Columbine!

 

Columbine

Acrylic on canvas
16” x 20”

We had a spectacular display of Columbine last spring. The pale lavender and white flowers were especially beautiful. There is something magical about these intricate and delicate blossoms bobbing in the breeze. I go out to look at them every morning.

In addition to these, there were yellow and creamy white blossoms too. The white flowers were the biggest and most vigorous, so after the blossoms were spent, I carefully gathered the seeds to scatter in the garden bed. This year all three varieties, plus a deep purple with yellow centers have appeared.

As much as I love Columbine, the deer love them more. The day after I took the photo that I used for this painting, the deer discovered them and ate every last blossom.

Surprisingly, this year the deer have left them alone. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they overlook them this year.

Early Snow at Bandelier

 
Early Snow at Bandelier

Acrylic on Reclaimed Cabinet Door
15” x 12”

We planned a fall trip to Santa Fe and as usual, October gave us a surprise snowfall. We never curse storms, because water is a precious gift here in the southwest.

We left a few days after the storm. The highway was clear and the sky a deep blue. A perfect fall day. We wanted to take a circuitous route we’d never explored through a section of New Mexico’s Santa Fe National Forest that would take us to Valles Caldera National Preserve and ultimately, to Bandelier National Monument.

In between our turnoff from highway 550 and Valles Caldera was a section of dirt road over a pass that still held a good amount of snow and in the sunny spots, slimy mud. It appeared the storm had dumped much more snow southeast of Durango.

Despite the mud and snow slowing us down and making for a little excitement, it was a beautiful drive, and we encountered only a few cowboys and a truck or two along the way. Valles Caldera was spectacular!

We arrived at Bandelier to find this lovely view along the only trail that wasn’t closed due to ice and snow. It’s quite a place and we hope to go back to explore it sometime after the heat of summer has waned and before winter gives us a snowstorm.

Late Summer at Spud Lake

 

Late Summer at Spud Lake
12” x 18
Watercolor

Late last summer we got up with the birds so we could beat the heat for a short hike to Spud Lake. It’s one of our favorites, though the road out to the trailhead is a riot of rocks that requires a high tolerance for bumps.

The trail starts at a scenic pond and winds its way gently upward through aspens, then pine and fir. Each time we hike to the lake, it’s a different experience. The aspens are a canopy of spring green and as the seasons turn, they send cotton balls of seeds into the air that settle in thick and fluffy white clumps on the forest floor. As we move toward fall, their leaves turn wildly brilliant gold with hints of orange, dramatically contrasting against the evergreens.

The views are spectacular as you rise through the forest. And if you’re lucky, you might see a resident of the beaver ponds that lie along the way. There’s one last hill to climb before you arrive at the lake, and suddenly you’re treated to a deep blue mirror of the sky, rocky ridges, and trees that ring the water. The surface is nearly always smooth as glass, occasionally rippled by a fish kissing the underside of the surface.

Spud is not a big lake, but it gets high marks for its beauty! Its official name is Potato Lake, after the large tater-like mountain that rises on the west side. But locals fondly call it by its nickname. It’s always worth the bumpy ride to hike to this jewel of a lake one more time.

InSpire-ation

 

InSpire-ation

16” x 20”
Watercolor

In October we took a quick trip to Santa Fe for my birthday to look at art. We probably walked a hundred miles and saw plenty of art (some good, some not so good). It was awesome! As we wandered the galleries along Canyon Road, we came across L’Ecole Des Beaux Arts, a studio that sells beautiful handmade watercolors.

It was love at first sight. It was all I could do to limit myself to just a few colors. Clint patiently waited while I took forever to decide on what to buy. Had I recently won the lottery I would have bought at least one of everything.

I couldn’t wait to get home and try out my new colors—and on the way home, I found inspiration along highway 84. This road is one of my favorites. From Tierra Amarilla to Abiquiu, it is a visual delight; and when the sun is low in the sky, it’s breathtaking.

I can’t tell you the name of this feature, however I always seem to snap a photo of it as we near the end of a long, spectacular valley filled with amazing geological features and rocks of every color of the rainbow.

I used a couple of wonderful earthy browns, the luscious pale purple, and a yummy metallic copper from L’Ecole Des Beaux Arts in this piece. I can’t wait to go back and pick up a few more colors!

A Frugal (sort of) Experiment

 

 

 

Landscape Layers

6" x 9"

Relief print

I ordered linoleum plates from a company in the UK that were sized to a UK standard, however they came at such a good price, I thought it would be easy enough to cut them down to 8” x 10”. Relief printing plates are not cheap, so I saved the strips of material I cut off, thinking I’d do something with them eventually.

Well, one day I got the idea to carve the various leftover 8” x 1.5” pieces into “layers” of landscape. I cut a river, pine trees, 2 cloud versions, mountains, and hills. Then, I experimented with arranging the strips in different ways. 

Good idea, but poor outcome. I liked sections of the prints, but overall, they were a disappointment. An artist friend commiserating with me over the failure brilliantly suggested I cut them up and make cards out of them. They turned out GREAT and I sold them all!

Next, I experimented with the same plates on black paper—this time, with some success! I played around with more opaque colors and discovered I could use the pine tree plate right side up AND upside down! The colors on the black paper really popped nicely and created a unique result. 

I sold two of the prints in the series, and one of the buyers requested a companion piece that would be different, but compatible with the print they purchased.

Easier said than done.

About 20 prints later, I came up with a couple of options, one of which was chosen by my client (yay!). But what to do with all the leftovers? Some worked, some did not. Again, I did a little creative cropping and trimming and ended up with some nice pieces and a few cards! 

Catching Up - Part 3

 

Manter Creek
8” x 10”
Multicolor Relief Print

Several years ago, we went on a backpack trip into the Domeland Wilderness in California. It is a remote, little-known wilderness that burned about 10 years before our trip. This resulted in an incredible landscape with patches of standing and fallen burnt trees intermingled with baby trees that sprouted after the fire, as well as tremendously large trees the fire left behind. The trail was challenging. We had to climb over and crawl under more trees than we could count.

We camped on Manter Creek, an oasis surrounded by land that had mostly burned. The cool of the creek in the heat of September was a delight at the end of each day. The nights were surprisingly cool, so the campfire was a welcome addition to our circle of friends.

Over the four-day trip, we only saw two people and a couple of rattlesnakes. One night, a pack of coyotes ran through our camp yipping like wild teenagers whose parents were out of town.

Here is the piece with only three color plates completed.

 

It was the wildest and most beautiful place I’ve ever been. I created several paintings and monoprints from this trip. The idea for this piece is taken from one of those paintings. Having a familiar subject allowed me to explore technique and color in the process of creating the prints.

 

Wild Iris
8” x 10”
Multicolor Relief Print

I love Wild Iris. It was rare to see them in the San Gabriel Mountains of California. But here in Colorado, there are fields of them in early summer. Especially after a wet winter. It’s truly incredible.

This piece was also taken from a watercolor painting I did of an Iris that was a delightful surprise on a trail we hiked frequently. It was a “reward” after climbing a fairly steep hill that was deeper into the hike. You know, past the point where the casual hikers wearing tennies and carrying a 12 oz. bottle of water give up on “hiking”?

 

Here, you can see the partially completed prints.

Something unique about this piece is that I mixed the plate colors in such a sequence that I didn't have to wash my inking surface between colors. I went from pale yellow to coral, then pink, on to green, blue, and then black. This created color harmony as each succeeding color had a little of the previous color in it.

What I’ve been up to, Part 2

 

A Very Old Friend
8” x 10”
Relief Print

I was browsing through old sketchbooks when I came across a drawing I made several years ago. This weathered tree, stood near the beginning of the trail that takes you to the top of Mt. San Jacinto in California (a peak I hiked years later). 

To get to the trailhead, you travel between two different worlds. You must take the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway from the desert floor up and over the rugged and deeply cut Chino Canyon to a station at Mt. San Jacinto State Park, which sits at an elevation of more than 8,500 feet.

In just minutes, you move from the heat of the desert to the forest. And it is a stunning forest! Our hike to the top of Mt. San Jacinto (10,800+ elevation) was one of my favorite hikes.

The Process

Finding some success with smaller pieces, I moved to a larger 8” x 10” sized plate for this project. It took several sessions in the studio to cut the image. In fact, I think I had to scrap the first version and had to carve this image twice.

I have to say the anticipation is excruciating—not knowing whether it will turn out until you pull that first test print. And getting a good result requires the perfect amount of ink on the plate, the perfect paper dampness, and then, carefully and thoroughly rubbing the paper against the plate to fully transfer a solid image.

 

Winter Morning
8” x 10”
Multicolor relief print

Early one winter morning after a snow storm, we were traveling on a road that takes you through gently rolling hills of ranches and farms. It was a lovely morning and I admired the golden tufts of grasses determinedly poking through the blanket of white.

The clouds were incredible: billowy and purple, the bottoms heavy with moisture. A band of purple-black clouds drifted in front of them, while the sky above was a persistent blue. When we got home that day, I made color sketches from memory that I later used for this project.

This piece was an experiment in texture and pattern and learning how to manipulate ink opacity and value. The prints I made had a broad range of color intensity and coverage—no two were alike.

 

Diné Country    
10” X 8”
Multicolor Relief Print

This piece is taken from a photo I took on our way back from a trip to California between Shonto and Page, Arizona along Highway 98. This rock feature sits in the middle of an interesting canyon—it’s my favorite section of road. And, it looks different every time we see it. I have countless photos of it!

There’s something about coming back home to Colorado across the Navajo Reservation. I love the big skies, wild washes, and familiar mesas and mountains; we count the landmarks as we make our way home. When we see Sleeping Ute Mountain, it feels as though we’re nearly there.

I hand-colored one of the prints before experimenting with additional color plates. Here I continued to struggle with registration and the right amount of ink. It’s easy to squirt out more ink than you need—and dang!—it’s expensive!