"Heavy Duty" Honorable Mention

Amongst everything else I hadn't posted that my piece "Heavy Duty" received Honorable Mention at the 2011 DPAAF. Special thanks to the judges, galleries, and everyone involved w GTMD and all other sponsors. Look forward to next year and more oil painting! Show photos will be up soon.

To view all of 2011 award winners including Best In Show: DPAAF Award Winners

DPAAF 2011 in previous post: Accepted Entries

DPAAF 2011 Opening Show Nov. 15th

The 5th Annual Denver Plein Air Arts Fest opens tomorrow on the 7th Floor Gallery at the Denver Public Library. I am honored and excited to have three pieces in this years exhibition. I hope to see you all at the show. Seen above is a plein air piece from outside Estes Park completed in September.

"Fading Light" Oil on Linen 8 x 10

DPAAF 2011 Accepted Entries

I am pleased to announce that three of my submissions have been accepted to be displayed in this years exhibition and competition. The three pieces can be seen above, framed and ready to deliver. The online preview is live as well so please take a trip on over to the Golden Triangle Museum website and see the paintings before the show opens. 2011 DPAAF Online Preview Link

The accepted works are as follows:

"Knight of Loyalty" Oil on Board

"Heavy Duty" Oil on Board

"Dome Skeleton" Oil on Board

DPAAF 2011 Final Submissions

I submitted six pieces for this years Denver Plein Air Arts Festival, and am excited to hear back from the panel of judges to see which of these works will be accepted into the show. I will post the final submissions once they are chosen and always remember to attend the opening on November 15th, 2011.

Previous Posts Plein Air: City Park Progress

Final Plein Air "Dome Skeleton"

Quick post, the DPAAF ended on Sep 20th, this is from the second day of setup on this piece. I had painted from the opposite side of the Civic center in previous years and was intrigued by the new construction going on where the demolition was happening this time last year. All the submissions have been turned in and we are awaiting the word on the excepted pieces. Stay tuned and I will post all of my submissions once I have heard the verdict. Get out and paint from light, it is inspiring and a great learning tool.

Trip to the Mountains

Plein Air piece from my birthday trip out of town, this is outside of Estes Park. About 2 hours working time. Thanks for stopping in.

DPAAF City Park Progress

I realize there have not been a great deal of posts about the DPAAF this year, and that is because I am busy, double booked busy, possible even worse, but I love it, and well I am still getting out to take in the environmental live painting we know as Plein Air. Progress shots from the City Park Paint out, I have done studio work of this particular locale, but never had I taken it on in this fashion. This is about 3.5 hours working time, Dead color palette w Viridian and Van Dyke brown introduced, really enjoy this piece. More on the competition soon.

Denver Big Air Plein Air

Last week I set up and began painting the Denver Big Air setup in the middle of Civic Center Park. The building and construction was still underway and I had the great opportunity to meet some of the creative and insanely fearless contractors working on completing the structure. One of these artists was Dave McKay who so graciously sent me the photo above of the piece in action. I took the piece back to the studio and completed it from memory and photo reference.

I will post the final piece tomorrow as the event gets underway.

The structure is 101 ft tall and is destined to have two kickers in the middle section of the ramp launching competitors into the air and towards the flat bottom in between the Denver State Capital and the City Courthouse. You can find the Denver Metromix's description of the event here: Denver Metromix

Plein Air, Sketches, and Studio Transit 2011

So far this new year has been extremely productive, and I have many things to share with all of you, but before I can, I am moving studios(more on this soon) and completing some really great projects. So I will leave you all with some visual cupcakes, and some teasers of things to come.

The sketch is of the progressing graphic for Indy Ink, thats the teaser....and the plein air piece

was a study on location for a series of railyard paintings I am completing.

DPAAF 2010 2nd Place

The Denver Plein Air Festival opening was at the beginning of November, and I have been slightly behind on posting, but the good news is that I was honored with a 2nd Place ribbon for my entry "Constructive Destruction". Also shown are the emerging artist 1st, 2nd place ribbon holders, and the Best of Show winner. The 1st place winner in the professional category is shown here as well, the works can be viewed at the Denver Public Library's 7th floor until December 31st. Gracious thanks to Christine Serr, Jil Rosentrater, Rose Fredrick, and Dean Sobel for the consideration, and everyone else at Abend and 1261.

Previous Posts: DPAAF ENTRIES
Online preview: DPAAF GTMD

DPAAF 2010 Accepted Entries

I have been honored to have four pieces selected for the 2010 Denver Plein Air Exhibition. The pieces that were chosen are :

"Constructive Destruction" Oil, 15.5 x 12.25

"Lady of the Garden" Oil, 15.5 x 11.75

"Southside Wash at Sunset" Oil, 10 x 17

and "Alley Entrance" Oil, 8 x8.

You can view all the selected pieces online by clicking this link GTMD Plein Air 2010

The opening reception is Tuesday November 9th, and the show runs to December 31st. Hope to see you there or you can enjoy the show until then on the 7th floor of the Denver Public Library.

Previous Plein Air Posts: Wash Park

13th Ave

Governors Mansion

DAM, History Museum Demolition

Wash Park at Sunset

The votes are in for DPAAF 2010, but before I reveal the entries that were excepted, here are process photos from the final paint out at Washington Park. I worked in Landscape 1 during college at Wash park and wanted to pay homage to my academic painting by challenging myself to fast and deliberate work at sunset.

Constructive Destruction Study

"Constructive Destruction Study", Oil, 6"x8", I created this study as a preparatory device to ensure that the limited palette I had planned to use for the final piece was going to work accurately. I attempted ways to manipulate the atmosphere and foreground to indicate dust and demolition. Will post final painting when all the judges decisions are in for the exhibition.

St. Mary's Glacier Watercolor

This plein air study managed to avoid detection, created in June, I had taken a quik trip up to the hills for a weekend getaway and had set up to capture the setting sun glinting off the top of the glacier. The study was about a 30 minute process as the sun quickly fell behind the mountains. I will be using this study for a larger piece, and possibly for some illustration work.

"Glint on the Glacier" ,Watercolor, 3" x 4"

Denver Plein Air Festival 2010

Some shots of the brand new Guerilla Painter "French Resistance" plein air easel and tripod. I was blessed to use this for the DPAF2010 this year and it is a great piece to add to the tool set, lightweight, one snap breakaway and has good storage. Highly recommend plein air painters to check these out. Thanks to the good folks at Masters International and Guerilla Painter for the help. I am still adapting to it but I could surely benefit from the many add-ons it has available. Self-timer shots from the Denver Art Museum Sculpture Deck paint-out. More on location shots and paintings soon.

"Hitch" Plein Air

I haven't had a post in a while so here is the start of many great projects.
Recently traveled to the mountains of Colorado to complete a commission of one in a long line of pit bull royalty. Pet portraiture can be stagnant and uninteresting, however when executed on site utilizing a plein air palette and spacial organization, the painting quickly becomes dynamic, taking on the qualities of the mountain atmosphere and air that is present at elevation. This particular piece was a great challenge and often the best work is created when it is a difficult piece to master, forcing the artist to adapt and react to the changing surroundings.

I painted two small color and anatomic studies on site, and then completed the large painting on site, en plein air, using both the color studies as guides to paint the final piece.

Oil on canvas, 20 x 24, "Hitch"

PLEIN AIR HONORABLE MENTION

Photos from opening night at the Denver Public Library for the 3rd Annual Denver Plein Air Exhibition, hosted by Gallery 1261 and Abend Gallery. I was bestowed with an honorable mention from the exhibition judges, and what a great honor! I will let the photos tell the remainder of the story, and you can view all the award winners and additional pieces online at the Golden Triangle Museum District website. Special thanks to everyone involved. Back to the easel for me.

ACCEPTED PLEIN AIR PIECES

I was notified that I have two pieces in this years Plein Air Festival exhibition at the Denver Public Library. All of the pieces submitted can be viewed online, accepted pieces in one category, unaccepted in another, but still for sale online.

It is a great honor considering I have only had one piece accepted in past years. The pieces that were accepted were the Sniagrab Aloft pair, completed on the first day of the festival, in halfway overcast weather.

The pair exhibit the ideas of small studies on location in order to lock in palette control and overall composition with a steady and rapid process towards completing the final painting; eliminating many problems due to the studies analytical and exploratory nature. The exhibit opens on November 10th at the Denver Public Library from 6- 9 pm, hope to see you there.