News and Recent Works

I have just been notified that my painting, "Beauty after the Storm" has been accepted into the Idaho Watercolor Society's 2026 Annual Juried Show.  On a drive from our home in Eagle to Sun Valley, my wife and I went through a snow storm.  As we approached the little village of Hill City on the Camas Prarie, the strom broke and sunlight flooded an old abandoned grainery.  The warm sunlight and fresh snow produce a beautiful glow over the scene.  We stopped and I took a few photographs.  I painted the scene when I returned to my studio.   I began the painting with a light wash of orange acrylic paint.  After the first application dried, I painted watercolor over it with a limited pallete of primarily Phthalocyanine Blue and Cadmium Orange.  I used a classic "L" shaped composition.  I simplified the scene by choosing not to paint all of the old equipment and vehicles that were scattered across the area.  The unframed painting is 16" x 22".

While scounting for a location to teach a plein air workshop for Idaho2Fly, an organization that supports men with cancer and their caregivers, I came across this scene on the Boise River near downtown Boise.  Rick Williams, a local fly fishing instructor and co-ower of a local fly shop,  was demonstrating the two-handed Spey cast for a student.  I asked if he minded if I photographed and sketched him.  He agreed.  I went back to my studio and produced this finished painting.  I used a very limited palette of three colors- red, yellow, and blue (the primaries).  I painted this in a loose and impressionistic manner.  The painting is a vignette.  Vignette paintings leave unpainted areas which add a lighter and more painterly look to the piece.  This piece has been digitized and is available as a print.