December 2021

 

 I decided to continue with scenes from our year 2000 trip to the UK and Ireland. After several days in the area around Betley, Margaret and Bernard drove us west into Wales. One of our first stops was the town of Llangollen on the river Dee. We walked along the river with nice views of the town. I recently Googled the town and the image that appeared is this same view.

 We continued through Wales and took the ferry across to Ireland. We spent our first day exploring Dublin. At lunchtime we found a restaurant not far from St. Stephen's Green. I was curious about exactly where my photo was taken, so I recently spent some time searching with Google Street View. I found the spot on Anne Street, just east of Grafton Street. I don't have the patience to paint with a lot of fine detail, but I wanted this to show a lot of stuff going on, so I spent several days on it instead of my usual several hours. It was fun to do and I like how it turned out.

A couple of days after our time in Dublin, we arrived at the west coast and the town of Kinvarra where we stopped for elevenses. There was a nice little harbor with some interesting boats. In my photo, the sky was all uniform gray, as it often was all over Ireland, but a bit of blue sky made it a nicer painting.

From Kinvarra we headed north for a couple more days. Nearing Sligo, we stopped at Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery, an area of ancient tombs made with very large stones. I tooks photos of the tombs, but I also took one looking across the beautiful farmland with storm clouds misting the mountains. Later, as we walked around the town of Sligo, the sky let loose with heavy rain.

A few days before Christmas, we had lunch with our friends, Terry and Mike, and Terry mentioned that she would like to have one of my paintings. We have been friends for a long time, since our kids were in elementary school together. It was Terry who talked me into joining the painting class with her about eight years ago and renewed my interest in painting. I considered what I could give her and thought maybe I could paint something new for her, and looked up some photos that I took years ago when we stayed with them at their cabin in the mountains near Chester. It was a beautiful spot on Warner Creek which runs out of Lassen Park. However, I'm not sure how they might feel about it. A few months ago, they lost the cabin in the Dixie Fire, and there is nothing left of it now. I'm hoping that the painting may remind them of the good times there and not of the loss.

November 2021

In July, 1989, my friend Gerald and I climbed Mount Shasta. In this scene we were using rented crampons and ice axes to climb a huge snowfield, from Helen Lake at 10400 ft. to Red Banks at 12800 ft. The whole climb, with about 7000 ft. of elevation gain, was one of the hardest and most exciting things I had ever done. It was a good memory and I wanted to save it with a painting.

Then I wanted to revisit another memory, my hike of the John Muir Trail in 2001, also with Gerald. Near the midpoint of that three-week trip, we were at 12000 ft. Muir Pass, on the divide between the San Joaquin and Kings Rivers, a very remote and desolate spot. At the top there is a small stone hut built by the Sierra Club in 1930 for emergency shelter. There was also a resident marmot who I included in the painting.

Next to the barn where our horses live there is a little maple tree. It's not much of a tree, but it has some pretty leaves, which caught my eye recently. I didn't want to do a lot of masking, just a few thin lines, so it was a challenge to paint a loose-looking background without painting over any of the leaves or branches. I think it worked out quite well.

 I started looking for painting subjects among my old photos from our trip to England and Ireland in the summer of 2000. We started that trip by spending several days staying with my distant cousin, Margaret, and her husband, Bernard, in the quiet little village of Betley, near Crewe, England. This was the view down the main street on one of our walks around town.

October 2021

 

I had been thinking about doing a portrait of Zim for a while, but was reluctant to try it because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to paint him well enough. One day at Jack Brook Horse Camp, we were getting him ready for Maureen to go out on a trail ride, and I shot a close-up with my phone. I liked the shot so I decided to use it for a painting. I think it came out pretty good.

I looked around for something else to paint, and came across a photo from our trip to England and Ireland in 2000. We were with my distant cousin Margaret and her husband, Bernard, and they had been driving us all over Ireland. We ferried across from Belfast to Scotland and drove south to the Lake District of England. The first lake that we came to was Ullswater, and we stopped on the shore for a photo. Turning around and looking in the opposite direction, I noticed this beautiful farm with the misty mountains, took another shot. When I showed the painting to Maureen, she asked what were all the white dots. I thought it was obvious that they were supposed to be sheep, but maybe it's not so obvious.

 In early October, 1974, I made a trip to the mountains with my friend, Bill Dodge, and a couple of his teen age nieces who were visiting from the midwest. Our goal was to climb Mt. Conness on the eastern border of Yosemite. We drove up late in the evening and camped at Saddlebag Lake. After a cold night, I woke up at dawn and hurried up a little hill to get a photo of the beautiful pink clouds over Mt. Dana, which inspired this painting. We climbed high up on a shoulder of Mt. Conness and realized that getting to the top would be too much for us, but we did enjoy some great views. Back at camp, we packed up and left as snow began to fall, the beginning of a major storm that we were lucky to escape.

 Our horse, Zim, spent a couple of months in the Placerville area with Chris Ellsworth because of an epidemic of strangles, a serious equine disease, at our barn. We went back up there to visit Zim several times. Chris had a horse there in training, a large Friesian mare named Bella. One day we watched him work with her in the arena and I took a photo. I liked the way that the late afternoon sun lit the scene and it inspired me to paint it.

September 2021

 

In early September my painting class started up again after a year and a half of the pandemic. I was looking forward to going back, but when I arrived at the first class, I realized that it wouldn't be the same as before. Sitting in a classroom with a mask on was not so much fun and although there were only about 10 people, I didn't know who had been vaccinated, and that made me a bit nervous. I used the time to paint this view of the old ranch house at Jack Brook Horse Camp where we had been recently.

The following week at my class I started this painting of another scene from Jack Brook Horse Camp with the morning fog clearing. I inserted a couple of riders from another photo (Maureen and Christina). All I did in class was the blue sky, and then quit because I thought it was too messed up. Back at home I decided that I may as well finish it, and it is not too bad, but not one of my favorites. The fog in the trees is not very convincing. I missed the following week of class and then decided that I didn't really want to go back, so I'm just going to try to keep painting at home.

August 2021

 

For many years we have spent some time each year in this cabin near Big Sur. Because of the pandemic, we have missed the last couple of years, and when we found out that it was available again, we were happy to reserve it for a few days. Our son, Aaron, and his family decided to join us there. One afternoon, I felt like painting something, so I picked a view of the cabin as you first approach it. Ten-year-old grandson, Dylan, watched me as I started it, and then I finished it later at home.

One day, the kids discovered that they could get down to the creek that runs below the cabin deck. Three-year-old Marisol played with the sand and water while her mother, Alicia, watched. I usually avoid painting people because it's not easy to get them looking right. This time I felt like there would be nothing to lose but a piece of paper, so I went ahead with it.

A couple of weeks after going to Big Sur, we went horse camping at Jack Brook Horse Camp near La Honda. While we were there, I painted this scene, but it was another one from our Big Sur trip. We hiked out to the beach at Andrew Molera State Park where there was a lot of driftwood and lots of people. An older couple pointed out to us that there was a small rattlesnake nearby under a log. There was another one under the big log in front of all of the people in this scene, but they didn't seem concerned.

July 2021

 

There's a spot on our ride/walks on the Goldenrod Trail heading toward the water tower that I find kind of special. There are lots of pretty scenes along this trail, but I like this one with twisted oaks and big rocks sticking out of the undergrowth. I had painted it a few months before, in wintertime dormancy, and I recently noticed that it looked much different now in July. The poison oak leaves had turned red, making it quite colorful, and giving the scene a whole different mood. It may look inviting, but it's a place that's best avoided.

We're planning another trip to the cabin near Big Sur that we have visited for many years. I'm looking forward to it, and that got me thinking about our last trip there a couple of years ago. At that time, we did some hiking in Garrapata State Park, including a walk out on the headlands of Soberanes Point. I took some photos that day that I used on this painting.

June 2021

 

I came across a photo on Facebook that I thought would be fun to paint. I usually prefer to use my own photos for paintings, but this one caught my eye and reminded me of many past High Sierra experiences. It's of Cottonwood Lakes, a bit south of Mt. Whitney, a place that I've never been to, but it looks quite familiar anyway. It has been several years now since I've been to a place like this and I really miss it.

A couple of weeks ago we spent three days in Novato at a cow-working clinic with Chris Ellsworth. At one point in the clinic, Chris rode a cutting horse brought by one of the participants, and put on a good show of how it is supposed to be done. Working from one of my photos, I painted this hoping to capture some of the fast action. I don't know how successful I was, but I like it anyway.

Every September we used to spend a few days at Mammoth Lakes. We missed the last couple of years, but plan to do it again this year. I was thinking about some of the beautiful places we saw there and I remembered making the relatively easy hike up to T J Lake on our last trip. I used a couple of my photos to put together this scene.

 

 One of the places near Mammoth that we often visit is the Sherwin Creek Campground a short distance out of town. The campground is closed after Labor Day, but we like to wander around the area anyway. On our last trip there, I took a couple of photos of the cones under a stand of pines, and used them for this  painting.

May 2021

 

In mid-May, Maureen and I went up to the Placerville area to take care of some horses. Our favorite horse trainer, Chris Ellsworth, needed help while he was away from the ranch for a couple of days. So we fed 14 horses breakfast, lunch and dinner, which was pretty hard work, but in between feedings, we had hours of down time, so I worked on this painting. 

 This represents one of my all-time special places, the Lyell Fork of the Merced River in Yosemite. Many people are familiar with the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne which is followed by the John Muir Trail and PCT, but this Lyell Fork is on the other side of the mountain and much more remote. In September, 1976, I spent a week hiking solo from Yosemite Valley to Silver Lake on the east side of the range. I spent an afternoon and night in this beautiful meadow with the view of Mount Ansel Adams. I had it all to myself, as there was no one else anywhere near me for several days. There was an afternoon thunder shower and then as evening was approaching, the sky cleared and the mountains turned pink with alpenglow.

One of the places that Maureen and I like to walk is Bailey Ranch, a newish development near the top of the Hayward hills. There is an easy walk on a paved trail with a great view out over the hills and the bay. One day this spring some rocks and poppies caught my eye and they ended up in this painting.

March 2021

A friend told me that a couple of my old classmates were interested in online watercolor classes by Rick Surowicz. I wasn't really interested in online classes, but I checked out the many free instructional videos that he has on his website. I like his style a lot and he does a good job of showing how he does it. He often does a lot of masking and rather than painting masking fluid with a brush, he uses some other tools such as a fine line applicator, a color shaper, and packaging tape. After trying some of these methods a bit, I found some videos by several other watercolorists, all of them British, who created some similar scenes without using any masking. As has happened many times before, I watched lots of demonstration videos and was inspired to try some new approaches, but in the end, my paintings came out much the same as they they always do.

One of the advantages of the barn where our horses are boarded is that there is access to some nice trails. Several times a week we have been going out on them with Maureen riding Zim and me walking. Our favorite, the Goldenrod Trail, winds along near the top of a ridge, in and out of several small ravines. The area is mostly woods of oaks, bay-laurels and pines, with thickets of brush, poison oak and ferns. At one spot there are a bunch of big sandstone boulders, and every time I passed, I thought of painting the scene, and I finally got around to it. To me, it looked quite wild, maybe slightly scary, and that's how I wanted to show it.

Then I tried a scene from several weeks ago when we trailered out to a ranch in Briones where Maureen and Zim participated in a clinic. I walked around a bit and noticed horses grazing high on a hillside and cattle below, and took a photo. I ran into trouble right away when I started to paint it. I found that the fine line masking fluid applicator that I bought was not easy to use, and I dripped several big blobs of fluid right in the middle of the painting. Luckily, it rubbed off easily and I was able to start again.

Here is another scene from one of our trail rides/hikes. All of the horses love the fresh green grass growing everywhere this time of year. Sometimes Maureen has a hard time keeping Zim on the trail, but he is mostly well-behaved about it, so we reward him by stopping at some point and letting him graze for a few minutes.

February 2021

 One day I walked by and saw our cat, Sunny, sitting in the sunlight on the dining room table. I loved the pattern of the blinds on the pink tablecloth, and Sunny in the middle of it, so I took a photo and used it for this painting. She doesn't often sit up looking so meditative — she is usually curled up asleep somewhere.