Rieck’s Lake, Oil on Linen, 9x12 (SOLD)

Once, Rieck’s Lake was an open body of water. Settlers cleared the trees and plowed the land. Without the protective cover, soil from the Buffalo River watershed filled Riecks Lake. In 1935 Lock and Dam 4 was built. The Mississippi River submerged Rieck’s Lake with eight feet of water. In the years since, erosion is again filling Rieck’s Lake. In 2003 landowners, with a DNR grant, installed 42 erosion control dams and 24 acres of grassed waterways to slow the erosion.

Raising of the Flag, Oil on Linen, 12x16

The vast majority of my plein air paintings are done in the late afternoon and early evening. If you are going to paint in the morning and capture the good colors, you have to get up pretty early. This is one I did last Friday morning at the Fort Snelling Historic Site. I was pretty much done with the painting by the time they shot off the cannon and raised the flag. I liked the way the light only shone through the very bottom of the flag leaving the rest sort of muted and understated. I didn't want to do another flag waving proudly in the wind painting. That wasn't the day. It was quiet and serene with practically no wind.

Dodge in Gold, Oil on Linen, 12x16

There is starting to be a backlog of paintings in my studio that were painted on location and need a little studio touch-up and photo documentation. It's always hard for me to paint indoors when the weather is nice, but I have to. The Saint Paul Art Crawl is Oct 7-9 and I want to have a lot of new art for it. 

You have one more week to see the PAN show at the Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, WI, and the same for the show at the Johnson Heritage Post Gallery in  Grand Marais MN.

The Backwater, Oil on Linen, 24x36
updated 1/8/13

Yesterday my wife reminded me that I haven't posted anything in quite awhile. It's not that I haven't been painting; I have. I just haven't finished one in a while. This painting is a perfect example. It still needs something, but today I was pleased enough with the progress so far that I decided to share it with you in it's incomplete state.

This 24x36 painting is from a 12x16 I did last year. On that painting, I painted the egret while she fished. That's easy to do; they hold perfectly still while they stalk their prey. But while I was painting, a second egret flew into the scene. At the time I thought it would make a nice painting. This is what I remember seeing.

Pigeon River, Oil on Linen, 9x12

Lake Kimball, Oil on Linen, 9x12 (SOLD)

Devil's Track River, Oil on Linen, 12x9

Above is a small sampling of the paintings from the Grand Marais  paintout. I apologize for the quality of the photos. I was shooting them at our camp site as I framed them.

 If you are up in Grand Marais between now and September 26, be sure to take in the show at the Johnson Heritage Post Gallery. Somebody can correct my numbers but I'm guessing there are about 200 paintings by about 30 to 40 artists that all took part in the event.

If you're in Hudson, WI, before September 25, be sure to take in the Project Art for Nature show at the Phipps Center for the Arts.

And of course, there is always the St. Paul Art Crawl October 7-9. Jerri Jo and I will be in my studio at 275 E 4th street in lovely downtown Saint Paul.