shshshhhhh!

a Mardi Gras self-portrait

fair weather clouds

When I did this painting in May,

it reminded me of the 4UR, a ranch in southern Colorado
 which belongs to some good friends of ours.

.

It's one of the most beautiful places that I know of.

Anywhere on earth.

Fair weather clouds build most afternoons.
Sadly, they now have become horrible smoke clouds,
created by the West Fork Complex fire.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_23527264/west-fork-complex-fire-at-76-000-acres

 Colorado is burning.

wavelet

The big waves get all the attention,

but even a wavelet is tsumatic 

to someone.

tropical hotdog night

In 1978, Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band
released the album "Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)",
which included the tune, 

"It's a Tropical Hotdog Night".
The song became vernaculus familia.  

At least in my familia.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is what one looks like.

teenager

caballo blanco

Update:

First I painted and posted this, then the news came out. 
I thought I should change the title.

 Boulder ultra-runner Micah True, 

a.k.a. Caballo Blanco,

 was last seen on Tuesday 

at the Gila Wilderness Lodge in Gila, New Mexico.

The best-selling book, "Born to Run", recounts

 Micah's time running the Copper Canyon in Mexico 

with the Tarahumara Indians.

Four days later, there still is no sign of him. 

The search continues.

snoozer

Yup, it's Friday.

Time to let this sleeping dog lie.

road trip

Seriously...

Who doesn't like a road trip?

impatience

Have you been impatient,

waiting for me to finally finish

 and post another painting?

I know I have.

But, damn, he's so cute!

Wasn't he worth waiting for?

seeing eye dog

Look me in the eye.

Wait...

I have been professionally accused of being indirect.

 Understatement.

This post is a sterling example; let me explain.

With a wild swing from obscurity to brick-upside-the-head,
this is a blind dog.

No doubt it would have worked better
if I had just said that to begin with.
"But what kind of art needs a written explanation?",
I asked myself.
(My apologies to any and all who tried to figure this out.
All three of you.)

up from the pasture

Again, not a good photo, but I'm out of time.

And patience.

Resolution: fix camera setup. 

MY ball

dog on wheels

I took this little guy off of the window sill in the studio,

 painted his portrait, took a bad picture of it

and posted it.  

So there you have it.

upslope

When the wind comes in from the northeast,

the skies darken, it turns cold

and the unmistakable stench of crowded cows

drifts in from the feedlots in Greeley.

While the people from away wonder, "Eeew, what's that?",

we put on our jackets and expect moisture.

Clouds smack up against the mountains,

cool and then fall down,

either as lots of rain and/or snow.

We call it upslope.

Casey Klahn has appropriately asked for clarification...

Continental features like the abrupt rise

of the Rocky Mountains out of the Great Plains

make the weather here very dynamic.

I painted this view looking from our house

across Boulder to Flagstaff Mountain

a little more than a mile to the southwest.

The dark blue is the side of that mountain, shadowed by

thick rain clouds hanging like a fog bank.

Above that is an even denser cloud layer

which can boil up into a thunderstorm.

Although it all looks quite still,

shown in time-lapse, it's one of the greatest shows on earth.

This is an amazing place.

getting there

Posting art is frustrating.

The colors are inaccurate and the values are off.

Objects appear larger in the mirror.

People from Down East don't like to waste words,

so they say it best.

"You can't get there from here."

harbor morning

Northeast Harbor

and god said...

Before the do-over,

trees grew here.

Desertification happens.

gold coast

No matter what I think I'm doing,

things rarely end up looking anything like what I expected.

This painting was a total surprise.

dream house

Some people post a painting every day.

I seem to always post mine on Fridays.

Then it's back to the ranch to reload.

TGtomorrowIF.

patience of a saint

You know what they say.

Saintliness is next to Dogliness.