Here are a couple from the OPA trip to Missoula, MT the first weekend of May. There were a lot of activities over the weekend but Kami, Joni Jurek and I managed to get out into the country side to paint a couple of times. It's always hard to go somewhere new and find the spots right away. So there is a lot of driving usually involved, especially when somewhere like Montana where every bend is another inspiring view...but what's around that next corner??? That's the trap.
We painted up the Blackfoot River canyon, northeast of Missoula, and south of Missoula in the Bitteroot River Valley...Stunning!!!
For some reason we spent a long time on each of our little 8x10's. We think it's because it was just so nice to be out there in the West's warmer weather, standing at the foot of such majesty...painting. I continue to be amazed at how special it is that I get to dot this thing I do. And when standing amidst the grandeur of the western mountains, quantity is a 'lower shelf' item, quality of the experience is 'top shelf' for me.


'Still Snow Up There' - oil on board - 8x10 - © Marc R. Hanson 2008

This piece is from our stop along the Blackfoot River. It had all the 'pictorial' elements that attract picture makers like us. Blue sky, distant snow covered peaks, good middle ground darks and a foreground of the rushing Blackfoot River. What's not to like about that?
I painted it on one of my pumice/acrylic primed boards using W/N Griffon Quick Dry White. I only mention that because the combo of the two creates a pretty tacky surface, good for dragging a loaded brush of paint onto. You'll see that texture if you enlarge the image by clicking on it.


'Bitter Dog Barking' - oil - 8x10 - © Marc R. Hanson 2008

There is a story to this location that relates to the title. Again, Kami, Joni and I were happily enjoying, the Bitterroot River this time, and the glory of being in the Big Sky country with paints and friends. This location was spectacular, I'm attaching another photo to show what we were up against, and we took some time to feel it out...but mostly to just marvel at the beauty all around us.

Once we set up to paint, and were happily painting along, Kami and I were jolted by the sudden very angry growling and barking of a dog about 5 yards behind us. This was not a dog just saying "Hey, look at me!". This, ears laid back, snarling (ugly by the way) critter was saying something more like "Get the *^@!(**!#* out of here or I'm going to eat YOU BOTH!!!" We decided it best not to pay any attention to him...right...that is the hardest thing in the world to do, paint with a vicious dog right behind you while ignoring the dog. Well this went on for some time. Eventually we grouped together, along with a big stick in hand, to look like more unappealing 'victims' to this dog. That didn't do a lot to dissuade his intentions for quite some time. This was uncomfortable and the normal things like not making eye contact, ignoring it and even indicating that we were willing to jump into the rushing river if need be...didn't seem to make a difference. To abbreviate a really long story, eventually he wandered off...towards Joni who did avoid him by her ignoring his snarls...with no damage. We did keep a look out for him the rest of the time we were painting though...and that was a real interruption to our concentration.
Could be why we painted on our 8x10 panels for...well...let's just say...'too long'. :)
Hence the title of my sketch from the location..."Bitter Dog Barking".

'Arcola Spring' - pastel - 8x16 - field study

You might be saying, "Spring!?". That's what I thought, so I thought some more. My first thought was "Am I color blind?"..."This looks like fall, not spring???" If I have any faith in what I do it's that I can mix the colors that I see in front of me, with some creative input that is. But these colors look like fall no matter how many excuses I come up with. However, my faith in mixing color holds because while painting this one, any color with a hint of green in it jumped out at me screaming, "NO!". So I let the faith in my color recognition abilities override what the pre-conceptive area of my brain was telling me and painted what I saw, not what I thought. The result is a spring painting that isn't your 'typical' spring color scheme.

But I'm still wondering why the color is so warm in the new spring growth. Does it matter to a visual artist? No, it doesn't have to. It is important to me however. And I think it is because I come from many years of being an amateur naturalist and painting works that required the co-ordination of flora, fauna and seasons. My thought here is that the maples (swamp maples I think) are flooded and have been for several weeks. They are growing on islands in the middle of the St. Croix River and they regularly have to deal with high water for a short period of time. It doesn't look likely that they'll be on dry ground for a couple of weeks to come yet. It might be that they are not getting the mineral and other nutrient content from the soil that they ordinarily would, and like your houseplants (at least mine), if overwatered....the leaves will yellow. In a normal year, when the high water has receded earlier, the leaves of these maples at this stage are not as warm, are more 'limey' green.

Okay, enough natural history for today. Thanks for looking in.

'Wetland, Co. Rd. 7' - pastel - 8x16 - field study

This morning started like a beautiful spring day in May. Sun, warmth, the buds just starting to bulge with the expectant revealing of the new leaf growth for the season. Frogs croaking, red wing blackbirds chirping and establishing territories, and YES....Ticks! Darn, they're back. This is a time of the year when I most like to take out the pastels and try to capture that elusive, feather weight quality that the new greens possess. This is just me talking, but in my head, oil paints are a little 'heavy' and slightly 'clumsy' for the incredibly delicate textures and subtle shifts in hue and intensity that I see out there right now. I'm not saying that oils aren't completely compatible with it ( no nasty emails please :), but I love what pastel will do for me at this time of year. Anyway, this is the result. Thanks for looking.

Hi again....I don't know why, but it seems hard to both paint and get the computer stuff done?! Most of my work has been done in the studio lately or on the road. I'm not going to post my New Orleans studies, yet, because they're the raw material for the larger studio pieces that will be painted in the next few months. As a preview though, here's a painting done for the show which will open in November of 2008 at Coleman Fine Art in Charleston, SC. Okay, I'll post the study for this one as long as I've already painted the studio version. We set up on this dike road across from Algiers, LA to paint, and had about 10 minutes before the rains started in again. Did I say it rained down there in NOLA?!!! Rained barge loads of water. But, I did get a memory and a color note to work with along with the photos I took. In the studio version I decided to give the image more sky, and to 'brighten up' the light so that it wasn't so gloomy like the study. I hope you enjoy the result.


'Dike Road Study' 4x10 - oil


'The Dike Road Near Algiers' - 24x36 - oil on linen

Here are a few recent field studies of the rather chilly spring. It is finally turning green a little. Now if it would only quit snowing!!!


'March Afternoon '08' - 11x14 - oil on linen on panel


'March Evening '08' - 11x14 - oil on linen on panel


'Bright Light Of Spring' - 10x8 - oil on linen on panel

Late March found me in Charleston, SC at Coleman Fine Art's 'Wet Paint' event, a week of painting followed up with a very successful show on Friday night. Kate Starling, Daud Akhriev, Mary Whyte and I spent the week wandering the Charleston vicinity and doing our best to do it right. The week started out by making me wonder why I had gone all the way to Charleston for 30F degree weather and wind....we have that here...today as a matter of fact! But it did warm up as the week wore on and we had an absolutely great time painting. I took photos as a record of the work, but frankly they didn't really turn out that well. Paintings were taken into the gallery each afternoon as they were completed, as they were with no touching up. Then on Friday morning we framed and the gallery hung them in the afternoon. Smith, Mary and the gallery staff put on a great show opening with a string quartet in the garden, Hors d'oeuvre, and a lot of wonderful art loving people in attendance. WE had a good night.

This weekend I'm off to Missoula, MT for the OPA National Exhibit that my painting 'Prairie Fires' is a part of. Should be an exciting weekend of art demos, receptions and some painting if the weather permits. Minnesota is well represented in the show.
My best friend and painting buddy Kami Polzin's painting 'Light Around The Bend' ( seen above, a 24"x30" oil) is in the show too, as are paintings by my good friends Mike Rada (Burnsville), Ben Bauer (Stillwater), and Steve Atkinson (Mpls)!!!

'Golden Rays' - pastel - 12x11.75
Here's a little sneak peek of the finish piece from a demo that I think will be included in the July/August issue of The Pastel Journal. I've been interviewed by Deborah Secor, a great "interpreter" of "art talk" and one with the ability to take that mumble jumble and put it into wonderfully crafted paragraphs. She managed to see what I mean despite 'ME'. The issue features 'Sea and Skies'...and I'm the 'sky guy'. I used to be the 'cardinal guy' in my feathered critter painting days. So 'sky' guy is fine with me as long as I don't have to use all of those reds like I did back then.
The article will feature quite a few pastels with a lot of sky in them, and a demo of which this is the finish. Should be a good read. We had a great conversation and Deborah truly did capture what I meant to say. ;-)

A month since last post!!!???

'The Red Car' - oil - 11x14

This is one that I did yesterday in Taylors Falls. The location is just off of the main drag and is the backside of a couple of houses. It was a grey, drizzly, dreary day. But that red car (Mustang in reality) caught my eye poised in the shadows of those cedars. Made for an interesting study on an uninteresting day.

Where does time go? I've been in New Orleans painting with Mary Whyte of Coleman Fine Art in Charleston, SC. They are mounting a show for us next November with New Orleans as the theme. That will include Mary, Joe Paquet, John Crosby, George Strickland and yours truly. I painted for about 4 and a half days and came home with 13 oils. We had a lot of rain, but thanks to Phil Sandusky, a resident New Orleans painter (who has a great book out with a collection of paintings he did of his beloved city following Katrina. He painted, as he does everyday, around the neighborhoods that he always paints and recorded the aftermath. He did so many paintings that it seemed like a logical next step to put them into a book, he did and it's a treat to view. ), back to Phil and rain...Since he paints outside from life every day(ahhh, warm weather), he has options when it rains. So we found ourselves 7 stories up in an open parking garage looking down over the waterfront in New Orleans. It resulted in a sketch for me that has me the most excited to turn into a larger studio piece. New Orleans is an incredible place to paint. It's a color orgy! I highly recommend any painter heading there to explore the French Quarter (did some nocturnes there and that's a 'wildlife' experience unlike most other wildlife experiences I've had painting nocturnes), the Megnary (sp?) neighborhood of Creole 'shotgun' cottages from the 18th and 19th century. They are painted any color the owner darn well chooses! And they like bright color.

It's all good there. Even painting on the city streets is a real treat. It feels like Europe and the people are very respectful and interested in artists.

Eventually I will post some sketches but they're still in the box.

This painting that I last posted on has had some work done to it and now needs resuscitation. I might revive it, might not. At any rate, it's been shelved for now.

I'm done early today and going to show this detail because this is the only area of the painting that changed. I worked on bringing the tree up before getting into other areas because the paint is still very wet and if I don't take care of the edges surrounding this the major element of the painting before the paint in the sky area dries, I'm in trouble.

In the enlarged view you can see the soft quality in the paint application that I'm after. Again, paint applied with palette knives, scraped, brushed and repeated. The tree's branches and trunks were also drawn on with the knives and then manipulated with brushes. I'm trying to give dimension to this, it's a large painting and a large shape, but do it without allowing that detail to sneak out of it's place in the image and ruin the overall mood I hope to convey.

That's why this is all I worked on. I worked, removed, re worked, removed again until reaching this point. It's not done for sure, the tree that is, probably will be tomorrow.