Blog

Now that all but New Year's is over, I can get back to serious studio painting. During the warmer months I am so busy with outdoor painting, taking pictures for future paintings, getting works ready for shows etc., that all seems to pass in a blurry rush. But after the holidays are over there is a dead time where I have days on end in the studio. This larger (24x26") painting is the first of my hibernation works. I remember camping by this spot last year and thinking "that will make a great painting." That hour around sunrise and sunset is often called "the golden hour," and to painters it is amazing. This is when we can really paint our passion.

Artists from Tumalo Art Co. will display their art at the 2nd Street Theater in Bend in January to complement PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE, By Steve Martin.

The play focuses on the fame, and fortune when Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein frequent a Parisian cafe, the Lapin Agile, in 1904. This was the time when Picasso was painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon, and originally titled The Brothel of Avignon), so why not include a more modest nude? As a landscape painter it is nice once and awhile to try something different.

A recent mule trip brought us to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the Phantom Ranch. It is as close to Heaven as I can imagine...what a place...and what a journey getting there. Walking the next morning (no mean feat after the ride) was like walking in an enchanted valley.

I had a painting I had attempted several months ago and was never satisfied with the work. But I recently read a book (given to me by good friend Laurie) about the Canadian Seven...painters who painted in Canada in the early part of the last century. Their work really inspired me to work on the former painting. It is a departure for me...lots of knife work. But those Canadians knew snow, and this year we certainly have had our share (and it is only December!)....so this painting has been fun. Nothing like not giving up on a work.

Think the title says it all. I have been influenced lately by the Canadian Seven...it is wonderful how the artists of the past can have such a lasting influence.