I’ve been a terrible blogger.  In my defense I’ve been painting.  I know, it’s a sorry excuse, but there it is.  The summer has whizzed by, early snowstorms have frozen the leaves before they could turn golden, and I have the flu, so now is the time for an update.

MAY: Went on a painting trip with the Montana Painters Alliance to central Montana.  The family came along, and we stayed in a great forest service cabin.  I had the chance to give my favorite student a painting lesson:

This is Jasper getting ready to do his first “plein air oil.”  I’m showing him how to mix green.  Here he is blocking in the painting:

The trip went well until I was attacked by a band of savages while on a hike.    I fought bravely, but I was outnumbered. Notice the little guy sneaking in for the kill.

JUNE: This year I moved my Paradise Valley workshop up till June in the hopes of better weather.  It snowed/ rained/ sleeted most of the four days.  We did get out to paint on a beautiful ranch on the first day.  We all had a bit of a surprise:

Yes, this is the real deal, not some dude dressed up for the artists.  Most of the students had to scramble to get their easels out of the way for the cattle drive.  This is, after all, Montana.  Cattle have the right-of-way!  I felt just a twinge of professional jealousy:  I’ll never look as good behind an easel as that cowboy looked on the horse.  Sigh…

JULY:  I taught two workshops in July, one up near Glacier, and one in Yellowstone National Park.  The first picture is at Lake McDonald in Glacier.  Another tough day in the office!

Here’s some of the students in Yellowstone: This is my favorite workshop to teach.  We stay in cabins at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch and share a communal kitchen.  For painting excursions we have use of a 14 passenger bus and a volunteer bus driver.  Basically it’s four days of non-stop art, in the field, in the classroom, and over dinner.  I’m smiling as I write!

August: I had a great time painting with Ned Mueller and Jim Lamb for a couple days down in Paradise Valley.  Here’s Ned showing how a master of composition does it:

I really try to seek out other artists.  We can all get a little isolated, so I find it invigorating to paint with other artists.  I also had the chance to take a workshop with Matt Smith over in Bozeman.  He’s an amazing painter and a great teacher, but he wasn’t easy! He didn’t cut me any slack!  I really needed someone to rake me over the coals, so I tried to soak in every word.

In late August I drove with the wife and kids down to Colorado.  I had to go down for a  show in Boulder and we made a vacation out of it.  We saw some amazing country, painted and camped.  Here I am painting at 12,500 feet.

The kids all managed to hike up to this high mountain lake.  My oldest painted flowers while the others threw rocks into the lake.  What a day!

September:

I took a trip with my good friend and accomplice George Bumann to Yellowstone.  We camped at Norris, and painted the beautiful fall colors.  And giggled.  I’ll admit it, George and I get kinda silly and stupid.  George convinced me to do a nocturne with the aid of his headlights.  By the end I could see the milky way clearly, but I could not see the landscape.  Ahh, but what fun!

I’ve left so many painting adventures out, a reminder that I need to blog more regularly, but this should get you a quick overview of a very busy summer.

In early May I headed down to the Tetons for a dirtbag painting adventure.  After dropping off new paintings at Legacy Gallery, I painted for three days.  I thought I would enjoy a nice spring trip: snow in the mountains, a few drifts down low, and new spring green.  Well… um… reality:  3-4 feet of snow, ice on the lakes, and a low of 17 degrees!  I’ve never been so cold in May!

I slept at the String Lake parking lot in my van, cooked off of a backpacking stove and painted from dawn till dusk.  The best part was that I had the whole park to myself!  On the first day I watched an otter swim out from beneath the ice and run around.  The following morning a grey jay landed on top of my easel and then hopped right on to my hand.  We looked at each other for about fifteen seconds before it flew off.  I half expected it to start talking, to send me on a quest. Here’s some pics from the trip:

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One problem was that as the day warmed up, I’d start sinking into the snow.  In the above picture I’m standing happily on the crust.  By noon I was sinking to my knees in the snow, and realizing that beneath the snow was thin ice…

There is something so deeply transcendent about entering into such a world and seeing no one, just painting and looking and trying to understand a little more of what we are given.  Here are some of the paintings that I came home with.  They are all in the 8×10- 9×12 range.

I recently collaborated with my son’s first grade class to do a pastel painting.  I had the kids come up to the easel one at a time, and I handed them an pastel and gave them some instruction.  The picture that they did was auctioned off at a school art show to raise money for art supplies.  I’m so impressed with how well little kids listen.  All I did is smooth out a few edges with my finger- 95% of this pastel comes from the little hands of a fine group of six and seven year olds.  Great work everyone!  Here’s the pastel painting:

 

Here are the proud collaborators:

 

The pastel fetched $200 at the auction, a very respectable price!  I wish making art was always this much fun!