Tough day at work

 I debated on whether not to put this on my blog. It's not a terribly flattering picture of my day, or my coworker. She is normally a pretty pleasant person, but for the past several days she has been furious about some changes that were made where we work.

Friday was a particularly difficult day.   I came to work pretty happy about the fact that it was Friday, but by the end of the day I was exhausted listening to her ranting about the new changes. I was also surprised, because usually she Rants about something and then it's over. This just went on, and on, and on…

Later on, after I was done journaling about this, I remembered that earlier in the week she had had to put her dog to sleep, and then I felt bad. She's probably grieving, and that's why she was so much angrier than usual. 

City lights

"4 a.m."

8x10, acrylic on canvas board. 

twin falls

 after blocking in most of the areas, I start trying to define elements.

 After defining elements, I star trying to put in shading to indicate a light source. In this case, it was early morning.

 After defining light and form, I decide that the image is too complicated, and I paint out the water gates.  I love that I can do that with anything that seems cluttered or unnecessary. If only life were like that.  I also start working on using value and color to make the lava look like lava, and make the far background more hazy.  Also, I worked on making the waterfall more vigorous.  

 Finally, I better define the waterfall.  I'm still not happy with the rocks to the right, in the midground, that the water is flowing over, but I'm not sure what to do about it.  

"Twin Falls"

20x24, acrylic on canvas

snake river canyon

  My acrylic painting class instructor told me that "only amateurs" have a huge signature in a complementary color. So, even though I am inarguably still an amateur, my signature is quite an unobtrusive down there in the corner.

 In creating this painting, I learned a little bit more about how to make water looks like water. The sky was easier this time, too. Originally, there was a bush in the foreground, a big Chamisa bush.   I hated it. I painted it out.  If only life were that simple.

I  painted this using Liquitex basics acrylics on an 18x24 canvas board. I painted it from a photograph that I took on a trip I made to Twin Falls Idaho. I found this very nice little spot in the state park at Shoshone Falls at dawn, where it was quiet and lovely.  I think my next painting will be Shoshone Falls. 

TRT50k

A while back I did a 50k trail run near Lake Tahoe, on the Tahoe Rim Trail, called the TRT.  I'm still trying to figure out how to pain with acrylics, so I tried my hand at painting a picture from one of my photos. 

I'm reasonably happy with how the rocks came out. They look like rocks. The rest looks....I'm not sure what I don't like about it.  Too much color? Too neat? 

(Update: This painting sold in 2020.)

Later, I tried to paint picture of Katherin Lake, which is near Mt. Baldy in Santa Fe.  This one, I feel, was less of a success.

...

san pedro aspens

This is my first "real" painting. And by real, I mean I chose the subject, from a photograph I took, and it wasn't a tutorial. I did get guidance from my art teacher.

I painted this using liquitex and Golden Acrylics on 18x24 canvas board.  It's from a photograph I took when I went trail running on the Bacas trail.   I'm always struck by the aspens when I'm running among them. They're extremely straight and tall. I wanted to capture that in this painting.