The finished painting framed and ready for the auction. It is a 11"x22" image size, Gouache Watercolor. The auction was very slow and I was a little dissapointed in the results for all the artists. Sales were OK for the silent auction miniatures but prices were way down. First time in years I did not have a sellout of those paintings. This economy is scarey. 
After two weeks of pretty intensive work on the gallery doing some construction, and rehanging we are open and back to painting. I have even been back to Montana earlier this week and yep. got to visit again with the barking pig. 
I am not going to get much painting done for a few days as we are in the process of getting the gallery open for the season. Tom and Tammy are back from the Arizona show and are rehanging their gallery wall. Today we rehung Tom's wall and mine. Tomorrow we will begin work on rehanging other artists. We are moving things around a little and building a new Bronze display shelf which will be pretty nice. What with rehanging and some new touch ups it will give the Gallery a fresh look for the season. In spite of snow falling outside and winter storm warnings for tomorrow we even had a few folks in.
By popular demand here is Rudy the barking pig. The wagon is one my folks had at the ranch that we used to neighbor in [for the most part]when I was just a little fellow. It was miles to a neighbor made closer by this horse pulled freight wagon. it had been in early stages of disrepair and I had begun to try and restore it when Clay, my son-in-law took it upon himself to finish the job.
I took this photo outside the shop of another monument sized bronze by D Michael Thomas. Unfinished it depicts an old time cowboy who has reached down into a pool of water to fill his hat with water for a drink. Water will drip out of his hat back into the pool. It is designed to be a fountain if you will with the horse standing in the pool and water continually running. A background of rock and a falls accompany the bronze. I have seen one of these set up and it is quite impressive. As you can see I am accompanied by Mitze who considers herself extremely important. The kids have several dogs and a pot bellied pig who all run out to greet you. The pig thinks he is barking along with the others and seems quite excited about everything. 
Back from our little trip to Frannie, Wyoming and into Montana. We took our daughter, husbsnd and son out to celebrate her 41st Birthday which involved a 120 mile round trip drive to Red Lodge, Montana for the event. Next day we were in Billings for business then back to Frannie. Vicki was set up by our daughter, Janet for a checkup at the Lovell, Wyoming hospital where she runs the emergency room as well as working as a surgical nurse. Small hospitals require a do-it-all for nurses. With that under our belts we did the return trip running into a wonderful snow storm on the way home. Snowed all day yesterday and this morning our spring temperature was +6 degrees.
CHALLENGE
HALLETT PEAK
In the past week while I have been working on my Deer painting I have worked on several other Oils while the deer was drying. This is a view across Moraine Park in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. As a teenager our pastor had a cabin on Fall River at the edge of Estes Park and we often went there for a week at a time. I had the opportunity to explore Rocky Mountain and later as newly married, my brother, the friend we grew up with and our wives were still able to stay in the cabin. What a life. In more recent years I had the opportunity to illustrate a guidebook on the park. An endeavor I am really proud of. I still love painting the area. Across Moraine Park, 15"x20" Oil Painting
Worked more on my Deer painting today. Blocking in the deer even more and the sagebrush to the point where I think I want most of it put. I did go back in and enlarge the buck. He just looked too small. Now wondering if the deer immediately behind him are a little too small looking? I had been comparing him with the ones at the bottom and the Doe at the top. Will have to go a ways on the painting and then decide.
I finished the tree and foreground on my Gouache and put the final touches in the foreground. it is a Gouache Watercolor painting 10 3/4"x19 1/2". 
This morning we awoke to a little bit of snow. Was sure hoping for a lot more. Lander, 75 miles east of us had a foot. South and central Wyoming has roads closed. We are still hurting for moisture. I am in charge of weather recording for the U S Weather people and we have not had an inch of moisture since Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful morning though and after my session at the Dubois House of Horrors where I put my poor foot through excrusiating circumstances I drove up the mountain above my house but by the time I got to where I could get some nice shots of the departing storm it all socked in on me. fog and flurries. Oh well it was really quite pleasant.
I didn't get any work done on my painting yesterday as I went elk hunting in the morning[with camera]and worked on several other projects. Returned with my wife last night as she wanted to see what she missed in the morning. was not as many elk as there was as in the morning but I could not resist shooting more pictures[see my OUTDOOR ADVENTURES blog]Good research material anyway.
UNSEEN BUT SENSED DANGER
Just sat down with a cup of coffee when Russ who is the town paper delivery man came by with the Casper Star-Tribune-the state newspaper. Russ just lost his wife a month ago so it is good to see him back at work delivering. Vicki grabed the camera and caught me in a relaxed moment. Look. No crutch even. Hurts but I am persevering. Is only 35 degrees but got the paper read befor a breeze came up and got cold. So did the coffee.
While much of the state has been receiving snow since yesterday and in fact S E Wyoming is snowed in with road closures we are looking pretty good. We did have a couple of inches yesterday morning but you could not tell it now. My wife and I went out for breakfast this morning and as Vicki likes to walk the mile back home I drove up onto the hill above our house to check out the countryside. Here is the view, with yesterdays snow melted out, of the Ramshorn. I glassed all the country in a 360 degree view and could not find one elk or any critter for that matter. There are several wolf packs working in our area and they have the ungulate populations pretty scattered and laying low.
After working a while on my Big Horn Sheep challenge yesterday I was wasting time going through some old paintings wondering if there was any salvage to the pile and dug this oil painting out. After not looking at it for some time[years]I could definitely see why it had not sold at a gallery I had it in in Saratoga, Wyoming. Embarrassing. But with potential. So through the afternoon I reworked the whole thing keeping pretty much the drawing and mood I enhanced and freshened up the detail. Am now pretty happy with it.
I definitely must be posting too much as I was gone sunday thru tuesday and have had a number of e-mails and phone calls as to my whereabouts. Had my appt. with the foot Dr. Things are continuing to look pretty good. He gave me a velcro ankle brace that sure helps when I wear it and in fact did not use a crutch all day yesterday. Was feeling it though by night. Had my yearly heart Dr. check-up from the stints I had when life flighted 2 years ago whick I blame on the cancer treatments. I had elevated blood pressure which I have never had befor ??So I have to keep a check on that and let them know. Hmm. Then my wife decided it has been a number of years since we had our eyes checked so...Did great with the test with no changes except when I got to the Glaucoma test. Flunked that so now I get to see a specialist for that. Glad I didn't have a check-up with my cancer Doc. That has been great news for awhile now. Incidently the eye Dr told my wife that if everyone had her eyes he would be out of a job.
Worked today beginning on the detail and again from left to right and from top to bottom and back to forward. Blackrock Creek begins at Togwotee Pass on the continental divide above Dubois and runs westward into Jackson Hole where it meets up with first the Buffalo River then the Snake River. I was really taken with the light hitting the snow and the snow edges along the open and frozen water. I have left the white of the paper for those lightest edges and a grayer-blue for the tops of the snow with darker cast shadows. In the previous post I had pretty much 1 value in the shadows but all ready I have deepened those back in the trees. I began the trees as dark silhouettes then paint lighter values over defining form. The dark was mixed Indigo and Neutral tint[winsor newton]Some Quindricine rose in places too just to add differences though one would be hard pressed to notice those color changes. I am painting this on #1 Crescent illustration Board.
I must be posting too much on this site as I have been away for several days and have several folks e-mailing wondering where I was. 
I posted this Bighorn Sheep image that I photographed the other day on my OUTDOOR ADVENTURE blog and Sheila Tajima asked if she could use it for a painting. We thought it might be fun to issue it as a challenge for a painting to anyone interested in doing so. SO! You are challenged. Please let me know when you have finished yours. I'd like to see what comes of this. Not sure how these things work but if you would e-mail me your finished piece I will post them.
The last several days I have been working very diligently on my Deer Painting that I have previously mentioned and had a rough sketch made out. I had said this would be a lengthy project and it is sure turning out to be but not really unlike any other major painting undertaking. My original thought was to have a fairly vertical painting with the deer ascending a steep hillside sensing danger but not knowing where it was coming from. So far I am calling it UNSEEN BUT SENSED DANGER. After a day and a half of sketching, resketching I decided the whole design was not working as that vertical ascention was too scattered. So yesterday afternoon I scrapped that whole idea and drew the deer closer together but still with the idea that they were searching and slowly beginning to move up into the timber and possible safety beyond. Finally. I think I am onto what I wanted. The canvas size is now 25"wide by 28"high. 
Last summer we had some folks in the gallery who were interested in buying a photograph of the Badlands out east of Dubois. They had just bought some property to build on for a family get away. They were from Kansas. I suggested that I could do the photogrphy and from their property. I exclaimed it might take a while to get just the right shot. For the next month I made 8 or 9 trips out to the location to get pictures. had just what I wanted on about the 3d trip but I had gotten dust inside my camera and that ruined the pictures with spots. It took nearly a month to get the pictures I wanted and they purchased them from me. About 6 weeks ago they called and wanted the same thing done with a winter view. We have had very little snow the last few months and again I have made several trips out there. Finally yesterday with fresh snow on the ground I made the trip out again and got some descent photos. Only to discover upon returning home that there were those spots again. Ruined. Am I jinxed with this project? It has never happened to me and this is the 2nd time on the same folks project. Snowed again last night and early this moring was breaking up weather wise so my wife and I headed out and with crutches I tromp off into the snow with another camera I have. Got the pictures and I think they are going to work. My wife insisted I put this picture on my blog just to show what I will do for a dollar. I am onto 1 crutch but thought it best to do this with both feet on the ground. There were a number of deer on the hill watching the procedure and all betting on how I would come out. Fooled them. Never fell once.
