A lot of people don’t like painting on gray days. I think they have an image in their heads of standing in front of their French easel in a field of beautiful grasses, the sun shining in from the left illuminating the scene before them. In reality, the sun is moving so quickly that you hardly …
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We have finally had some sun here in Minnesota! Spring is slowly starting to reveal itself. Not weeks of sunny days mind you, and very few May flowers, but the change is underway. Let the fair-weather plein air painting season begin I lucked out with a day off during the week. I couldn’t wait another …
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I got a message from my painter friend Elaine on Facebook. She was inviting me to tag along on a plein air painting excursion to the Minnetonka Apple Orchard just west of Minneapolis. In Minnesota, we love fall, and we love apples. And I thought, “What could be more autumn-ish than a trip to an …
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When I was a little kid, and I’d get out my Crayolas to draw some trees, I kept things simple. A straight, brown column for a trunk and a tuft of green for the leaves. Maybe a cloud or a rainbow was added to ensure that I had used every color in the box, …
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One of the great aspects of living in Minnesota is the drama of all four seasons. It seems like seasons happen all at once here. It’s suddenly spring, or it’s suddenly winter. But in reality, when you finally take a moment to stop and look around, change happens very gradually, over a period of time. We …
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I have been doing a lot of painting set up on the banks of rivers in the last few months. I have noticed in my own paintings that some days the colors reflected in the water are quite intense. More saturated. Other days, the reflections are a bit more washed out. Still beautiful. Still a …
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You know how you sometimes stop and think to yourself, “I’m going to have to remember this feeling?” I had one of those moments while I was out painting last Sunday. I was down on the Saint Paul bank of the Mississippi River with my mother for another plein air painting outing. The sky was …
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My Mother and I took another painting trip back to our new favorite spot, the University of Minnesota Display and Trial Gardens. I drive by the gardens on my way home from work some days, and I noticed that the sunflowers were in bloom. Now, if you take a look through my blog and my portfolio of …
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This painting was done on a beautiful, still morning along the St. Paul side of the Mississippi River. I didn’t know it when I set up, but it turns out that there is an off-leash dog park on the other side of the river. I was serenaded all morning long by dogs barking and their …
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