"Morning over the Minnesota"

10" x 12"
Oil on panel

A pretty gray morning as I headed out but the haze and atmosphere overlooking the Minnesota River was really nice. So many colors to capture in the distance. I painted this at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

"Crisp morning air"

14" x 18"
Oil on canvas/panel

Another painting done in studio from an earlier study. Crisp morning air are the only words to describe this scene. I feel I didn't come close to getting that across in the study. I hoped to nail it here. I painted the study in the early winter. I believe it was my first snow painting of the winter. I walked quite a ways back on this trail in the Hyland Lake Park Preserve. It was about 7:30 a.m. when I set out. Not a soul. Nice and quiet.

The study included the light of the sun hitting this spot. The sun came out just as I was setting up. I liked what I saw just before it came up completely. That weird blue/green glow that covers everything. I continued to think about my colors here and pushing them down while staying faithful to the values I had seen. Lots of optical mixing on the snowy trail as well.

"Warner Road St. Paul"

9" x 12"
Oil on panel

This was painted this morning. It's looking East down the Mississippi from directly underneath the Hwy. 52 bridge next to Warner Road, just outside of downtown St. Paul. Lots of atmoshere when I arrived at 8 a.m. that took its time to burn off. Values became my main focus here as the colors were so close together. I liked the yellow sky against the purple bluffs in the distance. Beautiful spring day.

"Sun down cloud up"

12" x 16"
Oil on panel

This is a studio painting based on a plein air I did earlier in the spring. I pushed mood here a lot. Much more so than the study I painted. This is closer to the way things were as I saw them. I am beginning to play around with my palette a bit now. I'm really trying to push my colors down to neutral and only play up the color where I intend the center of interest. Also, working with higher chroma colors together to trick the eye into seeing a neutral as I did in the foreground river. I haven't changed the colors I use but am spending more time getting accurate values and then color down.

"Summit's end"

9" x 12"
Oil on panel

A stormy afternoon. This was the prelude to the eventual snow we would get. This is the end of Summit Ave. overlooking the Mississippi. The dark low clouds rolled in as I was finishing up. I liked the drama they offered, so I painted them in.

I started with a red underpainting to offset what I knew would be colors on the cooler side. The shadows would feel the warmth as opposed to the cold light from the low clouds.

One year on Blogger!

Well it has been a great year. I'm appreciative of those who take the time to browse my Blog and even comment from time to time. I hope to keep the paintings coming and to keep improving.

This is the painting I did a couple weeks ago at the paintout but didn't post. I made some changes to it as far as adjusting foreground color, but for the most part left it alone. I spent less than an hour on-site to start this one.

"Transition"
8" x 10"
Oil on birch panel