For earlier paintings, click on these years: 2003 2004 2005-6 2007 2008. 2009. 2010.
Click on each small image to bring up a larger version.
First, three paintings of a single Arkansas-river rapid, done at water-level. (The first is completely plein-air; the other two were painted partly plein-air (the water) and partly back in Boulder (the far shore).) I painted this same rapid in 2009 and again in 2009 , and in 2010 . The first one here was done on my first day in BV, and the water level was already somewhat higher than in 2009-2010. Two days later, I noticed that the water level was significantly higher again, as one can see in the second and third paintings here. (The first two are from the same spot; for the third painting, I moved about twenty yards downstream.)
Exciting to be down by such rushing water. I watched a man fall out of a raft, which had snagged on the foregraound rock (middle picture). Luckily he still had hold of the rope that goes round the edges of the raft.
A couple of hundred yards further downstream, another rapid. First a plein-air sketch, and then a slower painting (with the water done plein-air). I am not sure if I painted this rapid before; I cannot identify it among earlier river paintings. Late-afternoon sun is illuminating the canyon wall from the north-west.
Two paintings of late-afternoon light on the Arkansas, as seen from the clifftop on the west bank. In the first picture I have exaggerated the surface reflections, but only very slightly. Earlier explorations of this lighting may be seen in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2008. I don't think I could do these evening-light paintings from a photograph. The beauty of the light is that subtle.
Up Cottonwood Creek --- first at about 9,000 feet, where the creek crosses the Colorado Trail. The second lies up at about 10,000, above Cottonwood Lake. The view in the first picture is essentially the same as that in this 2008 painting. The difference is that in 2008 the beaver dam smoothed and spread out the water. The dam was breached in 2010, and so we now have the typical white water of an undammed mountain stream.
Near Cottonwood Creek (first picture) there is a group of aspens towering over spruce and pines; I could not resist painting them. (Plein-air, touched up at home.) The usual course of events is that the spruce and pine will continue to grow and will squeeze out the aspens, which will die back until the next fire.
Once again, Red Rock Lake, an hour's drive from my house, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet. Earlier paintings of this lake may be seen in 2003, 2004, 2005-6, 2007, 2008 , 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2010.
This is my ninth year of painting this lake. In these various takes of one subject, I see interesting variation between tight and loose, etc. One may also observe the gradual increase over the years of the lake vegetation, mostly water lilies (nenufar).
Here is one half-day plein-air painting. The yellow warbler or warblers that I met last year were there again this year.
Five adults, four of us painters, spent five nights at a beautiful house on Taylor's Island, looking west across 14 miles of water to the Calvert Cliffs SE of Washington, DC. We made daily plein-air painting expeditions. The defining elements of interest to me were the flat marshy landscape with long colorful vistas, the water, and the omnipresent Loblolly pines. The first one -- at Hooper's Island -- has those pines and a small reflective pool (marshland after heavy rains, perhaps?). The second shows the Bay, or some inlet thereof, in Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, looking off toward some more loblollies.
Added September, 2013: The loblollies in the first picture are dying. (One of the group sent me a picture.) The cause of their demise is thought to be the rising sea levels, which bring a level of saltiness to the trees that they cannot tolerate.
Added August, 2018: this picture, sent by one of the group, shows the loblolly devastation so far. Only one tree remains alive.
Next we have marshland at Parson's Creek ... the dark grass here is endemic to this area, I am told. Finally, more water, under different conditions of wind and sky, with the ever-present low landmass on the distant horizon. One small hint of human habitation.
For earlier views of this aspen grove, please see
2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2009.
I did not visit the grove in 2010, because that was the year of the fire. The fire did not come within four miles (by my estimate), but we were asked to stay off the roads leading to Gold Hill. Here are two plein-air takes for 2011 (about two or two and a half hours each). One was on Sept 22, the next on Sept 26. The second one really appears to have been the peak moment.
We then step into the grove to see it from the inside. (Earlier paintings inside the grove may be seen in 2009 and 2008.) Painted indoors from a photograph, completed around Thanksgiving.
Added September, 2013: The recent floods in Boulder County have made the roads to Switzerland Trail inaccessible.
These two were painted plein-air, where the Mesa Trail crosses South Boulder Creek, near the road into Eldorado Springs. (Some of the mountains done later at home.) Two October paintings in this area from eight years ago may be found in 2003 and 2003.
In the first painting, the yellow trees, mostly large cottonwoods, are lined up along the creek. Most of the red areas are thickets of plums and hawthorns, much smaller than the large river trees. (Many years these small leaves blow away, but this year we were very fortunate.) Honestly, I try not to exaggerate the reds; they really are like this. I had just acquired some WN doree-rose; it is part of the red effect.
