Red Mountain Ghost Town revisited

"Red Mountain Ghost Town"

About a year ago I was lucky enough to take a Rusty Jones painting workshop. The first day, we stayed inside and painted from photographs Rusty brought with him. It should be no surprise that I went straight for an old paint flaking white house surrounded by trees. After first painting a value study, I proceeded to paint what turned out to be a pretty nice little painting. Rusty told me the photo was taken in Colorado while he himself was watching a demo by William Kalwick Jr. On my recent vacation to Colorado, I almost jumped out of my car when I spotted the real house from this painting. I wasn't searching for it, but just turned a corner and it was there. You would have thought I was seeing the ocean for the first time from my reaction. It was weird to see one of my painting subjects for the first time after painting it.

Now I have several photos of my own to work from.

( What you can't see is the hundreds of mosquitos swarming me )

How to enjoy a rainy day

"100 Degrees in the Shade" 9 x 12

"Forgotten Train Tracks" 8 x 10

"Secret Garden" 9 x 12


"In Bloom" 9 x 12

I received a call inviting me to go paint at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens today so I jumped at the chance and took off. Before I arrived it started raining cats and dogs. After it stopped raining I squeezed out a painting in less than an hour in order to join my painter friends for a lunch at the Kimball Art Museum. What a great day this turned into. We hung around talking art for hours and then headed back to sit in the garden of one of their homes for more of the same. I tried to squeeze out another painting as we talked, but it started raining again. Today wasn’t going to be about my next masterpiece. Today was about hanging out with a great group of people that I’m proud to call my friends. Even with all the bad weather, steamy heat and my mediocre work, its days like this that make plein air painting worth all the effort.

I finally picked up my paintings from the Waxahachie Plein Air event. I promised to post them when I did so here they are.