Thanksgiving Birches

Thanksgiving Birches, 12"w x 4"h, at Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais, MN.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Frost on the Lake

"Frost On The Lake"  6"w x 6"h

On a cold November morning I thought this 6"w x 6"h piece titled Frost on the Lake would be a fitting blog post. Birches, stones and a snowy foreground are witness to a light purple lake and distant purple ridge. The sky is a lazy hazy shade of winter, but all these elements combine for one interesting cool blue composition. I recently read that Lake Superior is starting to freeze over the earliest in the winter ... at least in the last forty years. I believe it, with the January weather we've had for the past several weeks. At least we're supposed to have a more moderate mid winter. There's always hope ... in the meantime, there's always frost on the lake in November. Please contact Sivertson Gallery in frosty Grand Marais, MN for more information on this piece.

Frosty Forest Cardinals

24"w x 12"h Frosty Forest Cardinals

On a frosty November morning here in Duluth, MN, I thought I'd post an appropriate landscape featuring cardinals, birches, and deep shades of ultramarine blue titled Frosty Forest Cardinals. These little fellas don't seem to mind the cold, but it takes me longer to get used to winter. By the time I get used to winter it's time for spring. Ha ha. Well, for now I'll enjoy painting in cool blues, capturing the captivating blues of winter while adding in complementary colors for interest ... like cardinals. :)
Please contact Your Art's Desire Gallery for additional information on this piece.

Moonlight Brilliance

"Moonlight Brilliance"  12"w x 24"h

I'm not much of an astronomer, but I do enjoy an evening sky. When the moon is full in the northwoods, it glows through the trees, casting shadows of trees, and truly is a joy to behold. There is also something particularly interesting about a full moon during the fall, it seems to glow brighter, and around this time every year I feel compelled to paint the moon, especially with deep blues such as are used in this 12"w x 24"h piece titled Moonlight Brilliance. The crisp white birches radiate the brightness of the moon, while the cool blues of the ridges and sky add the contrast that gives a night painting it's punch. There are also stars twinkling in the sky, lighting up the night. Please contact Your Art's Desire Gallery for additional information on this piece.

Evergreen Cardinal Playland

"Evergreen Cardinal Playland"  36"w x 36"h, Sivertson Gallery, Grand Marais, MN

Fresh off the easel is a new major work titled Evergreen Cardinal Playland which is 36"w x 36"h and just made it's way up the Scenic 61 to Grand Marais, MN this morning. My vision for this piece included cardinals and the color green. That was it, and from that vision, a painting filled with birches, cardinals, and layers of green amongst a bright green sky emerged. The composition is anchored by soft stones, of which you'd find in the forest anywhere in northern Minnesota ... except now you'd have to dig through the snow to find them. :) There is some symbolism to this painting as well, and that is out of the stones grow birches filled with tiny cardinals. I found myself laboring to get them positioned just right, but then thought of the playground at the elementary school filled with kids at recess. There's just something right about a playground filled with laughing children, and something desolate and wrong about an empty playground. So I filled the birch trees with the creatures that bring song and color to the forest ... the cardinal. I even included myself amongst this jovial group of guys .. I'm on the far left, at the bottom, gazing at the brilliant sky while listening to the friendly chatter of the bird that complements the forest and brings complementary color to this composition ... the cardinal. Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be. - Whitney Houston
Please contact Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais, MN for more information on this piece.

Serenity

"Serenity"  6"w x 12"h

Here is a lovely little landscape titled Serenity featuring five golden birches, and the shadows in the foreground have a nice almost transparent quality to them .. almost like rustling leaves. Every painting has a sweet spot as I like to call it, a place in the painting that draws attention, or accomplishes something. I'd compare it to a carpenter finishing a piece and noticing a nice woodgrain that wasn't obvious until the final varnish was applied. Sweet.
Please contact Your Art's Desire Gallery for additional information on this piece.

Colorscapes

"A Colorful Place" 8"w x 8"h

"Colorscape No. 1" 4"w x 4"h

"Colorscape No. 2" 4"w x 4"h

"Colorscape No. 3" 4"w x 4"h

...Just a nice selection of small colorful landscapes for today.
Please contact Your Art's Desire Gallery for more information on these colorful pieces.

November Woods

"November Woods" 12"w x 4"h

I have to chuckle a bit as I post this painting, titled November Woods, on a single digit temperature morning here in northern Minnesota. Usually, we get some snow that melts right away this time of year but we've been 20-30 degrees below normal for the past few weeks. We may get a one day break this weekend when temps spike above freezing before dropping down again. Strange weather pattern we are in .. all this to say that the November forest usually is fun to hike through, with all the leaves off the trees and crisp 30-40 degree weather. That's the memory that inspired today's piece ... birches with a bright blue sky and distant cranberry ridge. The forest floor is covered in brown leaves with a hint of twilight casting golden shadows in the foreground. Alas, the landscape is covered in white today, and people hurry about all bundled up, heads down against the sub zero windchill while the wildlife are hiding from the early winter. Please contact Your Art's Desire Gallery in Minnetonka, MN for more information on this piece.

Golden Evening

"Golden Evening", 10"w x 10"h

Bright cadmium leafed birches and rich cobalt blue skies ... accompanied by rocks and shadows ... what more could you ask for in an autumn landscape? This 10"w x 10"h piece, titled Golden Evening, is part of a group of new works currently on display at Your Art's Desire Gallery in Minnetonka, MN.

By The Moonlight

"By The Moonlight" 10"w x 10"h, Siiviis Gallery, Duluth, MN

By The Moonlight is a new 10"w x 10"h painting I brought in to Siiviis Gallery here in Duluth this past week. A lone cardinal rests on a birch branch and is backlit by a silvery moon. An ultramarine night sky complements the brilliant red cardinal. 'Nuff said. Please contact Siiviis Gallery in Duluth, MN for more information on this piece.

Vertical Endeavor

"Vertical Endeavor" 8"w x 24"h

This piece, titled Vertical Endeavor, is the last of a series of fall themed landscapes featuring the 3-1 format (three times as high as wide). This format allows for me to capture the height of the birch tree, which often only has leaves on the top 1/4 of the tree. This format also allows for many layers. The title sums up the feeling this painting gave me upon completion, and also is a good name for the group of works posted to my blog in the past week.  

Please contact Your Art's Desire Gallery in Minnetonka, MN for more information on this piece.

The Least of These

"The Least of These" 40"w x 16"h

Even though the northland is covered in a fresh blanket of snow, I just keep rolling on the autumn themed works. Since I love complementary colors, in this case blues and warm reds and golds, it just makes sense that I'm drawn to the this particular season. This piece features many different colored ridges seen through birch trees of varying widths. The background once again is the subject of the painting, drawing you in before you realize you're viewing the color through the birches. Outside today the birches are camouflaged by the white snow, and perhaps I'm a bit like the birch tree. I love spring, summer and fall, and tend to hide during the winter. :)

Summer Encore

"Summer Encore" 36"w x 36"h, Sivertson Gallery, Grand Marais, MN

As winter has officially begun here in Duluth, MN with several inches of snow, and low temperatures approaching zero by early next week, I thought I'd fight back with a summer themed painting. This piece is titled Summer Encore and is available at Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais, MN and measures in at 36"w x 36"h. While this piece incorporates some familiar themes of mine, it also has a hefty dose of cadmium yellow, a color I often refer to the color that makes me smile. :) I'm sure I'll paint some winter paintings soon, but for now I'm reminiscing of summer, missing the hiking, biking, walking and swimming with family. I could go for a summer encore right about now. Now where did I put those Vitamin D tablets ...
Please contact Sivertson Gallery for more information on this piece, which will arrive in Grand Marais later this week.

Autumn in Northern Minnesota

"Autumn in Northern Minnesota", 8"w x 24"h NFS

Here is a piece inspired by the season it was painted in. This was for some friends who reside in Washington D.C. who are originally from northern Minnesota, and I thought this piece would remind them of home. We left Minnesota in upper 30 degree temps, as was pleasantly surprised by summer in D.C. I wasn't reminded of home as we arrived and felt the mid seventy degree temps and pouring rain, coupled with humidity, we must have looked like tourists in our cold weather gear. :)

More ironic today is the 10 plus inches of blowing snow currently outside. Sometimes I imagine the autumn season lasting six months, with summer lasting four, and winter and spring taking one month each. (Can't skip Christmas and Easter!) What would it be like to live in a landscape that is in perpetual warm vibrant color? Each year, we get to experience this season of harvest for a couple short weeks where I live before we get blasted with six months of winter ... I can't live in autumn color indefinately but I can capture it on canvas and make it last forever.

Autumn In New Hampshire

"Autumn In New Hampshire" 8"w x 24"h NFS

For the first time in forever (OK, my kids might be influencing me a bit with their silly soundtrack songs they like to sing) I painted a scene based on what I thought something might look like. Recently, on our vacation, as we made our way north from Virginia to New Hampshire, the leaves went from lush green to full autumn color along the route. Before we left I finished this piece for some folks we visited, and I looked at reference photos and realized the land in New Hampshire was very similar to what I see around my home here in Duluth, MN. Lots of water, hills, rocks, trees ... I felt right at home there as opposed to our time spent in New York City rush hour traffic. I may not be much of a city boy, but the experience was worth the time spent with family and friends.

Frosted Trees

"Frosted Trees"  30"w x 15"h

This painting, titled Frosted Trees, is a new favorite of mine, could be because it features my favorite (or favourite if you're Canadian ;) ) color blue. The trees this week have had a layer of frost on them, it won't be long until the snow flies and winter is upon us. But until them the lakes are a rich shade of blue and the frosty trees sparkle and shine off the water along the lakeshore here in northern Minnesota.

Sing Down The Moon

"Sing Down The Moon" 12"w x 24"h

A book my daughter was reading inspired the title of this 12"w x 24"h piece which is titled Sing Down The Moon ...  I happened to be painting the moon in this painting, then walked through the living room where the book was and the title just piqued my interest. I haven't read the book yet, but if I could sing down the moon, I wouldn't ... I would rather the moon stay in the sky right where it belongs so I can paint it. :) Last night, the moon was full and bright, there's just something special about a moonlit landscape. Please contact Your Art's Desire Gallery in Minnetonka, MN for more information on this piece.

Evergreen Cardinal Symmetry

"Evergreen Cardinal Symmetry" 24"w x 12"h

Here is a fun cardinal painting titled Evergreen Cardinal Symmetry whose title came to me as I was working on it and noticed there was a natural symmetry to the piece. Symmetry is a no no for artists, as symmetry is boring, or at least that's what I was taught in art school. But I didn't care much for the rules in art school, which didn't always bode well for my GPA, but in the end you have to be true to yourself, and I love symmetry ... and apparently, so do cardinals. These little fellas have no doubt arranged themselves in two groups of three to the left and right of center, with the two cardinals in the middle perhaps giving instructions to their friends as they are probably going to play a friendly game of baseball, but only one team can be the Cardinals ...
Please contact Siiviis Gallery in Duluth, MN for more information on this piece.