"Bridger Canyon" - a new Bridger Mountain landscape painting

Here's a new landscape piece I just finished titled "Bridger Canyon". The painting is 12X24 and the scene is from Bridger Canyon in early summer. For those who don't know, the Bridger Mountains are near Bozeman, Montana. I paint them often, since they're just outside my backdoor, and they never seem to get old. This is the first painting I've done of the East side of the range; the peaks you see are Mount Baldy, Bridger Peak, and Saddle Peak. The Bridger Bowl ski resort is located just to the right of where the painting ends. I really enjoyed working with the bright "spring" greens in this piece.

Saturday's Plein Air Painting

I had a chance to get out painting for a few hours yesterday. It was sunny and warm while I was searching for a painting location but as soon as I set up my easel the clouds rolled in and the temps dropped into the low 40's. It was still pretty nice painting conditions as there was no wind to speak of, but the cooler temps definitely made the oil paint tougher to work with. The overcast light wasn't ideal but I found a nice view with a lot of variety and color. Though there is still some snow on the ground in the valley things are beginning to green up nicely. I really enjoy painting the spring greens and other common color variations at this time of year. Overall, it was a successful outing - I'm starting to feel more comfortable painting on location and hopefully the quality of these small pieces will improve over the next few months. I'm definitely noticing changes in how I approach things when painting in the studio as well - fun stuff!

Gateway View - 8X10

plein air painting today

Thought I'd share a quick plein air painting I did today. This is a view of the Bridger Mountains (Sacajawea and Hardscrabble Peaks) from about 2 blocks from my house. At first glance, it may look like a fall painting due to the colors of the trees. The trees are globe willows (I believe) and they turn bright orange in early spring when they are just starting to get their leaves.

Today reminded me why I love Montana. I rode my bike over to a vacant field just down the road from my house and found this view. While I was painting, I saw pheasants, ducks, geese. sandhill cranes, and numerous other birds and wildlife. I felt like I was painting in the wild but was only a two minute bike ride from home. Though I was only out for about an hour and a half, this painting was both rejuvenating and inspiring.

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep

Here's another new piece I just put the finishing touches on today. I really enjoyed working with the strong light and shadows in this one. I hope you enjoy.

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep - 16X12

Bighorn and Grizzly paintings

Wow, another two months have passed since my last blog entry. Time definitely flies when you're busy. I'll start updating more often as I'm starting to do a lot of plein air paintings that I want to post. I'm going to start showing at a new gallery in Columbia Falls, Montana this spring (Iron Horse Gallery) so I've been busy working on several new paintings for them. Here are a couple of new ones.

Observation Point - 16X20
I had a hard time getting the colors to show up correctly in the photograph, but you get the idea.


















Grizzly
8X10 - this is a reworked version of a painting I previously completed.

New Bison Piece - "The Summer Range"

Here is an image of a new piece that I just finished titled "The Summer Range". This piece has been a long time in the making and is one of my more significant pieces to date. The idea for the painting came from a summer trip to Yellowstone last year. The setting is looking East from the Soda Butte area towards Amphitheater Mountain and Abiathar Peak. This is one of my favorite areas in the park and I really enjoyed depicting it in this piece. During the summer months you can expect to see a lot of bison in the area because of all of the lush grasses available for them to forage. I felt this bull made for a great focal point in the piece, though the landscape is just as important to the overall painting.

Moose painting reworked

Here is a moose painting titled "Fall Reflections" that I recently finished reworking. This was another piece that I did awhile back that had potential but just wasn't quite right. I liked the idea enough to try to make some changes rather than just tossing it in the closet. I simplified some things and made a lot of adjustments to edges. I think the end result is quite a bit better than the previous version....