These are my paintings for the December show at Red Raven. The first one has an owl in it. I don't know if he/she will be back again in another painting, but I suspect he might. I was out running at the crack of dawn one morning, and it was quite dark still because of cloud cover. I was running through a woodsy part where the trees on each side of the winding road reach over forming a tunnel. The most magnificent thing....a pair of big owls were swooping back and forth over my head. One stopped and watched me as I passed. One of those gifts, you know? It was so awesome. The second painting with the pinks and oranges reminded me of my dear friend Tiffany who died 2010. The essence of the painting felt like her, so I named it Tiffany's Reflection. The last 6 paintings are very small....4x4 inches

Tiffany's Reflection

Somewhere Silent Morning

Solstice

Fall Prism

Here are the paintings I did for Lisa Bowman. She bought one of my paintings at the Red Raven back in March, and then commisioned me to do one for her room. I did two so she could choose...(I liked the idea of having two to choose from, so I wouldn't worry about whether what I painted was exactly what she had in mind.) But she ended up taking both of them, and then this fall asked me to do one the same width but twice as tall. It was the first time I've ever painted a double square...3 x 6 feet. It was fun. Here it is and then in the context of her room with the others. There is an owl statue in front of the double square, there on the floor.

Here are two interpretive paintings I did this summer using the aspen covered mountains as my language. There are just so many different terrains out there, you know? I just thout of an analogy...when you're in a big city, and I'm thinking of New York City because I've spent a lot of time there....one neigborhood is all Italian with Italian looking people and lots of pizza restuarants and such, and the next one over is a Hasidic Jewish community where there are lots of people wearing black and long beards, and some amazing bagel restuarants, and then another is all Latin, and well, you get the idea. Out west you coud be in an aspen grove and then drive two hours and its a whole different visual language...different colors and textures...diferent shapes and sizes of things.

Here are a few of the paintings that I did this spring and summer that are now at the David Erikson Fine Art Gallery in Salt Lake City They are interpretive paintings. David said he could tell I was painting about something else, and the subject matter is a vehicle for me to comunicate what it is I'm trying to say. Those weren't his exact words but to that effect. I appreciated it because that is exactly right. I was trying to say the same thing with the desert and the west where I grew up as I do with the tangled woods where I live now.

I've done a lot of painting this year that I haven't posted, that I'd like to, and before 2012 is over. I just finished my paintings for the December show at Red Raven, as well as a painting my friend Lisa Bowman commisioned me to do, so I'm in between projects. I need some new brushes as well as gesso before I get started on the next batch, so today I'm going to post things I haven't yet. This painting is one of two I did last spring. They are an ode to my daughter Dominique's 7 to 10 year old self. She created a world she called Faren Verdia, where live Elves, Fairies and Dwarves, as well as these creatures called Willow Sprites. She wrote a few books about this world, with these Willow Sprites as the main caracters. I've long wanted to paint about these people of the wood called Willow Sprites, that came out of her imagination. I used her as my model, as well as the woods behind our house. Her younger brother Trevor wants me to use him in a painting to. I've promised him I would. I entered this one in a juried show near home, and it got the People's Choice Award. The Juror picked one of my abstract landscapes to award.

Here are some photos from that dip between Draper and Riverton I told you about a couple of posts ago. I just wanted to share some of the beauty. I took quite a few photos and I plan on doing more interpretive paintings ispired by this desert olive and the tall bleached grasses, this winter when I'm feeling especially homesick. Its amazing how therapeautic that can be.