I just got back from a trip to France and Spain, and had an opportunity to do some painting on location in southern France. This is one of the results. It is a view from the town of Castelnau-de-Montmiral over the rolling countryside. I find this kind of country excellent for painting...it is a little hilly and the fields are divided into fairly small pieces and often divided by trees or shrubbery. This creates interesting shapes for the painter, and southern France is full of scenes like this one. I completed 10 paintings while in France, and brought back about many photos for reference in creating more paintings in the studio. This painting is about 9" x 12".

OK, I am back from my art shows in Texas now, although I will hit the road again soon enough. Meanwhile the art shows were very good and as usual I enjoyed my travels in Texas. One of the things I did upon returning home was to look at a series of urban landscapes I had done a few months ago of the streets of Chicago. I liked the overall composition and feel, but wasn't happy with the amount of light in the paintings. So, without changing the composition, I put another layer of paint on top of everything and upped the contrast between light and shadow, empasizing the shapes of the figures. I did this with 7 paintings...here are a couple of them. Both are 11" x 14".

By the way, early next month I will be in Chicago for an art festival on 57th Street. Many years ago I lived on 55th and then 54th, so this will be familiar ground!

I just got back from a great trip to Texas (Houston and also the Gulf Coast around Rockport), and am leaving for another Texas trip tomorrow morning (Dallas - Fort Worth and the hill country), so in between why not do another in my Deep-in-the-Heart-of-Texas series. This scene is a little northwest of Fort Worth along US Hwy 287, which is my normal route to most places in Texas. I'm not sure what the red flowers are but I liked them, and they gave me a nice opportunity to use the complementary colors red and green for almost the whole painting. This painting is 18" x 14".

The trip that begins tomorrow will be a 3-weeker, so once again I will have to let this posting age for a few weeks before posting another painting.

This painting was done as a study of fabric folds, for a workshop I took on that subject. But I also thought that the model had struck a wonderfully expressive pose and I really enjoyed working on the painting. I found the study of fabric to be good...it can be so tempting to just work on the expression of the model and not give adequate effort to the fabric which helps tell the story. This painting is 12" x 9".

By the way, I will be at art festivals in Texas the next couple of weekends so it will probably be at least 2 weeks before my next post.

This week's painting was done from a live model doing a quick pose...it was either 5 or 10 minutes to do this painting. She is standing on the sill of a large window at the Art Students League of Denver, where this was painted. Twice a week this time of year I paint in a class where we spend the afternoon (3 and a half hours) painting quick studies like this one. It is exhausting but a lot of fun, and great practice. In an afternoon we do dozens of paintings...each time going through the process of deciding on the composition and massing in the large simple shapes of the painting. There is not much time for finishing touches, so the paintings all look pretty sketchy like this one. I try to say as much as possible with each brushstroke. It has had an enormous impact on how I paint, even when I have more than 10 minutes!

Both the barn and the tree in this scene are old timers. I liked the curve in the tree trunk and the low branch, and the gentle curve in the front of the barn roof. Scenes like this one can be found in many places, but here we are deep in the heart of Texas, somewhere between Austin and Houston. I'll be heading there again later this month for several art festivals...maybe I'll find some more ideas for paintings!

This painting is 14 x 18 inches. I haven't come up with the right name for it yet.

This week I did a series of paintings of Elk Meadow, in Evergreen, Colorado...not far from my home. The painting depicts a clear but slightly misty day, in which the distant trees become more blue and less clear. This painting is 14 x 18 inches. Elk Meadow is a park with good trails through the meadow and up into the mountain (Bergen Peak) behind the meadow.