Rosie

oil on cradled panel, 20" x 16"

It's back to the birds with this painting of a roseate spoonbill wading in shallow waters.  I've been wanting to paint this bird for quite a while, a member of the ibis family commonly found along coastal regions of North and South America.  I just love that long spatulate bill!  And of course, the gorgeous colors of her (his?) feathers.

Kevin's Pond, Late September

oil on canvasboard, 6" x 8"

This is a quick palette knife sketch I did from a photo I took of a pond in Valle Escondido in late September.  The well-known plein air painter Kevin Macpherson painted this scene, which is on view from his living room window, hundreds of times.  It became the inspiration for his book, "Reflections on a Pond."  There is a lot to learn from a scene like this for painting purposes.  It is an ever-changing subject, full of challenges.  I find it particularly challenging to paint water with a palette knife.  Much easier with a brush, but my overriding focus for this study was in getting the value of the distant mountain range right.

San Luis Storefront with Salvia

oil on panel, 9" x 12"

This (mostly) palette knife painting is of a crumbling facade of an old storefront in San Luis, Colorado.  I loved the profusion of salvia, or Russian sage, obscuring all but one window of the storefront, and the cool shape of the facade made me want to paint this perspective.