Thursday, June 25, 2009


I just came back from the coolest trip to Dingle, Idaho (north of Bear Lake, if you know the area).  It's been raining all spring and the hills are really green.  Kathey and I and her brother Sid and his wife Vicky went to a farm house out in the middle of nowhere.  It was great!

I got to give some water color instruction and paint for several days.  We also took some side trips to Star Valley Wyoming, south of Jackson Hole, Preston Idaho, etc.

I love old farm junk and tractors.  Almost every farm has a place where they just dump old stuff that doesn't work, but they can't bear to get rid of.  The old truck was right behind the yard of the place we stayed and the faucet was just pure "rural" with the cast in letters and red paint.

Done plein air in my Moleskine sketchbook with water color added on  the line work.  I've got the sunburn to prove it.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Kirtland Temple and graveyard, Kirtland Ohio

I had a chance last week on a business trip to Cleveland to go out to Kirtland and visit the old town that was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1830's.  I had never walked through the graveyard before and I was pleased to find old headstones of family members who died in the 1830s around that time.  I sat in the passenger side of the rental car and painted this gouache sketch of the graveyard and temple in my Moleskine sketchbook.  You can see where I painted across the fold.  As you can tell, it was a cool overcast day.