The progression of a painting

Finished painting..... made some minor adjustments from where I started.  Decided I wanted something a little brighter, so I glazed washes of Verditer Blue several times over the sky and even pushed it into the pines and yellow aspens.  Lightened up the rocks in the foreground and threw in some dead/dying pines to add a little interest, and put a yellow ochre wash over the aspens.....

Finished painting with 3 1/2" off-white mat

   Watercolor 9" x 10 1/2"   I titled this  "Across the creek, thru the meadow, to the woods"

                 A small graphite and watercolor 7" x 7 1/2" in a 3" off-white mat......"Squash"

In the autumn time my wife and I go to the local roadside markets in Brigham City to buy vegetables. During those trips, she likes to buy various types of squash that's worthy of laying out on a rack to dry.... consequently, I have on occasion painted these things because they each one have their own  interesting and different texture or color   ... this is a watercolor of one of those squash that we picked up...

               
                                                            West to the Wellsvilles

A few sketches from my sketchbook  .....some became paintings, some didn't...

1 . 24 . 2015   A studio painting from photographs and sketches...  Tried lots of 'glazing over' in this painting which seemed to almost move the foliage towards more opaqueness.  Sometimes I'll use gouache in some areas of a painting, but not in this one.... just watercolor.

There is a bit of variation from this preliminary sketch........

         A studio painting from photo references and sketches... 7" x 9" in a 3 1/2" off-white mat.

I've painted several paintings from this location, however this one was painted in my studio from photo references and past sketches...  This one is very similar to one I posted back in November... but, I wanted to tone down the colors a little more...Also, this painting has a little bit more pencil work showing.  It's a 8" x 8" in a 3 1/2" off-white mat.  One final note:  In the last few paintings I've done that have mountain rocks, I've attempted to cool the color down even more by adding a glaze of Verditer Blue once painting is dry.  Verditer Blue is made by Holbein.

Painted, using Derivan Liquid Pencil and watercolor on 300# rough Arches' paper.  The liquid pencil was used to render the dark pine trees...

1 . 6 . 2015 ... Watercolor  8" x 8" in a 3 1/2" off-white mat.   Final painting from photographs and sketches taken this summer....   "Ridge Pines #2"



"I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream"  ...Vincent Van Gogh

 
                                           An unfinished watercolor sketch/painting..

  Watercolor .. 5 1/2" x 8" in a 3 1/2" off-white mat.  Another version of "Ridge Pines 1" that I did earlier this month that's shown below on the 2 December blog entry.

                                   

Autumn Paintings

Small watercolor 7 3/4" x 7 3/4" in an off-white mat

Graphite and watercolor sketches ... Small prelim sketches... the process that leads or moves me to a completed painting.

Painting the mountains in the Autumn is always a nice experience.....  Two more small watercolors ..

Watercolor...  8"x 9" in a 3" off-white mat.  A summer-autumn scene of one of the canyons of Northern Utah

Two  watercolors    4 3/4" x 6 1/4" that I pulled out of my pile of watercolor sketches and matted in 3 1/4" off-white mats.

These mountains inspire many of my paintings.  Today .. a tolerable overcast winter day with light rain...  It would be a perfect time to paint ....

                                       Leaves are all gone and winter has come on....

Another Autumn piece of work from sketches
.... A small watercolor (6" x 8") in a 3" off-white mat ....  Titled:  Sardine Canyon, East of Brigham City

Some of the rocky cliff faces in Logan Canyon, Utah  This is a studio watercolor from photos taken with a 70 - 300 mm lens...  Painting size is 8" x 12" in a 3 1/2" off-white mat...

   A painting with lots of color.... A small 8" x 9" watercolor in my standard 3" off-white mat ...

                                             
                                                               Watercolor...8" x 12"

Watercolor 8" x 11"

                    
"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.  Some see nature as all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all.  But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself..."   William Blake

Graphite and Watercolor on tinted 300# Arches', rough cold press..  A small watercolor, 6" x 8" with a 3" off-white mat.....The darker pines in the middle ground was painted in with Derivan liquid pencil.....

Last winter's photo...I'm the crazy artist holding the walking stick....my balance isn't what it use to be.  No paint brush on this outing .. just the camera to find something for a little studio work.  That other guy is Greg, my youngest son, who was up from Arizona.  I don't think he had a sense of the weather up here as evidenced by his footwear....

Acrylic painting.........11" x 14"  ... Very similar to the "Summer Green" paintings that's posted earlier on this blog...

Painted in an area east of Malad, Idaho.... same location as a painting that I did several weeks ago and posted to this blog...  10 . 18 . 2014   ... I wanted an early snow scene in this one.

Titled: " Early Winter East of Malad"

This was my demo for today's watercolor class....A little something of autumn....  Didn't get to finish it for those that were watching... ended up doing more hands-on show'ing and telling with what they were doing..  A fun day.     Finished it up the following day....



"Go, sit upon the lofty hill,  And turn your eyes around,  Where waving woods and waters wild do hymn an autumn sound.  The summer sun is faint on them -  The summer flowers depart - Sit still - as all transformed to stone, except your musing heart......."    Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1833)