More on my artistic side.

I would like to share some of my paintings and drawings.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Gallery Wall.....


I spent an afternoon rearranging and rehanging artwork in our gallery.  I need more space to hang things.  It has to be reworked about every year as it is like modern design of shapes on the wall and the sizes have to be fit together to have the most space used.


It makes for a cozy corner once I get everything hung.  My wife Della and I have our work hung together.  She paints full time so the majority of work on this wall belong to here.  I see a couple of barns of mine on the wall the the larger tulip painting is mine.

I have goals set to start painting this winter as the outside work won't be interfering with the inside work with snow on the ground.  I have some panels that are gessoed and sanded that are ready to go for me to start painting.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Minnesota drawing.......


I have these scenes imprinted in my mind and draw them freely.  This may be a little bit contrived but it was a quick charcoal sketch to remind myself that I am an artist part of the time during my busy life.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

"Art on the Prairie" Showing


My wife and I participated in a show last weekend called "Art on the Prairie." It was held in Perry, Iowa, a neighboring town to us on the west.  We spent long days Saturday and Sunday meeting the public and sharing our work with them.  It was a great experience but  it was a lot of hard work.  We were on the second floor of a restored bank building in this beautifully designed room and our set up next to the corn crib wall was perfect.



We really learned a lot about the show venue and did get new ideas to add to our next show.  We printed a lot of cards and smaller prints and they did sell very well.



I sold a print of this painting that will be traveling to a winter condo home in Naples, Florida.  The couple were gently arguing about where it was going to hang when they arrive there.



We did spend a lot of time getting things framed for the show as you can see all that are displayed on the dining room table.  The red fox on the right was another one of our sales that my wife created in pastel.


It was a great two days and we really appreciated those who were able to attend.  We will be doing more of this in the future.  This was a major show that we worked compared to a small one we did back in July.



Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Charcoal drawings


A village that I created recently in charcoal and different colors of conte pencil.  The lighting is funniy as it goes from light yellow to normal.  It is  approximately 9 by 24 inches in size. I will try to retake the photo in uniform light and then repost it when I have the tme.


In the same vein of thought I also created this lone tepee  in the woods.  It sold over the weekend.  I had fun just exploring the charcoal use and then adding conte for one spot of color.

Friday, July 22, 2011

One Year Anniversary.....


It has been a year since my wife and I completed the mural for the interurban depot here in Woodward.  It was a challenging project and yet very rewarding. We get compliments on it  throughout the year as the public slowly discovers it's existence in the depot.  People attend family events there or visit the park and look in the window and are surprised to see the mural.  We haven't been back to see it for over a year and maybe we will catch a glimpse of it during the town's annual celebration.  They will be serving pork sandwiches and baked beans at tables with the mural behind them as their background.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

High Testle Trail Artists Showing.......


My wife and I spent a great day showing our art at a winery.  I will share more as time allows me to get the photos edited.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

A Minnesota Pastel........


This work is under glass so I keep trying to photograph it it different light so that it can be seen more clearly.  This is what it looks like with a  low light.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Minnesota oil pastel.......


I like to work in oil pastel.  This is an older piece that I painted in an area of Minnesota.  I like working the colors together with the sticks of oil color as they blend color right on your painting surface. 

Sunday, February 20, 2011

A work in progress.......



While monitoring art students one day last week, I tried my hand at another shoreline scene.  The camera makes the lavender color show through in the water much greater than it really is.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Monet moment.....


A few years back I painted a Monet waterlilies painting.  It actually was a demonstration to my students in how to work at the project they were being assigned.


The school library was throwing away books that were very old.  Some of them I saved as old classics but a lot of them were the ones on which my students could paint.  I showed how they could imitate an artist's style while painting both cover and back of a book.


This painting was a Kandinsky inspired painting.  The book itself was written in 1964 and it was about Atoms.  I am sure the information in the book is outdated by now. I like to paint in abstract just as a wah to loosen up my tight painting style.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Moose.......


This is another older painting that I made of a moose in Minnesota.  It was created in oil pastel. The shoreline in the background is a depiction of what I could see everyday on Lake Pokegama, near Grand Rapids, Minnesota.  The rest of the scene in the foreground reminds me of the old Hamm's Beer commercial that one use to see on tv.  The land of sky blue water can be found in Minnesota in the summertime.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Cripple Creek, Colorado.......


This is an oil pastel of an old abandoned building near Cripple Creek, Colorado.  It is an old silver mining town up in the mountains.  When you take a train ride to see some of the mining areas there is this shed left from the past mining era.  Oil pastel is a fun medium to use as it is painting with sticks of oil pigments.  I sometimes thought it must have been like painting with a tube of lipstick by the way it would rub onto the painting surface. You can blend colors easily right on the surface as it is an open material for quite some time.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

A garden view......


I painted this in oils early in my painting career.  It has some unusual trees that remind me of Grant Woods trees in his landscapes.  I was of course inspired by Monet's garden and paintings.  It is a large painting that I painted during the summer of 1990.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Boats.....


When I had first started painting I looked through magazines for ideas in which to paint. This was a photo in the National Geographic magazine.  I liked all the over lapping shapes and the colors in the water.