What's New

February 10, 2010 - Sky

I've roughed in the composition and blocked in the majority of the sky. It will still need some refining. I have changed a few things from the study. Decided to bring the forground all the way across, I feel the composition is too weighted on the right side of the painting. I am putting a mountain lion in the brush, which I planned all along, the study was just too small to put it in.

February 9, 2010 - The Guardian

I'm starting a new painting. This is the 11 x 14 preliminary study of it. The final piece will be a 30 x 40.

January 25, 2010 - Still Waters

This is my most recent painting. A 30" x 40" oil on linen. The moose were a wonderful sighting I had this August. My husband and I had the lake to ourselves and photographed this bull and cow for over an hour. I think I got over 200 images of them. I'm sure you'll see them in more of my paintings...

January 22, 2010 - Winter Range

This piece is my final assignment for the Jay Moore Mentorship Program. Jay patiently instructed a handful of students through his 6 month course. I believe we all benefited tremendously from his knowledge and mastery of landscape painting.

January 12, 2010 - "Window To The West" Exhibition

"The Window To The West" An exhibition of the Don Huntley Western Art Collection is on display at the W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery at Cal Poly Pomona in Pomona, CA until February 20, 2010. "Rawah Majesty" is included in this beautiful exhibit of Western art.

July 28, 2009 - Finished!

Now its done. I like this better. The image is very peaceful. I added a few more barn swallows flying along the water hunting bugs. This gives it a little more energy, but not too much.

July 25, 2009 - Finished?

I've completed the painting as originally planned, but I think I'm going to change it. I liked the idea of the third buck, running off. I thought it would add a bit of energy to the composition. But I don't like the tension in an overall tranquil scene. So I'm going to remove him. I also need to change the light direction on the clouds its inconsistant with the rest of the painting's light.

July 20, 2009 - Foreground details

I've painted in the details in the grasses and rushes along the water's edge. I like the way the sunlit rushes along the water "pull" your eyes through the dark shadows and up to the deer. Its a nice bridge across a very powerful part of the painting. I have painted one of the bucks and really like the play of colors between his coat and the grasses. It also repeats the sienna and ochre in the bushes.

July 12, 2009 - Foreground Underpainting

Next, I've established the layout and basic values of the foreground. I want to add a lot of texture and contrast here in the rushes and grasses. I really want to focus on the edge of the water to bring your eye into this area of the painting. To view the images bigger, just click on the thumbnail.

July 8, 2009 - Adding the Bushes

One of the elements I want to emphasize in this painting is the repeated pattern of deep shadows under the bushes and along the rushes at the front edge of the pond. They add a sense of depth and drama to an other- wise flat scene.

July 7, 2009 - Spring Bucks

I'm starting a new painting from a road trip over North Park this spring. A trio of bucks in velvet were standing at the edge of a pond. The long amber light of dusk made the whole scene glow. There was nowhere to pull off the road, so I ended up shooting this out of the sunroof of my truck. The bucks were wary and I only got the one frame before they bolted, but the shot was perfect.

July 6, 2009 - Jay Moore Mentorship Program

I have been accepted to study for six monthes with one of my favorite artists. I'm very excited about this opportunity!!

June 26, 2009 - OPA Western Exhibition

Wow! My painting, Return to the Rawah was accepted into the Oil Painters of America's Western Regional Exhibition. The show will be held in Kirkland, Wa on August 8th - August 30th at the Howard Mandville Gallery
12806 N. East 125th Way. Phone 425-825-1446.

May 23, 2009 - First Day at the Park

About two weeks ago on a trip to RMNP my husband and I were the lucky witnesses to a newborn elk calf's first moments of life. In the 30 years I have been frequenting Rocky Mountain National Park, I have never seen a newborn. This painting is of the moment the mother elk introduced the baby to her calf from last year.

April 2, 2009 - Cottonwood Cradle

Here is my painting of a family of Great Horned Owls that I was fortunate enough to observe and photograph over the course of several monthes. It was an amazing wildlife encounter to see firsthand how the parents raised up these two babies.

March 5, 2009 - Completed

I added the details to the midground trees. I think its done...

March 2, 2009

I'm almost finished. The grasses have come along nicely. There are subtle diagnol lines of the seeded grasses that direct your eye across to the bull. I like the simplicity of the foreground - a peaceful "resting place" for the eye to balance all the drama of the background. I just need to finish the big trees, then I think I'm done.

February 28, 2009

I've been working on the foreground grass underpainting-adding mid values of warmer greens and the golds in the elk. I like the way the elk form a chain that carries your eye across and over to the bull. As I add more golds to the grass and some detail the cow elk should blend in more and not appear as prominent.

February 20, 2009 - Stories on the Wind

I've been working on this big 40 x 60 for about six monthes. The mountains and middleground I completed quickly, but my originals plans for the foreground just didn't work, so I've wiped it out several times and set it aside to work itself out for a few monthes. I think I've figured it out, so when I painted the bull elk in, it sparked - the depth I wanted "Popped" and the repetition of color between the light sky above the mountains and the highlighs on the elk's back connected. I think this is going to work! If you look closely you can see where I've outlined other elk of the bull's harem.

February 2, 2009 - Summer's Solace

Finished. I have taken care of "the face" and really like the final image. I love the way the water goes from tranquil in the foreground to vivid and shimmering in the background - it really carries your eye into the painting.

January 15, 2009 - Wow!

I am so happy with the way this is coming together. The depth and play of colors is very tranquil. But I have discovered a blooper. When I brightened the snowfields below Halett, I created a face that looks remarkably like Jim Carey in "The Mask" complete with cigarette hanging out of his mouth! I'll have to change that.....

January 13, 2009

Next I've added the highlights on the distant forest and experimented with a few greens for the bushes. My original idea of a very golden green is just too much when I look at it, so I'm taking it down a notch and just going to add hints of it in the grass and bushes.

January 12, 2009 - Middleground Underpainting

I've painted in my deep undertones for the trees, grass and bushes. You can click on these thumbnails to get a window with bigger images.

January 11, 2009 - Halett Peak

I'm getting kind of tired of our dry, windy winter, so a painting of the high country in summer sounds nice. I did some plein air painting last summer at Sprague Lake and have some nice references of that area. Halett Peak will be the focal of the piece. The mountain definitely speaks for itself. No need to say more.

January 8, 2009 - Finished!

I've stared at this painting for two weeks and finally figured out what was off. The sunlit mountains were too "sawtooth" like. So I've softened them with some low clouds and like the affect much better.

December 23, 2008 - Finished?

I think I'm done. I've painted the blowing snow across the wolf and his tracks which has helped him blend with the painting better. I think I'll just look at it for a while before I officially announce it complete.

December 19, 2008 - Adding the Wolf

I have added in the wolf. I kinda like him, but I think I'm going to add some blowing snow to make him more a part of the landscape and indistinct. In the video the DOW took, the wind was howling across the area (as it usually does up there) and the ground blizzard kept obscuring the wolf. This is very fitting symbolically. No one is really sure he is still here. So I'm going to have the wind covering up his tracks. Almost like he's being swallowed by the wilderness he is about to enter.

December 18, 2008 - Foreground

I have added the foreground bushes. I want them to act as a "gateway" directing you back and across the vast snow fields. The bushes help establish your perspective, give you a reference point to gauge the depth by. They also add some nice warm colors to breakup the coolness of the piece.

December 17, 2008 - Middleground details

I've added the aspen groves and sagebrush on the slopes. I think I'm ready to move on to
the foreground.

December 15, 2008 - Middleground Trees

I have painted in the trees. Now all the canvas white is covered and I can get a better idea of my values. I think the peaks are powerful and accomplishing what I planned.

December 8, 2008 - Light on the peaks.

I want the peaks to be a big part of this painting so to draw your eye back into the painting, I've made the peaks sunlit as the storm breaks. The snow-covered valley bottom in the foreground will be in shadow and I'm debating about adding a pair of moose moving across, or possibly a wolf. The Division of Wildlife video taped a black wolf up here several years ago - it was the first official documentation that the wolves have returned to Colorado. Quite fitting for the title "Return to the Rawah". So I'm leaning towards that idea. I just have to see how it all looks when it gets closer to completion.

December 2, 2008 - Return to the Rawah

I've decided to do another painting of the Rawah wilderness, since I've sold my other piece and am in the mood for a winter scene of the high country. This particular view is of the Rawah from the North Park area of Colorado. I don't have a specific plan for this, I just want it to evolve as I go. I want it to take on its own life.

November 7, 2008 - Finished!

My final steps - paint the bull's antlers and finish the details in the foreground grass. I've added a few chewed up bushes for interest and eased the transition from the still water of the riverbend into the rapids. It was too sharp of a division before. I'm very satisfied with the finished painting - the bull has movement and personality. The painting carries your eye well throughout the composition. Personally I think its one of the best animals I've done.

November 6, 2008 - Painting the Bull Elk

The next step is bringing my bull to life. My favorite part of this subject is how the bull elk is so much like the grasses around him. The texture and colors in his windblown, ruffled coat are just like the windblown grasses surrounding him. I have really tried to make this my focus as I paint him.

November 5, 2008 - Background Details

Now the fun begins. I add some background cow elk (I've got to give this guy something to bugle about). I work on the grass highlights in the background. I add the vivid color in the grass along the river and also work on the water details.

November 4, 2008 - Shadows

Next I add the riverbank's shadows and the dark underpainting for the bull elk. In the background I paint in the line of brush along the edge of the trees. Their lavander hues I pull through the painting to liven up the play of color.

November 3, 2008 - Water Underpainting

Next I underpaint the water. I want to rough in my values and their inter-relationship to each other in order to get a better perspective of the entire painting.

November 1, 2008 - Basic Composition

I have laid out my composition for the painting and now am going in and begining my underpainting for the grasses.

October 17, 2008 - Battle Cry

Here's the setting, but I think I'll put the bull along the front of the river, set off by his contrast with the sunlit water behind him.

October 16, 2008 - Battle Cry

I was fortunate to take a number of trips up to Rocky Mountain National Park this Autumn to paint and watch the elk rut season. I've gotten some wonderful photos of several bulls and their harems. One bull in particular caught my eye two weeks ago. He wasn't the biggest or most magnificent, but what he lacked in bulk, he made up for in spirit. Most of the other photographers and tourists were up the road about a quarter mile with a massive 7 point bull and his band of at least 30 cows. But the tenacity and defiance of this guy made me stop and watch (I always root for the underdog anyway). The low afternoon light was great and the splash of colors along the river was perfect. So I can't resist painting this great moment

August 1, 2008 - Paint the Parks Top 100 Competition

Two of my painting were selected for the Paint the Parks Top 100 Competition, "White on White" and "Shades of Autumn". Please see the wildlife gallery for these images.