Heiner Hertling working from a model who posed with his saddle and full cowboy outfit. The kids were pretty impressed with the whole day.

Other instructors were David Rankin and Mort Solberg, watercolorists. Nancy Foreman, Janene Grande and others with expertise on promotion and marketing.

Master artist, John Seerey Lester working on an oil depicting a male Lion.

Wanda Mum, who I have known as a wonderful wildlife artist in past years is working on a Landscape. Another beautiful job.

Jeannie McKenzie, another artist I have known for years is a well known national workshop teacher and here is working on one of her oils. A beautiful winter scene.

Mark Kelso, well known Landscape painter working on a beautiful painting of a waterfall.

The Susan Black Workshops are continuing this week and I thought it would be fun to post some of the instructors who are here this year.
Lee Cable, whom I have known and showed with in shows in past years and even accompanied on a pack trip a few years ago is a favorite every year as his wife, Pam is the head honcho of the workshops.
Yesterday the school had all their students at the Headwaters Center to watch as the instrutors did demonstrations for their and the workshop participants to watch and ask questions. Each workshop participant then took one student and worked with them during the day as a mentor. I think it was extremely beneficial to all involved.
Lee is doing an oil here of one of his horses. He works in Water Oils and does a marvelous job of it.

I have finished my Oil Painting BEAR CREEK SEASON 18"x24" that I have been working off and on for a month now. I love this area in the fall as it is spectacuar with Cottonwood, Aspen, Pine and Spruce that offers such high contrasts.

http://www.silversagegallery.com

I worked on a little gouache painting. It is a pretty neat area and old time ranch that is quickly becoming subject to the elements.

The Susan Black workshops are in full swing this weekend in Dubois and I was invited to go out with them the other mornig to do a little pleine aire painting. It was cold and about finishing time began raining but was great to be with other artists and to watch some of them work. Here is Heiner Hertling giving instructions to one of the workshop participants. There were about 15 of us that showed up this morning to paint the barns at the Wagon Box Ranch. John Seerey Lester had a group of folks just over the rise above.

I entered this painting in the State Audubon Show in Lander, Wyoming and have won 1st place in Oils with it. It is 24"x32" Oil Painting that I call the HUNTER AND THE HUNTED.

After finishing the vignette I decided to do an oil painting using the full bodied Bull that I used in my watercolor. I added a couple of others and being in my cloud period I threw that in for a background and have come upo with this 11"x14" Oil Painting. It must have been a pretty good idea as I sold it off the easle befor I was half finished with it.
SOLD

This is a commission vignette that I have completed for a client in Michigan. It is a watercolor and is 11"x14"

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Saratoga is an interesting little Wyoming town very similar in a lot of ways to Dubois, my home town. Was also once a thriving logging community with ranching and recreation as side ventures. Logging is now gone leaving it to ranching still along with some Dude activity and outdoor recreation. River Float trips are a big thing for fly fishing in summer with snowmobiling and cross country skiing in winter. The town does have a hot springs with a pool but most impressive are two 18 hole golf courses. The Saratoga Inn, a resort kind of place and the Old Baldy Club that have huge CEO style homes along with bungalow rentals that are frequented by who's who in America at different times. It is not uncommon to find Movie Stars and World celebrities flying in to town in Lear Jets to take in a few rounds of golf. They are seldom seen by the general populace as it is a rather well kept secret about who is in town and when.

http://www.silversagegallery.com

Finished and framed up. I don't know about the mat I put on it but am stuck with what I thought would work and had brought. Several other artists were painting out on the sidewalk in front of the gallery.

The fellow in the black Cowboy hat standing is Steve Moulton who is from the Moulton family that have the famous, most photographed barns in the world with the Tetons in the background. Steve is a wonderfully talented singer [cowboy songs-not western but cowboy]His wife is a writer and has been in our gallery talking with my pardner, Tom Lucas about filming some more movies of him with his Indian Craft work. I ended up with one of Steves C D. It is great music.

I chose to do a landscape gouache paining of Aspens from a sketch I did the day befor in the Snowy Range. The colors are not this far along but I have an Artistic Liscence that allows me to push things a little.

We even got some hiking in. My wife, Vicki waiting for me to catch up on the trail above Long Lake at the foot of Medicine Bow Peak

This past weekend was the Miniature Show and Sale in Saratoga, Wyoming at the Blackhawk Gallery. We were there for several days of fun and work as we spent saturday along with other gallery artists painting the town and area for a special showing of those paintings. Friday night was the reception for the miniature Show and saturday all the artists gathered at Patti Lufkin's,[gallery owner] ranch for a cookout. She sure knows how to put on a feed and her hospitality is out of this world.

My wife and I did take some time out to drive up into the Snowy Range where I shot this photo of one of my favorite areas, Lewis Lake.

My good friend, Les Llefevre, arrived last night and so I had him on the trail today for Jade Lake. It was a good vigorous hike and a beautiful area to hike in.

I have gotten back to work on this painting I started several weeks ago and had put aside to get some commission work done. 18"x24" Oil.

My finished painting ASPEN. Oil 8"x10"
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I have begun this 8"x10" Oil of an Aspen. Interested in the light on the tree trunk and leaves. We'll see how it progresses.

I have been working on some photo-realist type of paintings and have just finished this of a Copper Butterfly[there are many varieties of Coppers]sitting on a rock along the backwaters of a little stream. It is an 8"x10" Oil Painting.

http://www.silversagegallery.com

I continue to spend quite a bit of time in the mountains[research?]and for the second time in the last two weeks I hiked into Lake Louise, about a 6-7 mile[round trip]pretty physical hike so I am getting my exercise too. Will post this hiking adventure probably in the next week as I find time to do so. It is a pretty fantastic hike with waterfalls galore and this as the end of trail reward.

This is the second rendition of Sleeping Indian Pk. 18"x24" Oil Painting. Viewed from just a little further south of the first view.
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I worked pretty hard all weekend to finish the two Sleeping Indian paintings that I have been posting. Here is one of my renditions of this beautiful peak over in Jackson Hole. 18"x24" Oil Painting

Also worked today on my other rendition of Sleeping Indian. I am still not that happy with the way some things are going and late this evening I began completely changing the trees in the mid forground.

I have begun painting in Oil using liquin as a medium

I was a little concerned about just what my client wants in the painting I am working on of the Sleeping Indian from over in Jackson Hole that I decided to do 2 of them with the same cloud theme. This view will be from a little further away than the other painting I am working on. In other words I have droped the skyline. I have finished the underpainting with acrylic so it is pretty rough looking at this point.

I had this little fellow and his mom come by for a visit last night. They were very cooperative in letting me get some good pictures. He should end up in a painting in the not too distant future.

gkeimig@dteworld.com

I have gotten back to work on this 18"x24" Oil on canvas. I have a lot of folks asking about it in the gallery as I have it setting against the wall near where I am set up to paint. With that much interest in it I guess I had better get it finished.

gkeimig@dteworld.com

I have begun working on my commission work that is piling up during the summer. This is a piece that I am doing in Oils of the Sleeping Indian from the area of the Gros Ventre[pronounced grow vont]River in Jacson Hole. I have used Acrylic on Ray Mar canvas and am just beginning to work Oils into the sky. I am still a little unsure how I want to treat the foreground so that may cahnge as I get into it. This painting is 18"x24"gkeimig@dteworld.com

Another view from the airport of Lava Mountain and the continental divide.

Yesterday it turned cold and was rainey during the NODS Show with reports of snow in the mountains. Sure enough this morning our growing season is now over as it was in low 30's in town with scattered frost and snow in the mountains. I shot this pix from the airport above town of the Pinnacles west of town sporting a coat of white. Togwotee Pass had several inches of the white stuff. Our growing season this year was 5 weeks. Not too conducive for growing tomatoes.

Yesterday was the annual Dubois Nods Show which is a fundraiser event for people who need help in our small community. NODS is Needs of Dubois. Silversage Gallery takes part in it every year with a booth display and Tom Lucas and I do a quick-draw painting which is then auctioned off at intermission time during the main show which is a singing artist brought in just for this event. A Chuckwagon Dinner is part of the event that folks pay to attend. It is held in the Headwaters Arts and Conference Center here in town. Performing rtists in the past have included Ian Tyson [of Ian and Sylvia fame during the Folk era][and one of my all time favorites]], Don Edwards[western Cowboy singer[a great one]] This year it was Gary McMahan, a Cowboy singer and poet who is famous for his song, The Old Double Diamond , performed and made famous by Ian Tyson and Chris LaDoux. Pictured here is my quick-draw painted from a photograph I took the other morning at Brooks Lake[see my Outdoor Adventures blog]It auctioned for $350.00 which I gave all proceeds to NODS. It is image size, 12"x20" and is a gouache watercolor painting.

The morning light show included some fantastic rainbows at sunrise. This one against the Sawtooth Range of LaBonte Creek.

While in Douglas this past weekend for my show I did a little early morning trip towards Laramie Peak where I worked for the Forest Service summers during college and used to fish as a teenager. It was an incredible morning with spectacular storms, clouds and Light effects on the mountains. Here I caught the sun in all its glory catching the hills in light with Laramie Peak in the background.

My finished Quick-Draw painting.

http://www.silversagegallery.com

I have spent the better part of last week in Douglas, Wyoming at the Pioneer Museum Western Invitational Art Show that kicks off the Wyoming State Fair. It is a great little show put on by the Museum that I have been involved with since it first began about 30 years ago. They are a marvelous group of people that really know how to do an art show. Here I am doing the saturday afternoon Quick-draw which I took top money in. It was purchased by the Andersons. Mr Anderson is the speaker of the House in the Wyoming Legislature. I think my Laramie Peak Painting has found a good home.

Just had to post this phenomenal rainbow from behind our gallery this evening. About as spectacular as they come. My camera lens on wide angle was still unable to capture the enormous bow that stretched completely from ground to ground in a beautiful arc. A second rainbow just above was nearly as well defined but had disapated by the time I got my camera and got out the back door.

I have been spending quite a bit of time in the mountains the past week with a little bit of guiding thrown in along with a very busy gallery I have not had a lot of time at the easle but I have begun several oil paintings including this 18"x24" Oil on Canvas. I began with an acrylic underpainting as I have been doing recently and now am using oil and beginning my detasil work. It is from several photographs of Bear Creek NE of Dubois that I took last fall. Such a beautiful ara in the fall with cottonwoods, Spruce and Pine.

I have been trying to get a descent photograph of this monster Mule Deer Buck for about a week and this morning I succeeded by getting some 20 shots. After watching him and several other bucks that were dwarfed standing nearby I continued on down the road turning off on Brent Creek Road. Turning a bend in the one lane dirt road I jumped a large Black Bear but he[she]was off faster than I could even think to grab my camera. I watched him for several seconds going seemingly straight up through the timber and dissapearing. Boy was he fast. What a great morning. All this and home for breakfast by 7:30 A M

Couldn't resist posting another picture from the Ring Lake bridge looking on the opposite side towards the Absaroka Mountains.

This was my completed quick-draw Gouache Watercolor Painting

Trail Lake

14"x17"

It is the view of the lake from the Dining Room that sits on a rock face looking out over the lake, Arrow and Middle Mountain and several glaciers that can be seen on the horizon. It is a view to die for. The base of the cliff contains numerous Indian Petroglyphs nearly a thousand years old. The ranch has quite a horse program and many were sitting a little gingerly watching the quick-draw as they had just arrived from the saddle into the cabin for my 45 minute painting. What fun we had. The painting after a scrumptious dinner acutioned off for $500.00. I give the ranch half.

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Ring Lake Ranch is an Ecumenical wilderness Retreat Center that is st in a beautiful place. Surrounded by high peaks of the Wind River Range it sits between two mountain glacial Lakes seperated by Torrey Creek . This photo is from the bridge crossing the creek and by just crossing this stream you know you are entering a most special place. I served on the Board of Directors of the ranch for 21 years and as president for 7 years. I still have a place in my heart for the ranch. My oldest Grand daughter worked summers in highschool and college here.
Our weather has turned cold again and I was sure wishing for a fire in the cabin we held our event in. At 49 degrees everyone was dressed pretty warm. Snow will be falling in the higher country tonight. Chances of rain snow mix in town. Ahh. Life in the high country.

I had to do a quick-draw painting late this afternoon at Ring Lake Ranch SE of Dubois and being as 3 of our grandkids came up for a few days visit, Bryce went along to help pack gear to the community cabin for our little event.

We left a little early and checked up on some of the Indian Petroglyphs in the area. Guess to really get the creative juices going.

I had started this gouache watercolor painting at the Museum this past weekend when I was doing a painting demo for the annualk Museum Days. I finished it off yesterday. It is from Double Cabins north of Dubois. Is 12"x20" and I call it Double Cabins Afternoon. http://www.silversagegallery.com/

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I had started this Oil Painting several months ago and dug it out to finish it off the last few days after taking several days off to go wander around in the mountains. It is 16"x20" and I call it Converse County Thunder.

I think I have pretty well finished this painting. After photographing it I can see a few bugs to iron out but it is essentially done. Horse Creek 16"x20" Oil Painting

Tom's finished oil painting one hour later. An Indian knife in a beaded scabbard. 9"x12" Oil Paintingwww.silversagegallery.com

My setup with the demo painting blocked in on the floor and the finished watercolor on the easle. www.silversagegallery.com