Moonrise in Wheat Country

Moonrise in Wheat Country - Oil on Linen Panel - 4x6

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If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you've seen the in progress of this little guy. I love the subtle colors found right after or before sunrise and sunset!

Summer Skies

Summer Skies - 5x7 - Oil on Linen Panel

This little scene is brought to you by Google Maps. I found it while virtually driving through Wyoming. I couldn't get enough of those clouds!

Wheat and Sky

Wheat and Sky - Oil on Linen Panel - 5x7

Nothing says late summer quite like golden wheat fields and big puffy clouds!

Walla Walla Summer

Walla Walla Summer - 5x7 - Oil on Linen Panel

On a cold winter rainy day nothing quite beats reliving road trips through the Walla Walla countryside!

Refuge Sunset

Refuge Sunset - Oil on Gessobord - 6x6

I started this one on location out at McNary Wildlife Refuge, scrubbing in the major color relationships and shapes in about 15 minutes. It was a rough start, but had enough information that I could  polish it up in the studio!

Twins

Twins - Oil on Linen Panel - 5x7

I've been really focused lately on working from my photos of the Wallowa Valley, they seem to have the best little clusters of cottonwoods! I hope I can get back there to paint soon, and replenish my stock of great reference material.

Walla Walla Skies

Walla Walla Skies - 6x8 - Oil on Panel

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Capturing the building clouds over the Blue Mountains is something I could probably do forever and not get tired of! Anyone in the Walla Walla Valley will be able to tell this painting was done a couple months ago, as wildfire smoke has been hazing the view of the foothills for quite some time now.

Summer Pastoral

Summer Pastoral - Oil on linen Panel - 5x7

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I know I've painted this exact hillside outside of Walla Walla probably a dozen times, but it never gets old! Every season and every day it seems to take on a new face. On this summer day I was really captivated by the mass of tall clouds building up over the hills.

I'll be painting as part of the Plein Air Pacific Northwest show this upcoming week in Hood River, Oregon, it is worth a visit if you are in town!! There are spectacular nationally known artists participating and the work is always outstanding. Here are some of the pertinent details:

McNary Sunrise II

McNary Sunrise II - Oil on Linen Panel - 5x7

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These beautiful sunrises have been the prelude to very hot days here in Eastern Washington. Today we had some stiff gusts of wind which hopefully will be blowing in cooler weather for the week!

Bright Day

Bright Day - Oil on Linen Panel - 5x7

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I just loved this scene on Google Maps! It was over in Yellowstone, and the big puffy clouds had the most amazing glare around their edges, I could really feel the sun.

Blue Day Red Barn

Blue Day Red Barn - 5x7 - Oil on Linen Panel

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Yeah, I think this barn kick could last a while! There's something really nice about having that little touch of structure in a landscape painting.

Sunshine Barn

Sunshine Barn - 5x7 - Oil on Linen Panel

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I've had the opportunity to explore the eastern Washington countryside finding all sorts of neat little barns and outbuildings. I really loved the cheerful color of the barn, but the star of the day was really those big billowing clouds rolling overhead!

Backlit Bonneville

Backlit Bonneville - 6x8 - Oil on Linen Panel

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This was painted not far from my camping spot outside of Joseph, Oregon along the Wallowa River. The clouds were beautifully rimlit behind a dark mountain, the view made it worth tangling with the giant ants along the river shore!

Fast and Loose Foothills

Fast and Loose Foothills - 5x7

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Nothing like a strict time limit to bust you out of a seemingly never ending artistic rut! I haven't been inspired to do any small ones lately, and none of my plein air work for the past month has seemed to work. But I saw some clouds out today and though I only had a half hour or so to work I wanted to paint them! When I got the little sketch back home I didn't want to mess with the spontaneous brushwork, I kinda liked it!

Winter Wetland

Winter Wetland - Oil on Canvas Panel - 6x8

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I loved seeing Rattlesnake Mountain out behind the Yakima Delta wetlands. The skies were a little hazy near the horizon, but the sky was still blue and the sun was out. No complaints here!

Northwest Clouds - Day 13, 30 in 30 Challenge

Northwest Clouds - 6x6 - Oil on Gessobord

Click to Bid!I was looking back in my reference photo file and found some fantastic clouds!

Dusk in the Delta, Day 11 - 30 in 30

Dusk in the Delta - 6x8 - Oil on Canvas Panel

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I was lucky enough to get out and do some plein air work today! I even felt adventurous enough to do them closer to sunset than I normally work. Usually this time of day is an exercise in frustration, because the light is only consistent for about 15 minutes, so I put down the very basic color notes and composition, and filled out the details back at home.

I stayed in the jeep while working on this, because the wind was at a sustained 35mph, with gusts of 50!

Oregon Juniper - Day 8, 30 in 30

Oregon Juniper - 6x6 - Oil on Gessobord

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Well, with the mandarins gone I needed to move on to a new subject. I was listening (for probably the 5th time) to my audiobook version of Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey and was struck by the passage about wanting to study a single juniper tree for a lifetime. It made me remember driving through the sage and juniper filled area east of Bend, Oregon.

So I "drove" around on Highway 26 on Google Maps Streetview, and found not only some amazing juniper stands but some outstanding clouds too!

Buoyancy - Day 5, 30 in 30 Challenge

Buoyancy - 4x8 - Oil on Panel

Click to BidI took the reference photo for this during the summer from the top of a local ridgeline, nothing beats a wide open sky!

Summer's Clouds

Summer's Clouds - 6x6 - Oil on Gessobord

Click to BidThe summer skies are typically pretty boring here in my little desert, except for when a massive summer storm rolls through. last week we had two big lightening storms only a couple days apart! Now, of course, we're back to the monotonous heat August should have taken with it.