In These Months as Winters Watch Unfold

I painted this piece as one of the several entries I need to have for a number of upcoming holiday themed art shows that I want to enter.  The last few pieces have been of cute little chickadee so this trio of white tail deer was a nice change.  I was so inspired that I even wrote a few lines of poetry to go along with it.

You know as a child, I remember snow being so much fun and I enjoyed many a day sledding, building snowmen and winning a snowball fight or two.  The best days were those when school was cancelled due to road conditions.

As an adult snow doesn't offer the same appeal to me.  I'm very happy to live in an area that snow is all but a non-issue and in 38 years I have only had to really contend with it once and for any seasoned winter driver, my stress I felt that on that day would be laughable.

It is beautiful however and painting it is enjoyable.  So I've been painting my share of snow scenes these past few weeks.  This particular piece I'm calling "Winters Watch" It is painted in acrylic on an 18 x 24 inch gallery wrapped canvas and will be making it's public debut hopefully at the gallery at Lake Las Vegas during December.  I will keep all my art show participation information current on my social media and website.

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Winters Watch

By

Julie Townsend

Dreams of coming spring are covered thickly

Under a sparkling blanket of fresh fallen snow

Pine needles glistening frosted and no longer prickly

Bowing to the ground in a white splended show

The trees are a cast robed for a part in the icy scene

The moonlight adds drama and suspense as the curtain begins to rise

Nothing but twinkle and glitter to fill each gully and ravine

Such beauty spread softly that you scarcely believe your eyes 

The sounds of the hooves breaking through the ice crust

Are muffled by the thickness of the surrounding bitter cold

Their each step is exaggerated by the added effort and thrust 

Life is full of drama and conflict in these months as winters watch unfold

On It's Way to Washington DC

This week I was given the pleasure of designing and creating a unique Christmas ornament that represents the State of Nevada and that will be hung on the National Christmas Tree in Washington DC.  What a great time I had doing this project.  I did feel a bit funny not painting a white snow scene, but I am recently returned from a weekend trip to enjoy the fall colors on the 33 mile drive called Success Loop near Ely, Nevada.  Part of the drive is covered in a mature aspen grove.  The sounds, the colors and the beauty still fill my memories and it was that image of Nevada I wanted to portray on this plastic globe.  As you can see from this picture the ornament is actually pretty good sized and began as 2 halves of a clear plastic ball.  

I put a gray primer coat on the ball initially and tried to apply acylic paint directly on top of the primer.  I didn't like how this was working so changed gears and painted the whole ball a blue color.  I think created all the artwork on paper using my Prismacolor pencils and pen and ink.  I think cut them all out and glued them to the surface of the ball.  I then came in with acrylic painted and added the leaves and the grasses.  I also painted a number of small pebbles in silver paint and glued them to the top of the ornament.  This represents silver nuggets and of course the state of Nevada is know as the Silver State.  To finish off the project I sprayed the whole thing with fix-it spray and then a couple coats of spray on clear varnish to add shine and to make sure everything stayed in place.  

I decided to add a detailed Mountain Bluebird because they are not only a beautiful bird, but they are after all, the state bird.  Our first trip driving the Success Loop we saw a number of deer so I wanted to include a young buck.  Of course on my ornament I tried to duplicate that shimmering and sparkle that only quacking aspen trees can produce.  I don't think I even came close, but I guess I probably gave a modest representation and you are at least able to guess what I'm trying to convey here.

Since it is difficult to get all views of a circular globe with just one photo, I created a collage of all 4 sides so that you could get a better feel of what the ornament looks like.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it.  

Check out all my artwork on the gallery link above or on my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com

The Adventure Continues

It's been a couple of days since I last gave an account of my artistic vacation adventure.  We have been pretty busy exploring the hills around the Ely, Nevada area.  When I'm not being bounced around in the front seat of our F250, I'm making meals or thinking about my art.  Let me catch you up on both our exploring and the drawing and painting I have been working on the past few days.

Our trusty Ford truck.  You've carried us to lots of amazing places!

Sunday, after church, we took the drive that had been suggested to us called "Success Loop".   This drive was amazing.  It is 33 miles long and starts a few miles past the small town of McGill and ends about 15 miles outside of Ely.  You literally are making a giant loop through the mountain range east of Ely.    The road is paved for a short distance on both ends, but then turns into a typical gravel road.  When we traveled it there would be no issue with a car driving the loop but I had read that at times when it rains the road can become flooded and high clearance vehicles are recommended.  Since we own three 4WD vehicles most roads are never a concern to us.

Success Loop Road

Nevada is open range country so we did have to stop several time for some "Slow Elk" in the road and were privileged to also have 3 deer sightings.  Several miles up the road, as you gain altitude, you find yourself in a large grove of mature aspen trees.  The sound that the slightest breeze makes passing through those leaves is so amplified and serene.   The light of the sun reflecting down through their filtered branches just dances and twinkles and you know exactly why these trees are called "quakies".  We have already started making plans to return to this area in October just to see these trees dressed in their fall colors.  If you are anywhere near this area, you must take a couple of hours out to drive this loop!

Awesomeness along the way!

I think we drove out to Garnet Hill on Monday and then again on Wednesday.  We found a number of really nice sized garnets down the hill just by walking around.  I think we figured out that there are plenty of garnets for those that have the patients to walk around looking for them.  The professional garnet hunters bring all the tools and toil in the dirt, breaking open piles of rocks while breaking a sweat and their back in the process.  I just want to fill up a little vile or jar to sit on my shelf.  I'm happy with the little ones.  I'm sure in the next two weeks we will go up there several more times to add to our collection.

Cave Lake

Today we drove out to Cave Lake to just scout out the location.  Some of our kids are coming up for a visit and I wanted to see if this might be a place for us all to enjoy an afternoon.  We didn't pay the fee to enter the park but the scenery just from the 15 min parking zone at the entrance was breathtaking.  I'm sure it is well worth the $5 for a Nevada resident to pay to drive on around the lake.

My little creative corner, complete with a large cup of McDonald's coffee of course.

Because I fancy myself to be somewhat of an artist and because this is predominately an art blog, I thought I might share a picture of my little art corner I have set up in our camper.  Small but efficient, I have all my pens, markers and colored pencils close at hand.  There isn't much room for my acrylic paints so they are store outside in a tub.

Artistic Journal entry detailing my owl encounter

This week I was privileged to have a for real sighting of a great horned owl.  This magnificent creature was perched on a branch a few space down from our camper and his giant yellow eyes were focused on me.  For sometime we just stood there staring at each other.  It was amazing.  I have since  been obsessed with those eyes.  I did a journal page in my artistic journal about it and now 

Sorry for the cell phone picture

I have started a 10 x 20 inch acrylic painting of a full bodied owl. I'm loving how he is turning out so far.  The funny thing is that inside our small camper trailer he seems to be staring at me with those huge yellow eyes no matter where I move.  Of course in 23' you can't move very far.  

 He will be sitting in a pinyon pine tree among pine needles and a perhaps a green pine cone or two. Similar to the ones I included in my artistic journal a week ago.   You can see he looks to be patiently waiting for me to pick up my paint brushes and get on to finishing up the details.  Maybe he will be finished for my next blog post.  You will have to come back and visit me to see for yourself.

Frustration to Fruition

How long is it in an artists evolution before painting becomes so natural that you no longer hesitate to achieve the perfect grass, trees or rocks? I mean these are the staple to any good landscape.  Here is an example of my question-I started a 24 x 36 inch painting of a series of grass covered hills and find myself painting over my grass twice now and I'm still not happy with the results. This bothers me is that I went to bed frustrated and woke up this morning feeling even more frustrated about this painting. Even if I don't go back into the studio today, I know the half finished painting is there and so are those grassy hills that just don't seem right.

 I find myself still painting at times out of order and thinking to myself, "How long before this process of creating a painting becomes natural and EASY?" I know that I try to paint too quickly and don't spend enough time really thinking about where I am going with my composition, otherwise I wouldn't still be painting a tree before I've finished my background. I think better planning out the steps of my painting will help me with this. I always know the basic subject matter that I am going to paint but I don't spend enough time focused on the steps needed to achieve that painting. The one I am working on now started out well enough.  You can see the progression of the painting as I follow these steps:

STEP 1-Sky is painted w/clouds.

STEP 2-Lay base layer for the distant rolling hills.

STEP 3- Paint the distant grass details on those hills.

 (It is in Step 3 and find that painting this much grass with my fan brush is time consuming, painful to my back and makes me very tired.  This is the step that I rushed through because a 24 x 36 canvas covered with grassy hills gets tiring and then I thought I would like the way the grass looks better if I paint the foreground trees. MISTAKE.

STEP 4- Paint details of grass, dead tree and shrubs in the foreground and maybe add a deer as an additional focal point. 

 Not yet finished because I still need to add much of the foreground details which include the tall grass, the road and the dead tree. I added the deer last night and I think he looks great if I can say so myself.  This one probably will be several more weeks before I feel it is completed and ready to be added to my gallery page, but at least I find myself today warming up to it.

The road is steep here because of the hilly terrain and the overgrown shrubbery hides your view as it descends down the other side.  You can only see a hint of it as it continues around the grassy slopes covered in summer wildflowers.  Suddenly, you stop dead in your tracks as you notice that you have just startled a young buck feeding on the tall grass and you know that at anytime he will bolt but for this moment you both are frozen as you stare in awe and try to memorize the ripples of his muscle, the shade of his fur and the number of points on his rack.  If this painting makes you feel this way, then I have succeeded in transforming my Frustration into Fruition.