Just to invoke a little humor into my blog. The caption on this photo that I took the other day seems to have the Bighorn Ewe saying, "Hey fellas, Could you open the gate for me" She could actually walk 30 feet to either side where there is no fence.

The camp in Torrey valley was once known as the Audubon Camp of the west as they held educational camps here for years . School teachers, biologists, archeologists and nature enthusiasts now do camps and courses here. Run by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission.

I have just posted a series of winter sheep photos on my OUTDOOR ADVENTURE BLOG from this great day in the field

For all those folks who gave me so much direction on how I should matt the Platte River Island I'll let you know I did change out the one shown on my post and opted for a kind of ochre color that really did it right. I think it was the perfect choice.
I also have been spending some time the last couple of days working on drawings for my deer painting I have been discussing some posts back. Struggled with the size relationship to the landscape but I think I am finally on to something.

FORK ON BROOKS LAKE CREEK
12"X24" Oil Painting
I started this painting as I have been recently doing-with an underpainting of Acrylic just to get my main masses and a little bit of direction down as to where I might want to go with this painting depicting a mountain Stream NW of Dubois. It is a small side stream that flows into Brooks Lake Creek which is itself a great stream where I used to take my kids and nephews and nieces fishing as it was fairly easy for anyone to catch fish there and the kids loved it. I love to do cross country skiing in the area myself. I have now begun painting with oils at the top and down the left side trying to infuse light back behind the trees that is currently a dark blob. I want to have them in shadow and further down I will have light crossing the snow as if the early morning sun is just breaking through the lasndscape. The stream will course its way towards the painting bottom. Will be playing with that light as I go.
I have another snow scene I want to do in Gouache so I will be posting that in next day or so and will continue to do so as I progress with it.

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.

I didn't get a lot done yesterday but I did mange to finish my EAST FORK COTTONWOOD 11"x14" Oil Painting on canvas. Several posts back I said I was not pleased with a number of things on this painting. What really stuck out was the horizontal bands of hills each equal in size. Boring. So I have reworked it and this reads a lot better now.

I was sitting at my kitchen table with a cup of coffe and dunking the last ginger cookie in the cookie jar and a new Oatmeal-raisin that my wife made just last night. My soft time. Looking past the dinning room widow out the front of the house where a White breasted Nuthatch climbs and descends the cottonwood searhing for grubs or insects of any sort. Both Mountain and Black Capped Chickadees are on the same tree with their song that is always so positive in attitude. It is 8 degrees and for the third morning in a row it is snowing. 3" last night. Very dry as the sun tries to show its muted presence through the overcast with light snow continuing to fall and the light breeze picks up piled snow on branches and blows them off in soft plumes that being so dry turn to snowflakes themselves befor they reach the ground. On beyond the yard the river slows down just enough to form almost a small lake with little current. Ducks, Mallards, Golden Eyes and now and then a Common Merganser congregate. It is fun to watch them but makes one shiver to watch the Mallards tip up with heads underwater while the Goldeneyes plunge under only to resurface moments later. Over the years I have been priveleged to having seen unusual species on the river that were even recorded as unusual in national Birding journals. Old Squaw Ducks more thught of as being in the arctic, harlequins last year. I have several times in the last few weeks even watched a pair of Hooded Mergansers. Very unusual. Now and then a Muskrat will entertain us as he swims from one side of the river to the other side. We used to have beaver there also but neighbors didn't think they were very neighborly and had them trapped out. I even went and wired up all their trees for them so as to save them from the little loggers. There is a lot of willow which only makes them grow back thicker the next year and the beaver seemed to thrive on that arrangement. But to no avail as far as neighbors go. We used to have a lot of Moose that would winter along the river and were always passing through the yard but again they ate the nice deserts they thought folks were planting for them. Harrasement and cutting of willows ended that. I have not seen a Moose around here in 15 years.
The coffee cools off and it is time to end my soft time and climb the stairs to the studio. At the top of my stairs is a door out onto my Deck off the studio and I step out on it and take this picture across my back yard and the neighbors yard with one of his assortment of refurbished wagons that he does such a good job doing. Two Canadian Geese are on the river and are taking issue with one another. In the quiet of this snowy morning even this dissention sounds good. I turn to my desk to write this and start my morning accompanied even as I get to work by the various birds on my bird feeder just out the window from where I am sitting. The two kinds of Chickadees, the Nuthatch, pine Siskins, Cassin Finches, an occassional Goldfinch and Junco. Then there is the visit by our resident Pine Squirell. Life is good in spite of having a bum foot and recovering from this chest cold. It is enough to even want to go to work.

Last night after I had posted this painting onto my blog I set it up off to the side of the T V under a light I have set up for such viewing-which is something I do often-and while the Olympics played I studied it. The first thing that really grabbed me was the brush I had put in around the Deer. It was just too much. That bothered me more than the Buck Mule Deer being hidden. My wifes comment was the deer was too hidden. That sentiment was echoed in my blog comments from my good friend, Kay Abeyta. To me it wasn't so much as the deer being hidden as there was too much confusion with all that brush. So.. This afternoon I went back into the painting and painted over the brush. That was after this morning when I did some framing including building this frame for this painting. The liner is a linen mat and I wonder if it isn't too white? Awaitng comments. I know Kay will let me have it one way or the other.
I have used the painting of this piece as a guiding tool for a number of artists out there who have asked a lot of questions both through my personal e-mail and in comments about my gouache procedure. I welcome all. I hope I have been able to answer most. I had mentioned to someone that the beauty of gouache is that you can paint dark over light and light over dark and do it all again. I took a darkened yellow ochre-almost a raw sienna color and with the right consistency of water to paint-painted right over the brush. Rather thickly and not too wet so that it had an opaque quality to it and would cover the dark. Did so with a #8 Filbert brush. Let it dry completely.[just a few minutes here in Wyoming]then with the right consistency, again painted lights and darks of grass and some brush back into the painting. Did add a little Cad Orange straight for leaves on some of that brush to pop it a little. Added a little more detail to the Buck to make him pop some and I think I am a lot happier with it. Will await comments and see if I really am??
I did download the pix as a larger image when one clicks the image here. That way you can get a little larger view of it.

NORTH PLATTE ISLAND 18"X28" GOUACHE WATERCOLOR PAINTING

The last couple of days I have been dragging along not getting a whole lot done as I and anti-biotics never did get along too well but I do feel a litle better today so maybe I have this whatever flue whipped. don't know what it is as I had the Swine Flue shot, the regular flue shot and the pneumonia shot. Guess I had not been shot enough. I have managed though to call this pretty well finished. I can all ready see a couple of minor details I'll need to fix and wondered about the deer being hidden and thought I might bring him out a little more until I began writing this blog entry and watching a doe from my studio window moving along the brush at the rivers edge. No. I think I will leave him the way he is.

This is pretty thoughtful and cool. I was awarded the Sunshine award from two different individuals on the same day. Doreen Cross and Diane Marshall. Thankyou ladies. I thought about who I might send this on to and have more than the names allowed so rather than make that kind of decision I would like to include everyone on my blog list. Everyone I sneak a peek at on occassion are all well deservant only because they have made the decision to do art, share it, and take the time to comment and encourage each and every one of us. God bless you all.

I had intended on getting to work on my Deer drawing for the painting we have been talking about but after a Clinic visit this morning with the anti-biotics they put me on I just didn't feel up to something like that which takes a lot of perseverance to get the drawings right-so I piddled around on this all afternoon and have finished my water and the back brush a little. Even more leaf structure in the trees.

I spent some time yesterday afternoon and this morning working on this painting, COTTONWOODS ON THE EAST FORK. It is 11"x14" Oil Painting on canvas. I still have another sitting on it bringing out a few more darks and lights in the trees and still not too happy with the ridge in the background.

My wonderful feeling chest cold was about to get to me so I made a little trip to the Dubois Clinic where I got checked out and some anti biotics prescribed. Nice thing about a little place like Dubois is getting checked out by folks you have known for years. Michelle, the nurse was trying to remember if it was Mollasas or Ginger cookies that were my favorite? or if there was a difference. I don't think so so I have a promise from her of getting a home delivery of Ginger cookies. The PA remembered what I was given two years ago for a bad cold and prescribed the same hoping it will work out again. He has a good memory. Now if it will work? Wonder how long it takes Michelle to make Ginger cookies?

I spent some time last night working on my Gouache, Platte River. Blocking in the rest of the painting and doing a little more detail on lower left side and in the water. At least now you can see where I am wanting to go with this one.

For all my friends out there in the Art Blogging world. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY
This old bronc is still waiting for me to get back into the saddle.

I spent the better part of Friday and some of saturday working on drawings for the Deer painting that I have been discussing. After all that time I sat back and looked at what I was doing and told myself that I was getting away from the story I wanted to tell. I had drawn the Deer too big for the painting making it a Deer Painting rather than Deer within a lasndscape looking for an escape route from an undetected danger. So I am back to drawing them smaller. Well. Maybe tomorrow I'll start. I have been also thinking about this old Cottonwood that is up on the East Fork. It has so much character and color in it from the fall two years ago. It is begging to be painted so this morning I have put a quick wash of Acrylic on a 11"x14" Canvas. I'm all ready thinking it should be a larger painting but I'll stick with it.

This morning started out overcast and snow flurries falling at 16 degrees. It has since cleared off and my wife is talking about going for a ride up country if I am up to it. I have been fighting a chest and head cold but Cabin Fever also. Sun is bright. Sounds like a plan to me. Back to the easle tomorrow.

I have worked a few more hours on my Platte River gouache painting. It is coming along pretty slow but that is O K I am not in any hurry with this painting in that way. I didn't like the size of my Buck Deer against the cottonwoods so I spent most of my time enlarging him. I think it is looking a lot better now. I had taken a paper towel wet but not dripping and wiped out the deer and some of the immediate background. repainted him back in to the size I wanted paying close attention as to the wetness of the paint. I didn't want to get it very wet or work the paint at all or I would have picked up the underlying colors and it would have turned to mud. Is best to just put the paint on and leave it. If not right wait to let it dry and then another nearly drybrush application over that until I got it to where I want it-at least for now.

I have been working on this most of the day to finish things up and think I pretty well have it. After a few more days of drying I will put a few more touches to it but I am going to call it finished. PINNACLE MOUNTAIN STREAM 15"x22" Oil Painting. Odd size that means I will have to build a frame special for it but since I build most of my frames anyway that should be no problem.

SOLD

I worked on this Oil Painting most of yesterday afternoon and have pretty well finished the left side and the water. Today I plan on finishing the grasses and brush on the right side and the rocky little bar at the bottom.

I spent some time working on my Gouache. getting the trees in and some forground water. I did sketch with paint the Buck Deer that I wanted along the cottonwoods.

This is a series of thumbnail sketches that I have done portraying various ideas for placement of the deer I have been discussing. I still like the idea of the deer climbing a steep ridgeline sensing danger from some undetected source so that they are looking everywhere as they slowly climb towards the timber at the top of the painting. In the photos I took for this idea there was a huge fallen Limber Pine but I am afraid it may be too much and to make it look right might take away from my story idea so I think I will just use trees instead. So it is the lower left sketch that I am leaning towards. I redid it a little at the bottom of page and now will go into more detail as far as sizing and placement of the deer still using paper but maybe to the size of the canvas it will all be done on. I'll try and get some of that worked out in the next day or two.

I worked all day on my PINNACLES STREAM Oil Painting working my way down towards the bottom building up my detailing as I go. Upon finishing I will still go back in and do touch up where appropriate to pull everything together. I didn't get to my Gouache as I had planned but feeling ever so guilty I did do a small Gouache that I posted on my painting-a-day blog. Not quite getting one-a-day. Guess I am having too much fun working on these larger pieces. Still working in my mind the Deer painting I have in my sub concious. I really am ready to start doing some sketches on it. Maybe I can get going on that today.
This is the day I get to go to the Dubois House of Horrors for continuing foot exercise. To heal they tell me I have to want to be in pain. Ouch!

I have been working on this Gouache watercolor for several days. I have thought about it for a while and working off several photos of an island on the North Platte River south of Saratoga, Wyoming near the Colorado border which is very near the headwaters of the North Platte. This painting is 18"x28" image size. After starting I decided to also put in a Buck Deer. He will be showing up very soon.

Worked on this painting for a while yesterday. As usual am working top to bottom and from left to right so as not to get my hand into my oils. So why do I have paint on the underside of my hand? Well. I try to stay out of it. Will hit it again today though I am also working on a Gouache watercolor that I am also posting.

Still doing some planning out in my head on the Deer painting. Will post some drwings later.

Our suffering to the winter weather woes are nothing compared to the rest of the country. We could really use some of the snow the rest of the country seems to be getting. This morning was cool at 8 degrees and overcast with low clouds and several flurries falling at the rate of a trace in two or three days if it keeps up that long. Early this morning my two welfare cottontails were waiting at the far end of the yard when I opened the door with a carrot for each. They are in full stampede to get their carrots. We have created monsters. Every now and then our resident Great Horned Owl thanks us for feeding those cottontails to make a nice fat meal for themselves. Natures way.

I am still in the thinking stage for my painting of the deer on the ridge line that I posted. I am leaning towards stacking them in an overlapping fashion up the hillside in a vertical format and as they were in the photographs I took, a little wary about what was going on. My thought is to pose them with the realization that something is not quite right and have them all peering in different directions trying to pinpoint where the danger is coming from. Next is to begin some sketches.

In the mean time I have blocked in this painting 15"x22" Oil. This is a painting from several years ago when I took a number of photos above Brooks Lake. I did a gouache watercolor from that little trip that I won an award on and was published in an art magazine. Everytime I run across this photo it begs to be made into a painting. This past summer Les Llefevre and I were back up in this area on a hike into Jade Lake and I began thinking at that time about doing this painting. You can check out that trip with its beautiful waterfalls in my OUTDOOR ADVENTURES blog from early September of last year. There is in fact a photo from that trip that is tugging at me too. So here goes.

Last sunday Vicki and I drove up Horse Creek road just to try and cure a little cabin fever. Dubois has had very little snow this winter and the mountains are about 50% of normal but that doesn't mean there is no snow up there. All the roads around Dubois are unimproved and in some cases no more than cow trails. About 10 mile north of town we were in freshly fallen snow and no tracks showing that we were the only people to have traveled up that way in the past 24 hours. We had spotted 3 Buck Mule Deer and watched them awhile and a little further up the road decided to turn around. Still on crutches I don't relish becoming stuck and doing any digging out. Going back down the road we discovered a nice herd of does and fawns on the steep hillside from where the bucks had been and I took a number of photos of them. Thinking about this group I have begun to formulate an idea in my mind. I really like the setting and am playing with the idea of running these deer up the hillside in a verticle format. I am now playing around with some ideas to do a painting and thought I would start this one by giving my blogging friends insight of where my idea and thought patterns might take me. I'll try and show off some of my sketches and paper thoughts as I go along. It might take another week or so of still playing around but I do have that nagging plan to do something great. Aren't all our ideas on paintings great at this point. It may turn out to be a fire starter but lets see where it goes.

Back in a winter mood I have completed this painting that I have been working on the last few days. WINTER SO GRAND is an Oil Painting depicting the Grand Teton rising above a winter fog bank and frosted Cottonwoods and Willow. It is 12"x12"

SOLD

The biggest advantage to having a busted foot is not having to carry in firewood. My wonderful wife is getting her exercise this winter in doing that as we use 2 wood stoves to heat the house and studio. Plus Vicki is a fanatic when it comes to walking and does so for several miles every day. Snow, rain, sleet, sun and hail.
When I went to get the camera there were three deer just across the fence in background not the least bit concerned about her doing her chores. Soon as I showed up with this camera they departed. You can tell how awful the weather is here.

I spent a little more time working on this painting adjusting lights and darks in the myriad of leaves that I have going on here. I'll call it finished at this point but after letting it sit a while I may do a little more work on it.
INTO THE OPENING 18"x24" Oil Painting.

Look! One crutch. Not very comfortable but I am determined.

Cabin Fever has set in and with this heel still healing and unable to really get out in the country yet I spent this afternoon adding some photos on my OUTDOOR ADVENTURE blog of a trip artist friend, Mark Gale and myself along with some other folks who wanted to see the country took ten years ago. This was Mark looking for the perfect painting spot amidst spectacular country in the Absaroka Wilderness NE of Dubois, Wyoming. Hope you will mosey over to the site and get rid of a little cabin fever yourself.

I have now moved across the canvas and pretty well established what I want where. Next I will begin fine tuning my darks and lights and hopefuly make them all work together.

I was asked about my technique on doing Gouache watercolors on my FIREHOLE RIVER posting and thought I would post an explanation about "my" way.
I did this particular painting on 300# Arches Watercolor paper. For some paintings I find it works pretty well and on others it drives me crazy and wonder why I chose it. My favorite and most used is #1 illustration Board by Arches that I can only find at Dick Blick. My last posted Painting-a-Day blog, ABOVE RAMSHORN RANCH, was paintied on Illustration Board. I was on a roll and did it in 45 minutes though that is the time frame I try to do most of my paintings on that blog. In doing workshops it amazes me to print out a materials list and ask for illustration board and a few folks show up with any of an assortment of watercolor papers. I always bring a few sheets[30"x40"]along and try selling off various sizes but always take a beating on that. With great expectations in mind folks try out my technique and are quickly discouraged. It seems easy but takes some getting used to.
I use all transparent watercolors and use them with White Gouache. Gouache watercolors areavailable but they are a little too flat looking for my taste. I used to use them a lot for book and magazine illustration as they work great for reproduction work. I just like the ability to use some transparancy here and there on a painting. It is easiest [and so hard for the beginner]to think of the paints more as oils than watercolors. It is shocking for the uninformed to see me mixing my watercolor paints with a pallette knife onto my Porceline pallette. The amount of water used is important as A lot of dry brush work is involved. The true beauty of it all is that you can paint dark over light and light over dark. The trick is to do it when dry or mud is the result. That is the hardest thing for the beginner to figure out. It is important, I think, to keep in mind good color theory as you work with these as with watercolor there is a point where too much paint can get one into trouble. As with my oils, I have a preconceived idea pretty much of where I want the painting to go and work from left[I am right handed]to right. From top down and from back to forward. I used to use an electric eraser to fix glaring mistakes but as the years have gone by I have gotten used to not painting myself into that corner. This technique can be very frustrating for the beginner but I tell all my students in workshops and the Wilderness Pack trip Paint-outs I used to do to do 100 paintings and then look back at #1 and see how much they have learned.
Don't make the mistake as some workshop folks have done and get Chinese White. It won't work. I really like the large[huge]tube of Gouach White by Pebeo that I can only find through Cheap Joes. Another beauty of the paints is that they can be rewet after being dry no matter how old. The whites though will have to be worked on a little as they get a little grainey but can be revived. A perfect tool for rewetting paints is the little bugger getters found in the baby section at your favorite Dept Store.
In my last posted Painting-a-Day blog, FROM RAMSHORN RANCH, I did use the white of the illustration board showing through as in a transparent painting in palces but a lot of opaque also. This give a shimmer of light in wanted places.
If I have missed anything and you have questions please feel free to e-mail me or comment on this posting.

I continued work for the better part of the day on my Early Fall Glade. Today I have continued on working top to bottom and from left to right, doing a little detail as I go

Firehole Evening.

14"x21" Gouache Watercolor Painting.

I think I am pretty well finished with this Gouache painting depicting one of the many wonderful meadows along the Firehole River between Old Faithful and Madison Jct in Yellowstone National Park. I have included a few grazing Bison so prevalent in this area. It is late fall and snow all ready is on the eastern and northern slopes where it is protected from the sun. It will be there till spring.

I spent a few hours saturday working on this painting going from background forward and from upper left to lower left and then to the right. I have a preconceived notion of what I want this painting to look like and will progressively work that way then go back and touch up values, detail, and textures to hopefully pull it all together.

With fresh snow and colder temperatures outside I have jumped onto a painting I have been playing with in the back of my mind and am a little excited about from some photos I took early in September. On a 16"x20" canvas I have laid in Acrylic paint planning out my colors and lights and darks somewhat. I will now go to Oils for the final painting.

I have spent several days working on this 10"x20" Oil Painting, FROSTED MEADOW, dipicting a snow covered irrigated meadow from the Riverton, Wyoming area. In my Painting-a-Day blog I did a frosted tree scene and a good artist friend of mine from Riverton asked if I was going to do some more of that kind of thing. So here it is. Winter in the Riverton area is a deep freeze all winter with subzero temperatures the norm. Fog collects in the valley and freezes on everything making a surreal world of real beauty and challenging scenes for the artist. I shot a number of photos last month that I would like to do some more work from.

As I was waiting for my Desert Anvil painting to dry I have begun this Gouache Watercolor Painting, 14 1/2"x21 1/2" depicting the Fire Hole River in Yellowstone. This is a return to my Yellowstone project. I have in mind to put some grazing Buffalo across the river on the left. I have blocked in the painting and begu detailing the backlit mountain ridge and the trees in the back. Now for the river and fore grasses as well as the Buffalo.

I have pretty well put the finishing touches to my Oil Painting, 12"x24" Desert Anvil.

After a pretty fruitful day this is where I am on my Arizona Anvil cloud. Am pretty well working on the vegetation and remembering my times in the desert. Great hikes and country and ever mindful that everything out there bites.
Several years ago a number of aritst friends and myself gathered at a Scottsdale restaurant for dinner and while waiting outside for a table observed several kids playing around a Saguaro that was in the courtyard. I told those kids that it would bite if they were not careful. Kids being kids one little boy just had to touch the trunk. Sure enough it bit. In tears I think he learned a desert lesson.

I spent yesterday painting in oils on my thundercloud. As is my technique, After I have blocked in my painting I have a pretty good idea about where I want to take it and therefor begin painting usually from top to bottom. From back to forward and from left to right. After I pretty well have the painting painted I will go back in and touch up this or that to hopefully make it all come together.

I have started another of my Arizona Paintings and this one will be 12"x24" Oil painted on a Ray Mar Canvas panel. I have layed in a coat of Acrylic just to get my idea down which will feature this anvil Thundercloud in early evening. Across the expanse I will include a number of desert species such as the Saguaro, Palo Verde and others.

I think I have finished my vertical Grand Canyon painting. Still spending some time looking at the light colored hill in left side just below middle. The actual geology consists of a change from iron tinted red hillside to the yellowish color. I liked it in my reseach as it balanced out the whiter colors of the limstone faces on the horizon. Now I'm not sure. Maybe I am being a little too hard on my judgement?

Went to my Therapy Doc this morning and took my first steps without crutches yesterday. Painful but I did it. Was a cold morning to be out in moccasins at -26 but the sky is blue after 3" snow yesterday. Off to Casper today to see my regular Doc and x-rays tomorrow to see how the heel is healing. Hope the roads aren't too slick as it is 200 miles of hiway driving.

After a day of painting on my Grand Canyon piece. I have pretty well put in my background except for tweaking after I finish the cliff face on the right today.

I have started this painting which is on of my Arizona series I am working on [see painting-a-day]This is a scene from the Grand Canyon down along the walls looking eastward. It is on Ray-mar canvas. 10"x20". I thought it challenging to do a vertical scene and have begun with an acrylic underpainting getting my drawing down and kind of map of where I want to go with the mood and all. I will now begin painting in Oils using a thinned liquin as a medium.

Checking on them at various times I caught one of our welfare Cottontails which for awhile seemed to amuse our two lay-a-bouts. What with the daily carrot this fellow gets he probably sees in the dark quite well.

One of the really cool things about being a Wildlife and Landscape artist is the encounters I have with critters. Sometimes right under my Living room window such as these two fawns from last summer who still seem inseperable as they lay about my yard for the better part of yesterday afternoon.

I have been working on this Oil Painting, SHOSHONE WINTER, 20"X30", for about a month off and on. It is one of my Yellowstone series I am working on. I have not put any wildlife into it but am still considering doing so. It depicts the North Fork of the Shoshone River that headwaters for the most part in the Yellowstone eastern border area and flows eastward towards Cody, Wyoming. The Indians and early mountain men refered to this river as the Stinking Water River. As it flows through the Cody area it picks up a lot of Hydrogen Sulfide gases which in high quantities can be deadly but otherwise smells like rotten eggs.

None the less it is a beautiful Stream and in winter is very clear. Spring runoff at lower elevations can be high, roiling and muddy.

The real challenge in this painting was the trees on the mountain slopes. How to make them look realistic without being too contrived or taking over the painting.

Since I had talked a little bit about my framing options I thought I would post this pix of EMERGING GRIZZLY with the frame I have picked. I cut a 3/4" fabric mat that I have as a liner. If I stay with this option it would be best to glass over the painting and mat. I have not decided yet so I have not applied any varnish to it. If I do varnish it I will have to delete the mat option and either build a 3/4" liner or will have to paint the painting on all 4 sides another 3/4" as I had masked off that much in anticipation of using the mat. Not really that difficult with gouache just a little more time consumption on my part.

I am at the point that I am calling this painting finished. After a few days of looking it over I may tweek a few things here and there. I hope I have satisfied Les and have gotten rid of the pasted on look. EMERGING GRIZZLY 15"x21 1/2" Gouache Watercolor Painting

In between working on my grizzly I have several other oil paintings I am working on such as this 8"x10" painted on Ray Mar canvas.

I was asked about the varnish I use for my watercolors[gouaches]
I like 3-4 coats of spray fixative like Krylon UV resistant Clear Matt or Gloss. That is a preferance for individual taste. Some artists I know will even add a coat of UV Varnish brushed on or sprayed on afterwards. That would be to an artists taste but I don't.

Another day working on my Grizzly. I am trying to get the lighting on the Bear so he stands out and working on the Sage. Same problem-trying to adjust the values and get it to all work together.