You Want to Change the World?

All you need is a Twitter and a few Bitcoins.

But be careful friends...

It might only be that I need a larger data plan, but I'm afraid our smartphones are making us morons.  

If Siri is the voice of our generation, the face of change is a wide-eyed emoji. 

Switchbacks

oil on canvas

16" x 20"

I love painting mountains.  I've always been a huge fan of pictures depicting huge western vistas, but I tend to gravitate toward scenes like the one above more often than those featuring great distances.  This set of switchbacks leads up to the notorious Black Bear Pass, a tricky Jeep trail about 4,000 feet above Telluride, Colorado.  I've never made it that far up on the trail, but if you've got a Jeep and feel adventurous, I'm game. 

Keyhole

oil on canvas

9" x 12"

I painted this one with some friends at Arches National Park.  Utah is a wild place, can't wait to go back.  

Big Rocks in a Hole

Vishnu Temple

oil on canvas

12" x 16"

The Grand Canyon is a hard thing to paint.  This was the fourth picture I painted during my first day on the South Rim.  The previous three pictures were wiped off with no regrets.  I really struggled trying to capture the beautiful morning light on the canyon.  By the time I'd gotten a grasp of how to approach the massive subject, the wonderful blues and reds were gone.  This isn't a very pretty picture, but I was happy with how well it represented the midday light.  My subsequent pictures of the Grand Canyon were more confident, but I'm looking forward to making a return trip sometime soon to further refine my rock painting skills.

Larry

oil on canvas

6" x 8"

I could use a few more models.  For those of you Indiana folks that enjoy sitting still for long periods of time, this is your chance to do something productive while doing nothing at all.  Thanks to those of you who have already volunteered.  Just to clear up any confusion, modeling for me is not like Rose modeling for Jack on the Titanic...you don't have to be nude, you don't have to wear an enormous diamond necklace, and I don't have to freeze to death afterwards.

wyattlegrand@gmail.com

Carmel-by-the-Sea

Morning Fog

oil on canvas

12" x 16"

I wrote a lot about painting this picture.  Then, I realized what I had wrote was incredibly boring.  Trust me, an explanation of how I deleted ten minutes of thoughtful remarks is ten times more interesting and thoughtful than said remarks.

I wish I was at the beach.  Here's a picture of the beach.

Snow Days

Over China Cove

oil on canvas

12" x 24"

Snow days are a lot of work.  I'm trying to get some paintings done.  A few might be good, but most I'm unsure about.

I went through a stash of plein air paintings from a couple summers ago.  In the stack were most of the paintings I did on the way to-and-from California on an epic road trip.  I hadn't looked at most of them since returning from the adventure.  There were a handful of misses, but I was mostly surprised with how much I liked the paintings.  At the time, I don't think I felt as confident with the work because of my lack of familiarity with the subjects I was depicting.  Painting the ocean, the desert, and the mountains is tough when you're used to painting thick Indiana woods through thick Indiana air.  While many of the paintings I brought back were my first attempts at foreign landscapes and therefore lacking in virtuosity, I'm happy with the "honesty" of the depictions.  Unlike many plein air painters, I've never thought of my plein paintings as studies.  I've always called on things I learned from painting on location, but have very rarely used works done in the field as studio study materials.  This group of work, which I initially gathered up for upcoming exhibits, might be the exception.  While I still have a vivid memory of the places I visited, I'm finding some of my current studio paintings benefiting from old plein air works pinned up on the wall.  For as many reference photos as I have, I'm pretty horrible at using photographs in my paintings, so I guess I'll plan on milking these recent finds for all their worth in my upcoming pictures of everything west of the Mississippi.  

China Cove is a little piece of Point Lobos in California.  It's easily one of the funnest places I've painted.  The abundance of fog and mist seemed to make the sunny moments unbelievably vivid.  I went back a month or so painting the picture above, but to my disappointment, the road had been closed by the wildfires that eventually burnt up lots of the Big Sur area.  Giveth and taketh or something like that...

Where Have You Been, My Blue-Eyed Son?

I haven't posted anything for a while...sorry.  I'm mostly not motivated to write about anything worth reading, and in light of the fact that the majority of last month's posts only asked things of you fine folks, I didn't figure you'd mind the break.  "Go to my show!  Buy my paintings!  Go to my show!  Have a Happy New Year!"  Obviously, I really don't have much to offer you if I can't ask you do to something for me first.  Pretty lousy...

So, anyway...I need models.  

Old, young, fat, skinny, pretty, ugly, etc....

If you're interested, please get in touch.

wyattlegrand@gmail.com

It's Hot in the Poor Places Tonight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBp7QsFweRY

Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground