A trio of paintings along Cascade creek - plein air, pastel

Finishing touches and photographs, finally, for the paintings done over the weekend's trip.

Orange Lichen and the Green Pool - 12x12" - plein air
pastel on dark brown cardstock
© S.Johnson

Thursday afternoon's painting, done about 30' from our campsite right along the creek.  There were so many fun things going on here that I had no trouble deciding on this as my first painting.  Some new challenges for painting water as well, such as being able to convey the effect of underwater bubbles and turbulence produced by the little fall of water passing through the channel of boulders.  The foreground pool appealed to my abstract gene, and then there is the river itself.

And the boulder, with its fissures and color variations, including some bright orange lichen, which ultimately inspired the sort of unusual title for this painting.

Embankment Aspen and Shadows - 11x8.5"
pastel on maroon cardstock
© S.Johnson

Another view right from the campsite, looking up and across the creek.  This is aspen country, so it was a given that they had to figure into at least one painting.  This was Friday morning's painting, done before breakfast.  I was reminded again of what a challenge it is to try and depict the massed greens of a forest - in this case, aspen, spruce, fir and probably some ponderosa pine.  

Fallen Rock and Tree - 8.5x11"
pastel on turquoise cardstock
© S.Johnson

Friday afternoon's painting, done a mere 15' from last weekend's painting "Creek Cascade".  Wayne and I had both been fascinated by the fact this full-grown tree was coming right up out of a large slab of limestone.  Strong shadows and patches of rust-colored moss - along with that tangle of roots - made it a fun challenge to paint.  The hardest part was dealing with the shadows, which changed by the minute:  by the time I'd finished the painting, the blue shadows had covered most of the creek.

We had great weather on Thursday and Friday, and because of the long hike we did on Friday, I'd planned to spend Saturday painting some aspen and road views I'd scouted out.  Alas, clouds rolled in early and stayed late, killing the light and dramatic shadows I wanted to paint.  So, I went out with my camera instead and spent a few hours photographing the creek..

...Wait:  hadn't I recently mentioned that I seldom take photos of moving water because they just don't do justice and aren't inspiring to paint from?   That's true.   That wasn't the intent with these photos, as you'll see in tomorrow's post, which I will dedicate just to this subject.

Here are a few flora and fauna photos from the weekend's hikes:

Blue and White Columbine in profile - one can never have enough photos
of this beautiful wildflower

Another native orchid!  Species unidentified

Fritillary species

Common Ringlet

male blue - unidentified species

Common Arctic - they seldom land and are very wary, so this was a luck shot indeed

Utah cottonwood color - pastel

Kaleidoscope
12 x 12 inches
pastel on Artagain
© S Johnson

A studio piece that took far longer than it should have to finish (and subsequently, feels a bit over-worked).   It didn't quite meet my pre-painting expectations, but I got a lot out of painting it nonetheless.

From a photo taken about 25 miles south of Moab along Hwy 191 last year, at a rest stop situated next to one of those tickey-tacky tourist stops:  Hole N''The Rock.  Not to be confused with the road of the same name in the Escalante-Grand Staircase NM (also in UT), it started out as a house built into the large outcropping of Navajo sandstone by a Mormon pioneer close to a century ago.  That in itself is kind of interesting, but if you click on the link, what immediately assaults your aesthetic sense is the huge white lettering on the side of the rock.

Really?  Why?

At any rate, this beautiful Fremont cottonwood showing off its range of leaf color, was mercifully well out of view of the whole [hole?] view of all that.  Cottonwoods have these wonderful organic shapes to their trunks and branches, never orderly or predictable, and that is what draws me to them as photography and painting subjects time and time again.

Only one more day to get any painting in before I leave for Moab!  Thanks to expedient handling and shipping of an order placed on Monday, my two display easels from Dick Blick arrived yesterday, allowing me to leave on Monday instead of Tuesday.  Weather is supposed to be sunny and warm and dry during the event, which after the very winter-like storm that has been hitting our area for the better part of the week, is a relief.

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Photos taken yesterday along a drive up Hwy 550 to go check out the snow and fall color situation:

Aspen stand in full color in a fleeting moment of sunlight

Engineer Mountain as seen from the highway near Andrews Lake (~9,900')

Hermosa Cliffs closer to town (~8,000')

Fall in the San Juans - plein air, pastel

I'd hoped to get this posted yesterday, but didn't have time.  Yesterday, the PAP4C (Plein Air Painters of the Four Corners) had a paint-out at Andrews Lake, which you may remember from previous blog posts.

(NOTE:  this post is very image intensive...it was a full day)  

Hillside Aspens 
12x16 inches
pastel on black Artagain

The weather was absolutely perfect - mild and sunny, with no wind or chance of rain, and no insects.  Aspen are coming into fall color rapidly along Hwy 550 in the higher elevations.  It is what early fall in the San Juans is all about.  At the lake itself, there are no aspen, and I originally thought about painting the lake because it is so attractive.  However, when fellow pastelist Jan and Mary Ellen arrived, they wanted to paint fall colors, which sounded more appealing, so I decided to follow them back down the highway.

I ended up pulling off before they did, at a huge slope of yellow and green aspen right at a large pullout, and while I was originally planning on painting that stand (in photo below), as I climbed up a small hill and looked to the east, I knew immediately I had my painting.  Aside from the brilliant yellow stand of distal aspen, the pale gray Leadville limestone pushing up through the dried grasses was the perfect lead-in and clinched the deal.

And, in an unusual moment of foresight, I actually thought to take a few photos of the painting in-progress.  I always enjoy it when artists post their painting in its stages, so I thought I'd do the same.  They aren't that amazing, but painting on black is different than using a lighter surface as far as approach goes, and maybe some will find it interesting.

Initial block-in:  I used a NuPastel in bottle green to sketch in the horizon contour and basic shapes of the main elements.  A light gray NuPastel was used to suggest the initial rocks, with a few strokes of earth colors to define some planes and edges, and then I jumped right in with the color.  

The surface looks gray because it is in full sun and there is the shadow from the top of the easel (stood for this painting, using my French easel).

Sky was put in to help anchor the painting and values.  From that point, I work sort of randomly across the paper, going back and forth with different colors, working on different elements, usually just a few strokes before picking up another color.  I find this keeps things from getting too mechanical and maintains the degree of disorder and contained chaos that nature presents.

The finished painting at the end of the plein air session, with final detail added.  This is the largest size (12x16") that I've used on location so far, and it took me about 2 1/2 hrs. to complete.  After the critique session suggestions, I made some minor adjustments back in the studio that you can see by comparing this to the top painting.  

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There were a total of seven of us at the paint-out, and at 1:00 PM, the critique session was held at the small dock at Andrews Lake.  Here is the group photo of everyone's work, a few of which weren't finished:

Media, from top L to bottom R:
oil, w/c, pastel, pastel, oil, w/c, oil (almost out of the picture)

After the paint-out critique wrapped up, Wayne (who had come along to hike the Crater Lake trail while I painted) suggested we drive to Silverton, which is about 8 miles away, to get something to eat and check out the fall colors.  It turned out to be better than we hoped, with aspen firing off in full color throughout the Silverton area.  Here are a few photos, and it's probably easy to see why artists and photographers are just wild about aspen in the fall:

The aspen stand I almost painted, south of Andrews Lake

Quaking color 

Aspen quartet outside of Silverton

A stand of orange aspen frame part of Anvil Mtn. west of Silverton along Hwy 550

Beautiful brilliant yellow aspen stand just south of Silverton, flanked by spruce

Looking skyward - aspen along Hwy 550 south of Coal Bank Pass

Trunks and shadows and complimentary colors

Leaf still life on boulder

Along the Pine - pastel

Along The Pine
pastel on Strathmore 400-series charcoal paper
9x12 inches

Started last week (on the day I got sick), and finally finished and photographed.  Done at my computer with my plein air set, because I've just been too lazy to move the painting operations to my downstairs studio.

I could have titled this:  "What I would have painted if I had painted on location", because that's essentially what it is.  Over Labor Day weekend, we decided to hike/fish/paint along the Pine River, located east of town about an hour away.  In fact, the Pine River (also called "Los Pinos") trailhead is about 1/4 mile from the recent PAP4C paint-out piece I did - "Late Summer in the Pine River Valley".

I brought my streamlined plein air set-up with me (stadium chair, pastel box, foamboard with this 9x12 piece of paper taped to it) intending to paint while Wayne fished.  The Granite Peak Ranch (where we painted) is huge, and one must hike about 3 miles along the ranch easement in order to get to FS land and thus fish and camp, but luckily, the trail is is level and a really easy hike, so I didn't mind hiking the gear in that far.

Painting didn't happen - got distracted with photographing flying things, and the rapidly building monsoon clouds eventually killed the light completely.  But, I took this one photo of the river and knew I'd paint it.  I also discovered that my stadium chair is ideal for protecting my pastel box from getting soaked when hiking back in a rainstorm.

Biggest challenge was that dark forest background and trying to balance abstract shapes with just enough detail.  One thing I've noticed is that my darkity-dark-dark pastels are actually *plenty dark* for this tan paper, vs. the black Strathmore, where I was always working to get things dark enough.  Gee - who knew?  So, I found it much easier to obtain those values.

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Some obligatory photos from the hike:

Unidentified flower, filterized

A section of the trail through an aspen stand

"Me and My Shadow"
A Green Comma butterfly shows off its brilliant topside colors on a dead tree

Green Comma on white thistle
With folded wings, it looks like a dead leaf - perfect camouflage! 

Plein Air in La Plata Canyon

This morning, I met with fellow Durango pastel painter Jan Goldman, who is a member of the Plein Air Painters of the Four Corners group, as her guest, and we headed up to a private ranch property located along the beautiful La Plata Cyn, for one of the bi-weekly member paint-outs.

Tres Amigos

12x9 inches

pastel on black Strathmore

The property is set far off the road leading up the canyon, so we were afforded unique views of the La Plata mountains, as well as mountain meadows with blooming lupine, aspen stands and scrub oak.  This was an all-day event, with painting in the morning, a wonderful lunch provided by Doris, the sister of the property owner, followed by more afternoon painting and a group critique at the end of the day.  

Tres Amigos was my morning painting, of three aspen in a grassy field.  Scrub oak are the last trees to leaf out in the late spring/summer, and are in their warm yellow-green stage.  These aspen have lots of scarring on the bases of their trunks, resulting in the dark patches on the bark.

 Silvery Lupine in bloom

East of Parrot Peak

8x16 inches

pastel on matboard with Golden pumice ground + black acrylic

After I finished the first painting before lunch, I walked around the property to find a good spot to do this 1:2 format painting, and this was it.  Parrot and Madden Peaks are part of the La Platas and are on the west side of the canyon.  Madden Peak has just a bit of snow remaining, and some transient clouds showed up that of course I had to add.  The dirt road leading to the parking area and ramada can be seen, along with the colorful lupines.  

The day was uneventful, save for a minor mishap in the afternoon when a large hornet or yellow jacket got too close to me and I reacted by jerking my leg...and sent the pastels, which were in my lap, flying out of the box, on the ground, in my lap, and down the seat of the chair.  Thankfully, all were recovered and none damaged.  

In the afternoon, the group reconvened at the ramada and did a critique session.  Having peer critiques of one's work can be invaluable, I think.  A few people suggested I lighten the values on the lupine in the painting above, which I did when I got home.

Here are some of the paintings from the group, with most media (oil, w/c, acrylic, pastel) being represented:

I had a great time, and everyone was very friendly and welcoming, so I'm looking forward to attending more of their paint-outs and hopefully becoming a member.  And thank you again to Jan for allowing me to attend as your guest!

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At the end of the day

Portrait of a Rose

tags:  floral painting - red rose - 6x8 - alla prima painting - original art - for sale - flower 

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Portrait of a Rose

8x6" - oil on canvas panel

Available for purchase

Another Daily Paintworks challenge I couldn't resist.  This weeks' challenge is "A Valentine's Day Rose", hosted by Qiang Huang.   I probably should have gone down to the grocery store and ante'd up $5+ for a single red rose to paint from life, but I wasn't feeling that ambitious, so I went with a photo.

I absolutely love flowers, and while they have always been a favorite subject to photograph, I can only recall only one floral painting I ever did, and that was in pastel about 16 years ago.  So, this marks both the first time I've ever painted a rose, or a flower in oils.

I always thought roses seemed very difficult to paint, so complex, and I wasn't sure I'd ever even want to paint them.  But, a single rose sounded like it might be doable, and I loved the simplicity of it.   And, it gave me a chance to pull out some of those cadmium reds and the Alizarin crimson that I seldom use now.  I definitely why Qiang says it is easy to overwork a rose painting.  I can also see why this flower in particular lends itself so well to Flemish painting techniques and glazing; the hardest part was getting the darks dark enough and not losing the edges while doing value adjustments in alla prima.

I'm probably close to wrapping up the winter series I've been working on, and maybe I'll take on some more florals, including some in pastel.  I've been wanting to paint flowers for some time now, and this was a good incentive to give it a go!

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Everyone is probably getting sick of the winter and snow, but here are a few from our snowshoeing trip at Andrews Lake yesterday.  My hand is doing great - thank you again for all the well-wishes - and it didn't prevent me from using either my poles or camera:

Waxing half-moon over the Grenadier Range

Andrews Lake is directly in front.

Wayne surrounded by aspen, fir and spruce

And, look - there's the moon...again!

Aspen trunks and shadows

More interesting abstract shapes formed by these beautiful trees.

Aspen in Black #10

This was actually completed a few days ago between oil sessions, but I had hoped to get another finished to post at the same time.   I went in a different direction with today's paintings, which I'll post tomorrow when I finish 1-2 more.

This is #10 in the series.   It may be time to switch to cottonwoods and other riparian trees for fall colors, since the aspen references are starting to dwindle a bit, and I have reference photos taken in various locations that I'm really excited about painting; this fall color gig could run well into winter!

I have really enjoyed doing this series, both because it has allowed me to work with bright, saturated colors - a contrast to the muted earth tones of the oil series - and because it has allowed (forced?) me to spend more time looking at trees and my approach to painting them as abstracted, organic forms.  

Aspen #10

12x9 - pastel on toned w/c paper

A few sky photos from yesterday and today, courtesy of the pacific storm that has been passing through this region for the past several days.  Night-time lows have dropped to the low 20's and the trees in town are busy dumping their leaves in earnest.  

Monday afternoon - Oct 25

Sunset, Oct 25

Sunset warm-up, Oct 26

Sunset main act, Oct 26.  Sublime.

Aspen on Black #9, and fall color photos

I got a late start today, so only one aspen painting finished.  The surface for this was a mix of the acrylic chalkboard paint and Golden fine pumice ground, applied in two coats to the w/c paper.  It was the best so far of the black surfaces I've worked on for this series; the pumice ground really helped improve the tooth.

For those interested in making your own black surface, here is the method I used:

- approximately 1:1 mix of acrylic paint and Golden pumice ground mixed in small container.  I have a spray bottle, so I added enough water to thin the paint to a thick spreadable consistency; adding too much water will result in more than two layers required.

- tape watercolor paper to masonite board or other hard surface with blue or pale yellow masking tape (made for going around corners; its adhesive isn't as robust as regular masking tape, making it easier to remove), leaving a 1/4" border on each side.

- using a 1" el-cheapo house painting brush, apply in linear strokes to cover the paper with an even layer of the acrylic/pumice mix, insuring that the entire surface is covered.  Let dry.

- apply a second layer, either perpendicular to the first or in the same direction.  Let dry.

- once paper is completely dry and the tape is removed, there may still be some curling of the paper.   I then place them between the pages of a heavy book for the rest of the day to completely flatten the sheets.  They're ready to go the next day.

Aspen #9

12x9 inches

The fall colors here in the Durango area are pretty much at their peak now - that includes the cottonwood and various species of oak that cover the hillsides of the mesas surrounding town.  One of my favorite locations to go for photos is out by the town of Hesperus, out towards La Plata Cyn.  We first went there last summer on our trip out here, and again shortly after we moved to town.   

Here are some photos from that drive, including two from the road south that leads to Farmington, NM.  I will be going back there probably tomorrow during better light to get more photos of the road to the south - the cottonwoods and other river trees were stunning!

Towards La Plata Canyon.

          Waxing moon over oak-covered hillside.

Clouds to the east, and rich browns and yellows of fall foliage.

Aspen, spruce and oak.

Sunset sky near New Mexico.

Approaching twilight.