Current painting activity

I'm ashamed to admit it but, this summer my art production record was dismal. For unexplainable reasons, it was either "I don't feel like painting today" or I would start something and quickly decide it was junk! This is not a good situation when you are trying to supply new work to three galleries! In an attempt to break the slump, I took a one week watercolor painting course from Ohio watercolorist David Rankin (a fellow Artists for Conservation member). Lo and behold, it seems to have worked.

One of my problems was the tendency to keep deciding that I'd do better painting with acrylics. No glass, easier to correct errors, less preplanning, etc. But, as I have proven to my self over and over, I just plain prefer transparent watercolor. In fact, I am irrevocably hooked on the magic of watercolor. Anyway, enough about my artist's blocks (any of you who are artists know all about them I'm sure!!)

So where am I now? Well, I have finished one small landscape (shown here)


                                                                                Aspen on Talus Slope ( 10" x 7")

Having been a bird painter most of painting life, I am struggling with landscapes, as you can probably see. Time will tell whether I ever succeed with landscapes.

My current effort is on a painting of a Dusky Grouse (previously called Blue Grouse) sitting in a fir tree. This setting is from an photo I took this fall in Grand Teton National Park. Here's what the layout drawing looks like:
 


This is the final drawing on tracing paper that I transferred to a piece of Arches 300 lb watercolor paper. I am in the process of painting it now and will show you the results in the next post.

Wading into the Blogosphere

It seems that everybody who is anybody (and many who aren't anybody in particular) is into blogging. I determined early on that I should have a blog about my art and nature activities, but I have procrastinated until now. So here goes.

What can you expect from this effort? I won't be showing you a catalog of all my past paintings. That is already available on my website This website is hosted by the Artists for Conservation Foundation, of which I am a signature member. I expect that I will drift from describing my latest painting projects to reporting on nature observations and experiences encountered while gathering reference material for my paintings. I'll try to mix these subjects enough to keep you (and me) from getting bored.

I'll try to post at least once a week, sometimes more often. Stay tuned.


I'm just now starting several new watercolor paintings. I'll post some pictures of my progress in the next post.

Bye for now.