Fall Idaho

"Fall Idaho", 16 x 20 In, Oil on Panel
This painting is a reach back to last fall when I went to Idaho to take a workshop with Ovanes Berberian. This was done out in the field and it is just one I never posted before.

Purchase this unframed painting.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Field near Winthrop

"Field near Winthrop", 16" x 20", Oil on Panel
This painting was done as a result of a challenge on the Artistes de Studio network.  You can see I was experimenting with abstraction after my experience with David Mollet in Alaska.  Interestingly, when I work in the studio, I sometimes want to just go really abstract, but sometimes feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. So you may be seeing more of these in between my plein air adventures and more traditional paintings.

Purchase this painting unframed for $425
If you would like the painting framed, please contact me.

Teklanika River - NFS

8/14/10 "Teklanika River", 16" x 20", Oil  NFS
This was painted the last morning of the workshop on a sand bar of the Teklankika River where the Murie Science Center Field Camp was.  We stayed in tent cabins.  This was the only clear sky day during my time in Alaska and the wind was fierce!  You can see the white spots where I used a bungy cord to keep my panel on the easel.  One thing I loved about the workshop was that David, in a completely laid back manner, defied conventional outdoor painting wisdom.  Here are two of what we called the Molleticisms:  Just put the paint on, leave it there, and don't step back to look at what you've done--don't look at your painting when doing it.  Chase the light--you can't remember what it was like before.

Sable Pass -- NFS

8/13/10 "Sable Pass", 16 x 20, Oil  NFS
This is the second painting I did on the second day of the workshop about 40 miles into Denali Park on Sable Pass--the same area that from the safety of the bus the previous day we'd seen a mama grizzly and her two cubs browsing the berries!  For this painting, I had the opportunity of watching David start a painting--with simple flat shapes that defined the overall design, color and value.  As the plein air tradition in the lower 48 comes more out of the California Impressionists (it seems to me), the images of David's paintings are only now sinking into my brain with the possibility for more abstract design--the type of painting that I have long admired in artists such as the Group of Seven.

Valley Near Toklat -- NFS

8/12/10 "Valley Near Toklat", 16 x 20, Oil,  NFS
The only time that worked for my visit with a painting friend in Alaska was during the time she was taking a workshop from David Mollet, Chair of the Art Department at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, at a field camp in Denali National Park.  Luckily I got in from the waiting list.  David's work derives more from his study in New York than the plein air movement in the lower 48 and in fact he was not familiar with Edgar Payne and John Carlson, the current gods of outdoor painting.  There is an amazing abstract quality to David's on location paintings that I rarely see in contemporary outdoor painting.  We were working big (small to David) with 16 x 20 panels, four times bigger than my average outdoor painting size, out in Denali Park in mostly overcast, rainy and sometimes exceedingly windy conditions. I do not consider any of the paintings I did  "finished"--they are at the most 2 to 2.5 hour worth of painting time, but I do consider them experiments in painting differently.  This was the first one.