the background.

Matanuska River

I painted this on the banks of the Matanuska River with Pioneer Peak in the background and bodenberg butte in the middleground. . The river is approximately 75 miles long and drains the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. Its headwaters are at the Matanuska Glacier in the northern Chugach Mountains. It flows past Palmer at this point and on to the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet. Silt from the worn down glacial rock has been deposited here since the ice age and one does not want to be painting this scene when the wind blows and fills the air with this fine powdery silt. I tried that last year and by the end of my painting session I felt like I was trying to complete a sand painting. This day was beautiful and lots of people kept showing up on the beaches of the river to walk their dogs and let their children play.

The Little "Su"

This painting was done in early May near the bridge that crosses the Little Susitna River on the road to Hatcher Pass. The snow had just melted and the greens were those that last only a short time before our Alaska daylight increases at breakneck speed and our greens rapidly get darker and bluer, the colors of full on summer. The river was beautiful that day and painting beside it was very relaxing as the water blotted out all other sounds. Oil 8" x 10"

Musk Ox Farm

Spending a day painting in Palmer at the historic colony Musk Ox Farm is an experience not soon to be forgotten. These shaggy ice age beasts were nearly hunted to extinction in the 1800's. A few survived in Canada and in 1930, biologists brought musk oxen from Greenland to Nunivak Island in Alaska. Now back in the wild, up to 3,000 of the animals live free on the arctic tundra. The Musk Ox at the Palmer farm are part of a domestication project. They produce a wool which is spun into Qiviut. It became very windy the day I was painting at the Musk Ox Farm and when my easel blew over I decided to finish this painting in my studio.
8" x10" oil.

Spring time on Springer Loop Road

Earlier this summer I had the wonderful experience of painting en plein air with Caleb Stone an east coast artist and workshop teacher. We painted mostly in the country side surrounding the community of Palmer. Palmer is located in the Mat-Su Valley farm country and is renowned for its giant vegetables that grow to unbelievable sizes under our endless summer sun. This area was first settled during the Great Depression by volunteer farmers from the Midwest who were brought to Alaska by the government. While many of the farms have been sold and turned into subdivisions there are still some great opportunities to paint the “Valley”. Almost every scene includes the beautiful Mountains that outline this area. The most predominate mountain is called Pioneer Peak and is the mountain featured in this painting which I call “Spring time on Springer Loop Road”. Oil 8" x 10"

Skiff, Knysna South Africa

We visited South Africa last November. It was a trip of a lifetime. I have hundreds of photos I took of animals with the thought in mind that I would one day paint them, however, the first painting I completed of our trip is of this little skiff that I spotted on the tidelands as we waited for a ferry to take us to the Featherbed Nature Reserve in Knysna. Knysna is a natural paradise of lush forests and beautiful beaches. She is nestled on the banks of a breathtakingly beautiful lagoon which is now a marine reserve. The Featherbed Reserve isn’t a big five reserve but offers incredible views of the Headlands and if you are a bird lover a chance to see the Knysna Lorie.
6" x 6" oil

Old Forest Service Truck

So much for trying to post a couple times a week. I probably should modify that statement and say I'll try to post a couple of times a month. I did finish another old vehicle painting. 5" x 7" of an old forest service truck I photographed about three years ago. Once again we were visiting a national park. This time it was the Great Basin National Park in Nevada. The name of this park is deceiving. I always thought the Great Basin was the low desert pans in Nevada and indeed it is but the park is located in a very high altitude area of Nevada. We camped there at about 8,000 ft. and hiked to about 11,000 feet to see the bristlecone pine forest where 3-4,000 year old trees flourish. If serenity is what you are looking for, visiting a national park in the summer is not the ideal place to go unless it is to the Great Basin National Park. We were virtually alone at this beautiful part of Nevada in the middle of August. The park has wonderful trails, a natural cavern, and of course the amazing Bristlecones. Morning temperatures were chilly so if you go to camp be sure to take warm clothing. The park is located about 5 miles from the small quaint town of Baker. There are many amusing roadside things to see as you drive up to the entrance of the park including an old vehicle driven by the skeletal remains of a horse. I would put the Great Basin National Park on your list of must see places.

Old Logger - Gustavus, Alaska

A few years ago Roger, my husband, and I decided to visit our National Parks as long as we could travel and enjoy them. What better place to start than in Alaska where we spend the summers. The National Parks are difficult to reach in this state, but one is well rewarded for their efforts. Such was the case when we traveled by air to Gustavus near Juneau, Alaska to visit Glacier Bay National Park. We stayed at a friendly B & B in Gustavus during our visit. Just down the road from our B & B was a golf course. I know this might seem rather strange to anyone who has visited this area of Alaska as it is located in a rain forest and therefore rains most days of the year. Generally golf and rain don't mix and I admit no one was golfing at the time. Golfing isn't our game but we do love to take walks. We were not spared the rain but we enjoyed ourselves just the same. At the Gustavus Golf Course they mark the holes with old vehicles from the by-gone era of the old mining and logging days. I immediately fell in love with this old logging truck with it's final log still attached to the bed. I knew some day I would paint it so I took several photos to jog my memory. The results of this painting are posted here. You can see the golf course green behind the logger. Put Glacier Bay National Park on your list of places to visit. You won't regret it even if it rains.

Here is a small painting I completed yesterday. It is titled The Get Away Car and is located at a geocache in Huston Alaska. My husband, Roger, and I enjoy geocaching when not busy with other things. This was a recent find named "The Get Away Car". I has been sitting in the woods for a very long time and has been riddled with bullet holes. Reminded one of the boot legging days. It was a lot of fun to paint in a small format 5"x 7". Hope you enjoy it.