May everyone all the world round be blessed this holiday season with health and happiness, the warmth of family and friends, and even a bit of good old prosperity in the New Year!

I've had a tooth infection and a sinus infection cramping my usual abundant energy but it seems like it's heading out of town in time for Christmas dinner. Thank you, Santa!

Just got an email asking about more progress photos of the Badlands painting that's I'm obsessed with. So here are two recent photos, one a detail that shows how the first layers of paint are lose and go from sky to foreground. You can also see that the dark values everywhere in the painting are right there in place in charcoal with a light wash of dark paint over. After all, first things first. The other photo of the whole painting needs an apology cause it's poorly lit:) Yikes! I'll take a better current photo as soon as the sun comes out. Studio lighting and my camera simply so not get along!

Detail.

Bad studio lighting... sorry!

Newer landscape painters are always interested in one topic: how to start a painting. How-to magazine articles on landscape and plein air are sure to run through the usual steps in beginning a painting. Rightly so because if a painting is poorly started then you spend the rest of the painting session correcting.

Most painters begin by "drawing" in the defining edges and shadows with a dark paint, giving solid landmarks for painting objects. The next step varies by painter but is usually something along the lines of further developing all of the light and dark areas.

I too "draw" with paint on smaller works and that gets the painting going fast. My approach is different for larger works which are begun with a well developed drawing usually in graphite and then charcoal. In that way I am certain that everything is where it should be (or where I want it) and that the dark areas are fully stated. After that all that's left is the fun stuff of painting!

Here's a project that I've been working on for a while, interrupted with patchs of life and other stuff. The scene is of the Borrego Badlands at Ocatillo Wells. It's a foreboding place and a dangerous one too as many settlers lost their lives out there. When you think of wandering about the desert of the southwest, this and Death Valley are the places!

What especially attracted me to this scene was the fact that it was spring and that set up a nice contrast: the foreboding far distance versus the green life in the foreground. So here it is in the first stage with the drawing almost ready to receive paint. Can't wait to get going on this one!!

"Borrego Badlands", 20 by 36 inches, oil on stretched canvas, gallery wrapped.

This plein air painter sure loves painting out in the field on location. However, there are times when it simply isn't practical, not to mention safe! In mid-November on the way back from the beautiful mountain village of Idyllwild we came to this bend in the road. I had already stopped a couple of times to sketch out the view and make some color notes, so I was probably pushing my luck with the changing light to stop at this location. The view caught my interest and I had to do something, so I took a picture right through the windshield!

Seriously, I never imagined that anything would come of that photo. The downsides - and there are many - of painting from photos are serious and a trained eye can usually spot the mischief made by using a photo as your only source. Don't get me wrong, I like taking photos as much as the next guy. Plus, photos are very useful as a supplement to what your eye sees and captures... but only a supplement.

When I got home and checked my images I was super surprised to see that scene captured fairly acurately. I printed it out and was again surprised by the pleasant results. So I though that with nothing to lose except time and a canvas, I'd take a shot at painting it... not exactly as it was in the photo but as my mind's eye remembered it. Here it is for your consideration:)

"Familiar Bend in the Road", 9 by 12 inches, oil on canvas.