Montana Highway

Montana Highway

Oil on black canvas, 12x36

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When you drive out West, this is what you see, day after day, mile after mile. Sometimes there are mountains behind the hills. Sometimes there are hills behind the hills. Sometimes you're on such high plains that, basically, you're in the clouds. 

I love this. I love the empty highway, the horizons that stretch away forever, the sun-bright fields and scrub and the way the clear, clean light heightens the colors, lengthens the shadows, brings my heart and soul to life. 

It's a tough place, a lonely place, a hard place, surely, to build a life. Winters are long and very cold, summers are brutally hot, jobs are scarce. But spring and fall bloom in the West with rich colors, gorgeous foliage and the promise of our best America. 

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Found the dogs' favorite town... 

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Dog of the Day

Met this puppy this summer in Omaha. Bet he's all grown up now! 

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A Final Thought

"Art without emotion is like chocolate cake without sugar. It makes you gag." 

- Laurie Halse Anderson

Some Big Skies Painting Trip paintings

 Hi, everyone! Hope you can forgive me for being quiet for so long. I was on a painting trip - the Big Skies Painting Trip - and much as I wanted to do my regular blog, I was overrun with painting and traveling and posting the trip blog.

You can read it now, if you like - it's at BigSkiesPaintingTrip.blogspot.com - and you can see all the paintings at the Big Skies Paintings page on my website.

It was a great trip to a gorgeous part of the country - I went all the way to Wisdom, Montana, and back, painting pretty much all the way, once I got past Chicago.

I saw beautiful places, met interesting people and had big breakthroughs in my painting. Who could ask for more?

I'm home now, and have rested and recharged, and started painting in the studio again, but I thought you all might like to see a few of the pieces I made on the trip.

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Dog of the Day

It's Koko! I missed her so much while I was gone, she's the Dog of the Day. I missed the other four, also, but thinking of Koko brought me to tears a couple times. I got a hero's welcome when I got home. The jumping, barking, licking and absolute dog delight was wonderful! 

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A Final Thought

"A picture is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." 

- Diane Arbus

Range Rovers

Range Rovers

Oil on canvas, 36x60
sold

It was more than two years ago, in July, and I'd put myself on parole only weeks before.

I was driving home from Wisdom, Montana. I was as free as any human could be, alone in a car, with time and paint and canvases, and money in my pocket. The sky was huge and blue and endless, the prairie green and gold in the afternoon heat, and I felt like an explorer.

In Wyoming, I got off the highway at every exit, just to see what was there. And why not? Never had I had such freedom in a place that drew me so strongly.

On one exit, I turned up a dirt road and had to stop while this group of cows and steers crossed. Clearly, the road belonged to them. 

They were pretty mean-looking, so I did not get out, but took photographs through the windshield. I've painted them already, on a teeny canvas that sold way back. They continue to intrigue me, and so I've painted them again - and there are more paintings of these creatures coming.

Thanks for reading!