11 . 26 . 2016     This painting is on Kadi paper  .. Lot's of texture on very heavy handmade paper for this one, not so evident in these images though ... Image size is 9" x 12" in a 3 1/2" 8 ply off-white mat... 

11 . 19 . 2016  ... Started matting some of my studio sketches by cropping an 1/8" of the rough edges off and using gel medium to secure them to another small sheet of watercolor paper .... then mounting them as a floating painting in an off-white mat.  This one ended up being 6 1/2" square with a 3 1/2" mat .  

11 . 15 . 2016  ...  In the next day or so we'll finally get some wet weather (snow).  We've set a record here in Utah for the most consecutive days without a freeze...March to November.  Today I'm in my studio painting.  Using Shadow Green (Holbein), Raw Umber, Cobalt Blue, Verditer Blue (Holbein), and a bit of Yellow Ochre  ... Putting the colors down heavy, letting dry some and then pulling color up.... trying to build up a somewhat interesting high-mountain winter composition without a reference.  Not for sure it's all that framable, but interesting to build ....  I'll call this one "Mountain Greys" ... Not selling this one as it's pretty much an experimental sketch....... unless someone twists my arm.

12 . 26 . 2016   ... Decided to crop a bit off the bottom and stick it in an off-white mat.  After deciding to do that ... I'm thinking that maybe that extra bit on the bottom of the painting might have been needed ... Oh well, it is what it is.  I always hate cropping down paintings because it removes a portion of what I initially was trying to do.  Either way, I always end up second guessing on what was a wise decision or not.
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                                       10 . 21 . 2016   Watercolor  - framed to 16" x 20" OD

10 . 19 . 2016  ... This watercolor had been posted earlier, but here it is again in a 16" x 20" frame..  
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                     9 . 30 . 2016   Watercolor 8" x 14 1/2"   "Just a little distant rain storm"
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                         8 . 22 . 2016 ....  Watercolor  .. Utah sky with distant mountain range

                                                         7 . 22 . 2016 .... Watercolor

7 . 20 . 2016   ... Watercolor ... Studio work.  10 1/2" x 14 1/2"  ... Something that I enjoy doing is taking ground level landscape photos and then using them as a reference for some of my paintings.  This painting is from one of those reference photos...   This particular painting is 95 % watercolor and liquid graphite with acrylic paint in a few spots...  It's also had several coats of cold wax medium applied to it as a final treatment before securing it down to another half sheet of #400 weight watercolor paper using heavy gel medium....   Yes! it's a process ... But I like the final outcome.  It will be matted in a heavy mat as a floater and then framed...
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6 . 16 . 2016  ... Small 4" x 9" watercolor in which I used a lot of spattering of texture medium straight out off the bottle while the paint was still wet. ... just a quick little experimental sketch .....
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6 . 11 . 2016  ... Photos of northern Utah from a few months back when we were still in the winter season...  25 miles from my home.   I have these mountains to the west of me and another range to the east of me...

6 . 05 . 2016   A small watercolor from an area directly west of Spring City, Utah ...  we went down there for the historic homes tour....

5 . 06 . 2016  .. Small watercolors  in a 2 1/4" mats.
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 5 . 06 . 2016  .. Graphite sketch with watercolor....,

            4 . 15 . 2016 ....  Watercolor 9" x 11" in a 3" off-white mat  ... Titled "Autumn Drizzle"

                     2 . 24 . 2016   ... Watercolor .. 7" x 11" in an off-white triple mat..

12 . 17 . 2015   Watercolor  ..  winter scene  ... 9 x 12 in a 3" off-white mat and then an added frame

                 12 . 12 . 2015    Liquid Graphite drawing...

                                    11 . 09 . 2015   ... Watercolor 9" x 13" 

10 . 12 . 2015   ... Finished Watercolor and Gouache 11" x 14" ...  Studio work from September's photographs and sketches.

"Keep close to Nature's heart ... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods.  Wash your spirit clean".   John Muir

9 . 10 . 2015 ... Liquid graphite and Pastel sketch ... just putting color and texture to a piece of left-over paper...  I do a lot of these small pieces with mixed results.  Sometimes they turn out and sometimes they don't.  Working with the Derivan liquid pencil ... putting down a few marks, letting it dry a tad, adding a few spots of pastel here and there, and then with an old hardware store brush I start pushing the various shades of color around .... just letting it go where it goes..

"....I love the year's decline, and love through rustling yellow shades to range, O'er stubble land, 'neath willow grove, To pause upon each varied change: ......   Autumn by John Clare, from the Village Minstrel, 1821

9 . 7 . 2015   ...Watercolor 9" x 13" (studio work)  ... similar to the painting below, but with some soon to be October color.  I'm getting ready for the autumn season that's just around the corner ... especially at the higher elevations..

9 . 04 . 2015 .. Our home was built in 1902 ...The place that we call home and also in the upstairs are 3 studios where I do much of my painting and my wife's rug hooking and textile art happens ....

8 . 17 . 2015   Watercolor  9" x 9" .. studio work from sketch (with changes) .. with such a big deviation from the original sketch, I can probably do another painting from it...
12:30 a.m., If you can't get back to sleep, what do you do.... Look at your files of sketches and then paint!

7 . 22 . 2015 ... Finished .. matted and ready for framing.  Ended up being an 8" x 13" and then put in this 3 1/2" off-white triple mat.

7 . 19 . 2015   ... A watercolor from November of last year of southern Idaho.  I had photographed and painted this location on several other occasions ..

In 2014,  I posted this similar one (below), that I had painted the year before in my studio on a gesso'd masonite panel.  A mixed medium piece with oil pastel
Here you can compare the paintings...  each one painted a little differently, at a different time, when I was seeing the scene from a slightly different perspective.

              7 . 14 . 2015

7 . 11 . 2015   ... Liquid Graphite, Pastel, and Watercolor ...  Start with sketches and make changes as I progress

                                 7 . 6 . 2015  

                             7 . 4 . 2015

6 . 30 . 2015   Watercolor 11" x 12"   .. This is a watercolor of an old church steeple somewhere in northern Virginia  .. couldn't remember the exact location.  Years ago, I was out traveling a backroad with a friend when I saw this old church that had a family living in the chapel part of it.  I made him stop so I could take a photo because I knew I'd never pass this way again...  This is the painting of a part of that old church...

6 . 30 . 2015 ....  Watercolor 9 1/4" x 13 3/4"  .. A couple of days ago I did another watercolor of this same waterfall, but it was smaller painting and I decided I wanted a redo of that scene with some creative variations of course ... This is that newer version.  It's not a new thing for me to paint many versions of a same scene ... I do it for the pleasure of trying to learn and grow from a painting experience ........... and of course to stay busy.

                                                   Dried Sunflowers   ..."going to seed"

Progression painting

This is pretty much it for the progression demo ......   I'll clean it up a little more, strengthen with some glazing over, especially in the foreground bushes ... maybe scratch some highlights into a few spots., and call it done....

The below painting is the final after I darkened some of the tones and reworked some of the hues and just cleaned it up a little.  Whenever I work on blocks of watercolor paper and have some space left over I'll try and paint in another small painting before I pull up the tape.  The one on the right is a 5" x 9" and the demo one is 9" x 9" ... You could almost push them together as one..

6 . 25 . 2015   ...Watercolor 9" x 13"

"We are the trees.  Our dark and leafy glade bands the bright earth with softer mysteries.  Beneath us changed and tamed the seasons run:  In burning zones, we build against the sun long centuries of shade."  Song of the Trees by Mary Colborne-Veel