WARM SPRINGS CREEK

14"x18" Oil Painting

I have finished this painting after several days of work on it. It is from a stream SW of Dubois and one of the forks of the major tributary west of Dubois of the Wind River. A very special place and teeming with trout. So named for the warm springs that feed into the creek and are such that it keeps the Wind River from freezing during the winter for up to 15 miles east of town.

This is a great time to be reflective on what it means to be Thankful. We had a great Thanksgiving with my wifes parents the only family that was able to make the trip to Dubois. That didn't hinder the intake of food in the least. We were as stuffed as the turkey we stuffed. The weather was great for travel if even a little too mild for this time of year.
Reflecting back on this year it was a time when I could really say for sure that I had beaten cancer after a 5 year battle with my last surgery this past spring and even though I messed myself up with a nasty fall this fall my heel is healing and I will have the rods and pins removed this coming week. I still feel so fortunate with the health I have struggled with just in the fact that our God has blessed me with a wonderful family and I have been able to fight through things. Whenever I got a little down the past several years all I had to do is look at a number of others around me who are having a far tougher time than myself. We had a great year in our gallery and I have been able to make a living with my art for many years.
We held our annual Gallery Holiday Show yesterday and although attendance was down a little from previous years we had good sales. [Check out the Silver Sage Gallery blog]
Yes. I do have a lot to be THANKFUL for.

The 2-Shot show also has a number of purchase Awards associated with it. This will be an entry for one of those awards.

INCOMING CANADIANS

10"x20" Oil Painting

Along with my Yellowstone series paintings I have recently been working on I have done several paintings for the upcoming Natl 2-Shot Goose Show in Torrington, Wyoming which commences the second week of December. There is no fee for artists attending nor commission taken but they do require a painting for their auction of which the artist still receives 50% of. Quite a deal. This is my just completed painting I am submitting for the auction.
EVENING MALLARDS
12"x16" Oil Painting

MOUNT MORAN EVENING
18"X24" Oil Painting
I have been trying to decide just when this painting has been brought to completion. I have spent the last 4 or 5 days thinking it was only to go back and do a little more work on it. I think this should do it though.
Many times Elk can be found just off the hiway that runs the valley of Jackson Hole and it is a pleasure to watch Elk on the Antelope Flats area. Here a Bull courts his harem that he has gathered with much work and perseverance as evening approaches after a rain shower that has mists coming off the canyons that skirt Mount Moran. [Mount Moran was named after Thomas Moran the artist that accompanied one of the earliest scientific explorations to this area and Yellowstone and from this trip began the idea of National Parks that we so cherish in our country and world today.

MULE DEER SHADOWS

16"X20" Oil Painting

I have just completed this oil that I have been painting off and on along with 5 other paintings the past few weeks. They all seem to be at the point of completion about the same time.

It seems that my blog comment has been discombubalated[is that a word?]Hopefully I have it fixed and do appredciate all comments on my work.

This is a just finished Oil Painting, 12"x24", Buffalo River Moose.

It is a scene from Moran Jct where the Buffalo River emptys into the Snake River and rather than show off the Tetons to the west I have focused on the cottonwoods and looking east towards the Mt Leidy highlands.

SOLD

I dug this old painting out of my "Maybe Someday File" and reworked it a little. I think it is now presentable.

It is a scene along the Green River in western Wyoming NW of Pinedale, Wyoming.

ON THE GREEN RIVER 10"x20" Oil Painting

I have actually been fighting with this painting way more than I do with many of my pieces. The landscape was no problem but I have wiped out and added to the elk a number of times. I still wanted to keep them in here as I think they added to the scene and were needed to use the large lighted space on the left.
This is an Oil Painting 12"x24" and another of my Yellostone series I am working on. The setting is near Madison Jct east of West Yellowstone, Montana and is an area where elk can easily be found particularly during the rutting season. I spent quite a bit of time this past September following a lone bull who seemed to be pretty large but I am guessing he was getting along in age as he couldn't seem to gather any cows. There were several other bulls around with large harems but this fellow one morning had either stole or found several cows and a calf to call his own. I'm betting he didn't keep them long.

In continuing my Yellowstone series, I am currently working on 5 different paintings. Several are now nearing completion and I think I am pretty well finished with this Oil Painting, SNAKE RIVER GRIZZLY. It is 12"x24". I actually used the area just outside the south gate to Yellowstone as my background. This is along the Sanke River bottoms and I have used the north end of the Teton Mountains as a background. These are the most fabulous meadows and river bottom habitats and make for the greatest source of inspiration and painting opportunities. We spend quite a bit of time in various seasons here and this is not the first time nor will it be the last time I will use this area in paintings.

I have been working pretty diligently on this Oil Painting, BEAR CREEK MORNING, 22"x28" image size and will be my entry for one of the Purchase Awards at the Two-Shot Show in December. This is the larger award which I won last year so am trying to make it two years in a row. For those who follow my blog you may recognize my love of Bear Creek which is so spectacular in the fall with such great compositions and contrasts of color and value of Dark Spruce and light enhanced Cottonwoods. Particularly in the evening and mornings.

I have just completed this 16"x20" Oil Painting, FIREHOLE FALL and is one of a series of paintings depicting Yellowstone National Park that I am currently working on and really excited about. Its wildlife and scenic wonders. This painting is from along the Firehole River just south of Old Faithful where the Firehole River slowly flows snake like across meadows of golden grasses in the fall. Elk and Bison are abundant here and especially make a beautiful composition and detail to the fall scene.

The Firehole River was named by the earliest expedition into Yellowstone not because of all the hot water flowing into it but because of a Forest Fire that had just preceded the expedition that named it. It was caught in the fires of 1988 but is recovering remarkably and is as beautiful as ever.