Die Kunstler Art Show and Sale 2013

Well, it has been a long time since I last posted and thought the Die Kunstler Art Show was a perfect occasion for getting back in to it.  All of these paintings have been entered into the 2013 annual show and sale in Fredericksburg, TX.

I went to an art class in September in Taos, NM and was able to do many paintings (some good some bad), but it was a wonderful time and the weather was gorgeous.  The grasses were unbelievably beautiful, which I tried to capture in this painting, "Glorious Morning."  That is one of the best things about being an artist, you get to really look at the landscape.

The second painting is also from Taos.  The morning light was shining on the adobe wall creating the most interesting shadows.  I call this painting "Light and Shadow."

 The third painting was done on location last winter in Comfort, TX.  Please note that the mercury vapor light is lighter than the sky, which happened to be very overcast that day.  I call this painting "Old Barns and Truck."  The ranch has now been sold, so my art buddies and I are hoping the new owner will let us paint there occasionally.

 The fourth painting, "The Old Depot,"  was painted on location in Waring, TX.  It is about a mile from our house and the town looks just as it did in the 1930's.

This is my cat, "Jack."  I decided to use him as a study in a limited palette and to utilize the concept that less is more.  The eye is the center of interest and I utilized lots of paint, then as you move away from the eye, it is mostly thin washes of paint.

Capitan Morning View

The Capitan Mountains in New Mexico are beautiful in morning light.  During the monsoon season the light has a warm glow where the sun coming up catches the wispy clouds.  By afternoon the clouds are huge thunderheads.

River Rocks

I love to study water flowing over river rocks.  When the water is clear you see so much color reflecting back the light of the sun.  And when there is more of a slope you see the water rushing down these miniature waterfalls and creating the white foam.  This is the Rio Ruidoso, just a mountain stream these days, but I've seen it when it was a raging torrent!

Clouds Building Up

In honor of Cloud Appreciation Day I decided to paint the clouds over the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico.  We are in the midst of monsoon season and the clouds build up every day to real thunder heads.  The burn scars from last years fire are very visible against the green from all the rain.

Super Moon

I decided to do the supermoon again last night from a different location.  This is near a golf course overlooking the elementary school.  It is hard to predict where the moon is going to pop up so I picked a vantage point that had a wide view.  Also the moon came up later than the night before so could barely see my palette in the dark.

Late Evening Over the Sacramento Mountains

After doing my first Nocturne, I've been wanting to try it again. So went out last night to paint the super moon.  I wasn't sure we would even see the moon because of the clouds, but it did appear.  I've posted both paintings so you can see how much cloud cover there was.  (Note - I discovered that the lights used for the photos were too yellow, so I've replaced these photos with natural light.)

Gillespie County Fair

The Gillespie County Fair is one of the highlights in Fredericksburg, TX every summer. All the Future Farmers of America (FFA) members can compete in showing their goats, pigs, and cattle for prizes.  The judge gives a running commentary for each entry and it is always a relief when he has moved on to the next competitor.  They also hold quarter horse races at the fair and the winner gets to compete in the American Futurity in Ruidoso, NM on Labor Day.  I was looking at my photos recently and thought I would try to paint some of these events.  It has been hard to concentrate on painting with all the other things going on this summer, but every now and then I have been able to get a day in here and there.

Quarter Horse Race

FFA Goat Competition