For earlier paintings, click on these years: 2003 2004 2005-6 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013.
Click on each small image to bring up a larger version. The originals measure 12 x 19 inches (painted area).
The photographs are made with a hand-held camera, and often require straightening and cropping for images that accurately represent the original paintings. I also make simple adjustments of intensity, contrast, saturation and warmth, so that on my monitor the colors resemble the origina paintings to the extent possible. Hopefully they will also be somewhat accurate on your monitor. As for printed copy, nothing whatever can be guaranteed! Beyond these simple corrections, the photos are not retouched. I am happy to say that right now I am using a camera with no discernable barrel distortion. Hooray!
When I call one of the river pictures "plein-air," it may mean that the water was painted on site, but some of the surrounding foliage, rocks, etc., were painted later, back in Boulder.
A male merganser was seen flying up and down this stretch of river (although not pausing where I could see him). Female not in evidence, also no ducklings. There were a number of Canada-goose families venturing onto the water with young goslings, anywhere from two to seven.
I have painted this stretch of river before: see for example
Here is a painting, done at home from a photograph, of a wide spot in the Rio Chama, with two islands. Late in the day. This is near the cabins and trailer homes of Cooper's -- just out of sight to the left. Maybe half a mile below the El Vado Dam. Here we are looking downstream (south). Our cabin is just off the left side of the picture, near the water.
While in BV I wandered into the Courtyard Gallery, and came out with a tube of M. Graham's sap green. It shows up in many of the paintings from now till the end of the year. The first eight paintings are of the Arkansas River, from the west bank, looking east. The river flows from left (north) to right (south).
We begin with three paintings of a rapid that I have painted several times before. (For some further paintings of this rapid, see 2009 or 2009 or 2010 or 2011 (very high water) or 2012 (low water)) 2013 2013 2013 .) They were painted on my first three mornings in Buena Vista. These three were painted down at water level. This is my getting to know the river again.
Now we move a few hundred yards downstream to a very loud rapid; two afternoon pictures painted from a somewhat higher vantage point. This same rapid was painted in earlier years; see 2011 and 2011
When the sun goes low in the west, the red and orange rock walls on the east side of the river become fully illumined and can be seen reflected in the river below. Earlier years ... 2012 and 2011 and 2011. 2013 These have been painted up away from the water.
For the next painting we go a little further upstream and to the top of the cliff, looking down on the river on a bright afternoon. We see four healthy rapids, apparently arising from large submerged rocks. Lots of white water! Lots of white noise. This is my first successful painting of rapids from high up.
Now I notice that I was so busy looking down, e.g. on rapids, that I neglected to include any sky during this trip to BV. Will have to make amends next year.
I spent about two days at my usual spot on Cottonwood Creek, above Buena Vista at about 9,000 feet (2743 m o h). In the middle and left of this painting, looking downstream, we see the remains of a beaver dam, which was breached in 2010 and has not been repaired. A year ago I painted the same break in the dam from below, looking upstream -- see 2013. Now, of course, there is no beaver pond. Back when there was, I painted some reflections in the pond: 2008 and 2009
This year, while painting this picture, I suddenly found a twayblade, an orchid species with half-inch perfect orchids up a slender stalk.
Chris and I took a hike along the Colorado Trail from where it crosses Chalk Creek (upstream from Mount Princeton Hot Springs). Here are some wild roses (possibly Rosa Woodsii) right by the stream, which I photographed that day, and painted later at home. (Many times over the years I have seen roses by water like this, and have had the urge to paint them. Finally I got around to it.) Hooray for Opera Rose.
We next visited Pam and Jeff near Empire. Although our apartment was on Little Glen Lake, our main focus was on Lake Michigan, where I did three plein-air sketches, shown here unretouched. First, a wonderful beach day at Bohemian Beach, looking north across the big lake in early afternoon:
We spent a Sunday afternoon traveling up Leelanau Peninsula, including a stop at Peterson Park, where we had a good vista westward over Lake Michigan. All of us did some sketching; here are two of mine:
Friends of ours have a house with land accessing this lake. The lakeshore is completely unspoiled, because its shores are all boggy, and hence apparently do not easily support roads or buildings. (For a close-up of the shore, see 2010.) This year's studio painting, supported by a photograph near evening, depicts the far shore toward the north. Rain began half an hour after I took this photo.
Fall foliage where the Mesa Trail meets South Boulder Creek. I couldn't get there in 2013; the area was closed after the September flooding. The area has re-opened, but the spot where I previously painted (see e.g. 2003, 2003, 2011 and 2011) remains closed. This plein-air painting shows the rivercourse from afar: large yellow cottonwoods lining the streambed. This year all greens and yellows; no reds as in 2011 and 2011.
