Day 29 - A Drive By

This winter scene was painted from a photo I took while riding in the truck and thus the resulting name: A Drive By.  With iphone in hand, I often snap pics of scenery for later painting consideration.  Many times the drive by photos turn out to be nothing of consequence, but sometimes they are great.  And there is that handy delete key for the dogs!  These photos give me a quick reference and a sense of the place. I see the shapes and relationships between those shapes which is the key to good composition. Having photos that I can easily crop and manipulate in the iphone editing program is a real bonus to quickly finding a composition to paint.

Day 29 of the 30 in 30 Challenge!  If you go to the Challenge site, check out the painting by Cindy Gillette, number 32.  It knocked my socks off!

Day 28! Closing in on the Finish!

This is the winter that never seems to end.  We did  a road trip to Montana and found that we have a lot more snow piled up at home than we saw in the areas around our destination in Ennis.  Great place Ennis, small town with a big heart and good restaurants!  The snow there had melted during a slight warm up, but now it is extra cold and the river is frozen over with ice jams.  The sweet waitress in the drug store/restaurant said there was not much to do since her horse didn't like to go out in the cold!  They are looking for a break in the weather there too.  Fishing is slow and not even the fly shop folks say they are going out.

This small farmstead piece above is my salute to the hardy farmers and ranchers who go through this kind of winter and take care of animals and their families under harsh winter conditions.  Rural America!  A wonderful place!

Check out the postings on the 30 in 30 Challenge page.  Getting down to last chances to see what other artists are posting.  I am having fun viewing their art and making new art friends!  

It is snowing again! Day 23 of the 30 in 30 Challenge!

The good news is that there is no wind and the snow is stacking up again on the branches of the little apple tree outside my studio.  This helps to make a plan for the painting I will do today.  There are still a few apples left on the tree so the contrast is just what I am looking for.  I need to hurry before the robins come in today since food is scarce and they eat all they can.  Can't believe they are here, it has been such a cold January.  We also need to fill the bird feeder again.  I am just glad that we have our Hawthorne tree berries and the apples to help them along!  Oh, and our bunny is back!  He/she likes the apples too!

Day 23 of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge!  Check out the paintings here.  My favorite in the posts so far today is the tulips #28 done by Laurie Mueller!

Sunday - Day Twenty Two

One of my favorite places to paint is up Murdock Creek near the SNRA headquarters north of Ketchum.  Good  painting views there, winter or summer.  There is a small gurgling creek and a great hike to high mountain lakes!  Looking forward to doing that one again this summer!  Also there are nice places to camp all along here.

Day Twenty Two in the 30 in 30 Challenge!  Check out the website for the Challenge here.  I am especially enjoying the abstract pieces done by Challenge creator Leslie Saeta.  She posts each day and her theme for this challenge is to do a piece that might be a fit for one of the houses done on the Fixer Upper Show on HGTV.  Very creative!

Day 19! Snow, Snow, Wonderful Snow

And it showed again last night!  The 30 in 30 Challenge theme I chose, Winter Scenes, does not lack for material to paint.  This scene is the view out our condo window in Elkhorn.  So beautiful, so amazing the amount of snow this year.

Also, Happy Birthday to little Miss Mae who turns two today!

Another Sweet Barn - Day 17 of 30 in 30

This is another piece done at my Second Tuesday painting session.  Interesting the difference I am seeing in the color results by using my travel palette vs. my at home palette.  I am getting softer color on the canvas 4" x 4" block for who knows what reason!  Most of the colors are the same in both palettes.  Maybe it is the smaller well.  It does explain the lack of value in some of my on site sketchbook paintings!

This is my Winter Scene 17 for the Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days Challenge.

Day 12 - 30 in 30 Challenge

Moving on again from the small canvas and posting this piece for the Challenge.  This piece is a half sheet of watercolor paper.  I did this one last winter, and learned a lot about color while doing it.  Love those blues...a complete accident!

Winter Retreat - Day 11

Holy Cow!  Already Day 11 of the 30 in 30 Challenge!  This little cabin in the aspens was fun to paint and imagine how cozy it might be inside.  This is a departure from my other Challenge pieces in that it is done on watercolor paper instead of the canvas blocks I had been working on.  Mixin' it up!  

Day 10! 30 in 30 Challenge

The record snowfall here and in the Sun Valley area has inspired me to stick with these aspen snow scenes for the present.  The 30 in 30 Challenge   is in full swing and I am happy to report that I am on track.  I recommend that you check out the website (here) to see the pieces displayed by the talented artists who have signed up for this thirty day run.  It has been fun to follow the links to blogs of artists I haven't run into before.  Some great work going on all over the country!

Beginning of Week Two of the 30 in 30 Challenge

Learning a lot as I work my way through this 30 in 30 Challenge.  I do love aspens and I love painting snow from my studio view over the reality of shoveling it from our driveway!  

I am working to get the shadows to move along the dips and valleys of the snow banks and drifts.  It means direct study of the snow when those shadows appear.  Hello sun!  Where are you today, I need some help here.  Another storm on the way, and along with it, flat light!  No help!

Still Shoveling! Day 5 of the 30 in 30 Challenge

Good thing I learned how to handle a snow shovel growing up in ND!  We shoveled again today after the wind blew most of the snow we shoveled out yesterday back into our driveway.  We have three to four foot drifts!  Thanks to our good neighbors with 4wheelers  for their help in clearing the biggest drifts!

And on to the painting of the day!  Day 5 of the 30 in 30 Challenge.  And now I know why I chose Winter Scenes for the Challenge.  I think this snow is sticking around for a bit!

Snowed In!

The snow is still coming down, blowing and drifting in the driveway and I see no reason why I can't get into the studio today!  Grocery shopping is delayed another day!

This is my Day 4 entry for 30 in 30 Challenge.  I will be placing it in the Full Moon Gallery today for the January through March show.  It is a watercolor done on a 5"x 5" Aquabord panel that I ordered from Dick Blick.  Interesting surface, but I think I prefer the watercolor ground that I have been using from Daniel Smith.  The watercolor ground seems to be a softer surface and takes the paint more like paper.

Getting in the Rhythm - 30 in 30

Day 3 of the 30 in 30 Challenge!  My theme is Winter Scenes and I draw on the many scenes of wonderful aspens from the Wood River Valley here in Idaho.  There is ample snow this year and that provides interesting shadows throughout the day.  Skiing is excellent too!

I did this watercolor on a birch wood block using Daniel Smith's Watercolor Ground.  This one is a 5" x 5" and I am finding a real difference in how my paintings turn out when comparing the paintings done on a 4 x 4 canvas with the paintings on 5 x 5 woodblocks.  Either the extra inch is making me add more detail, or the surface is smoother.  Not sure which!