Merry Christmas!

Day shot of the Nativity Scene - the wise men and camel look right at home. Hope you all have a happy and safe holiday. We're having a snow day - so it's a good chance to catch up on art!

Eagle on the parking lot

Must give equal time to the three "wise men" in the last post. They did a beautiful job on a parking lot Eagle just a few weeks ago. No, they don't always dress up, but it was Halloween...

The wise men join the community nativity scene

Yes, the Nativity scene is about complete. First it was Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus with a shepherd and some lambs. Last year it was the angel and the donkey. This year's new arrivals are the wise men and camel. Here's a couple of shots of the ever dramatic high schoolers working - wait - I only see one actually working... does that mean there were more than three wise men??

From the sketchbook - Sunset on the desert

The bad lands have some really beautiful colors at sunset (no authority on sunrise). They seem to glow. These quick sketches have translated into a couple of nice colored pencil pieces.

Rusty's visit

Visiting with the Students. Marsipity is sitting to his right.

Showing thumbnails.

Rusty Gregory graciously dropped by to visit with the HS about all things art related. He's promoting the book, Marsipity, which he illustrated. What a great job!

I think he inspired the kids with his fantastic sketchbooks. Some of them started to see the point of thumbnails and growing their ideas through successive stages.

Knowing he was one of my art students years ago is a satisfying feeling - all those kids have gone on to do such wonderful things with their talent. We wish them all the best!

From the sketchbooks...

Top: TA Ranch in northern part of state in fall. (Water color pencils)

Middle: Out north of Rexburg. (Colored Pencil)

Bottom: Looking through shady timber to sunlit meadow and willows. (Water color pencils)

Love the HP scanner - now I'm able to mobilize the sketch books in a whole new way - making thumbnails for larger studies, portfolio use and possibly making prints on heavier paper to which I'll add a little more brush or colored pencil work. One friend sells his raw prints for $25 each and they look great - each is unique.

Latest installment of the Parade

Lightened the distant shadows a bit, added a few more high lights, etc. Changed the road a bit. Give me some ideas what to do next.
Andrea said Corbin had just given her his soggy rice crispy treat - strange that the whole picture hangs on something so trivial. I thought she was eating one herself all this time.

More refinement on the parade scene

The Narrows

This is a quick acrylic study for a larger painting on down the road. The Narrows is the link between the Upper and Lower Valleys in Star Valley. The Salt River meanders through and the hills seem to come close to the banks. There was a herd of buffalo pasturing in there when I was a kid. In high school I worked at the Silver Stream Lodge just to the left out of the shot. The Cafe burned down a few years ago, but the cabins are still there. To the right was the neatest short cut to Turnerville. We found that it's now closed- another casualty to wealth.

Painting -Step 7

A few more highlights and low-lights added. I'm satisfied with the sky and most leaves, sunlight on road... Now working my way down the painting adding more layers. Funny how you start to make judgments as the project ages. It's always rolling around in the back of my brain while I do other things. Makes me think a lot about the kids and their families etc. Almost like having company. This represents the end of 2 days work. I hope it will feel finished in 2 more days.

Painting Step 6 Are we there yet?

It's starting to take shape - really a life of it's own. Several corrections to make even though it was gridded out, the flag, for instance is lining up with the tree trunk - very bad - no tangents allowed. The skin is coming - but needs more work, etc. How much expression do I work in? I want to keep it loose....hang on for the ride...what do I tell my kids? Acrylics are very forgiving - paint over it!

Painting Step 4: Whites and warms

Painting Step3: Add the color

Like I said before, this is where I hang on for the ride. Adding the blues and cool pinks.

Painting Step 2: Transferring to canvas

I gave an old canvas a coat of burnt umber for the under-painting then used white transfer paper to trace the image - and we're ready to paint! Got a little ahead of myself with the blues - my personal favorite.

Painting - Step 1: Contour drawing

One never knows where a painting will end up. You sort of hang on for the ride. First step after deciding on the subject is rendering a rough draft in the size you want. A contour drawing works for me. It's based on the family watching a parade. Lots of action and almost a confetti of colors and actions. I liked the idea of light and shadow - cool and warm colors.

Art show in Cheyenne

We're pulling together a few pieces for a show in Cheyenne this fall.

I've been intrigued with the effects of colored pencil on dark charcoal paper.

Here's a great little home in Evanston. The sun was catching it just right, accenting the clean lines against the dark trees.

The other is on the Bear River outside of Cokeville.

A couple of projects

Here are a few of the products. The bottom one is mine, partially completed. Some projects took all week as with the city scape, others took a few hours. Just depended on the artist's vision.

Dangerous Class

Class work involves glass work- lots of sharp shards. The scraps are stored in large bins according to color. So you put on leather gloves and go searching for just the right piece to complete your pattern. The colors are wonderful together, but just like pottery glazes, they don't always fire in the same color.

The Sinks

Mid week we visited the Sinks west of Lander. The river had flooded just a week or two earlier and sandbags were still in place at the mouth of the canyon. Water just boiled into the mouth of the cave - just a little clearance. Here the class is at the overlook where the water reappears. The trout below were huge.

Riverton Glass Class

We had the opportunity to attend a wonderful glass art class this past week.

The instructor is a master at warm glass fusing techniques, so we learned so much about firing to get different effects, etc.

The scenery around Riverton and Red Canyon was wonderful, the weather just a touch on the cool side, which made it very nice and the company (Mike) was fun.

Mike is so good with the glass tools -saws, grinders, etc. He makes a plan and really develops it. He picked up the name "Psychadelic [sic] Mike" because he let the class talk him into using really bright happy colors on this train. His first choice was always in the browns, blacks and reds. But now he's looking at oranges, blues, pinks, yellows, etc. You can see the periwinkle blue glass waiting to be cut.

Pumpkin head

As a term of endearment, we often called the little kids "punkin". So it was natural to have the line, "I can understand pumpkin head, but carrot tops are green!" The drawing took on a life of its own. In fact it ballooned up till I'm not so sure the little arm can support all that weight.