Studio Work and 2 Upcoming Shows

Erratic-Ten Lakes Basin
16 x 14
Pastel on Canson Paper

Here is a studio piece from a study I did on a backpack trip a few weekends ago in Yosemite. Still trying to find the balance between gesture, immediacy, the way the material behaves, and the drive towards more resolution of the image, exploring more subtle issues, (edges, the final frontier) which the studio environment provides. When to stop? I even made some changes to the image since I shot this version, though they might not be noticeable to most.

I have a few shows coming up and am headed overseas for a week, so needed to get all my work finished and framed. This one is destined for the Studio Gallery's upcoming landscape show, 'Terrain', opening in San Francisco on the 12th of August. The study for this as well as one of the lake that I previously posted will also be in that show. Maybe one more piece... not sure yet.


I am also going to be in the Napa Valley Art Festival in a few weeks, which takes place on Saturday, August 15th. I'll have about 8 paintings for sale in that event, including Granite in Shadow, which I'm honored to announce was given the Jurors' Choice award. Should be a fun day, and I hope to see some familiar faces there.

Studies from the Ten Lakes Basin

I did my first 'real' backpacking trip this weekend with some coworkers and had a great time. We hiked over 6 miles out of Tuolomne Meadows, climbing over a 9,500 pass to get to a basin filled with small lakes near the south rim of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolomne. Not so much time to paint on a trip like this but I did get one afternoon and morning in. I had made a very portable pastel setup, which is visible in the photo, by cutting a lot of sticks in half in order to have the colors I needed. I stored my paper (and my finished pieces) in a cut down pad of tracing paper with about half the paper in the pad removed. I clip the Canson paper to a piece of foam core cut to the same size as the pad. Very similar to my large setup but it weighs a lot less. Worked fine. These are pretty quick and loose studies, about 7 x 9", which I may use to do some larger studio pieces. One interesting aspect of a 'study' is that you don't try and render, but more or less notate and hammer down values, shapes, and colors that collectively represent something. More or less what painting is all about anyways, but rather brutal... less finesse. Studio work gives one time to noodle and contemplate a bit. Not always the best thing either!