I love camping. Sometimes I wish I could just spend weeks away from civilization but there are things I have to do. Living in the desert has made me appreciate the pine forests even more as it's such a contrast from what I see every day. I love to be able to go hiking where you can't hear cars riding on the road or the sounds of crowds gathering. It's relaxing to be able to simplify life that way.






I'm excited to be starting this next piece of the pine woods on Mt. Lemmon near Tucson, AZ. Not only will I get to play will great textures but I will also be able to reflect on memories of camping with family.

finished

I'm much happier with this watercolor than I am with the last one. It's a good feeling to be back on track with painting. I enjoy all of the interesting colors in the cactus of the desert. It's still a novelty to me.

cactus and gravel

This is beginning of my next piece of another watercolor of a purple prickly pear in Arizona that I like. I'm finding arizona to be really interesting. I'm suprised by all of the grass when I leave the desert. I'm already so used to the gravel that replaces this green stuff.

This is the final of the Olea piece. This is not my best work and I feel I can do much better. Sometimes it's easy to get discouraged with painting when everything does not go the way you intend. It's important to be diligent in order to continue on with creating. That's the only way to get better.

day three

This is the third day's work on this piece. There are a few bugs to still work out but so far I think it's going fairly well.

Sometimes I look at my pallete and think it's a work of art that's always evolving. Even though it's always changing it still seems a stable structure I can count on.

day two

This is the second day's work on this piece. It's helpful to me to be able to step back and look at my paintings while working on them to be able to gain some perspective of what changes I should make.

starting Olea

This is the first day of work on the Olea piece. I hope to be able to show a sequence of working through posting in progress pictures on here. One the left is the preliminary sketch and on the right is the started watercolor.

chenencoux

The following watercolor was completed a few months back as part of a few watercolors a did of structures in France. This particular painting is of Chenencoux. One of my favorite chateux in France. I loved this area of France in the Loire Valley and hope to go back one day.

mormon lake

This last weekend my family and I went camping near Flagstaff, AZ. It was a blast and we got to see some great wildlife while hiking! I love being outdoors and continually amazed at how many good things are in the world. I think that's important as an artist to remember that and try to contribute.

This piece was commisioned. I had a fun time working on painting the logan temple. To me painting building structures are a different experience than painting other things. It's fun but different.

I'm hopeing to work on some more religious work, but I still need to play around with a few ideas.