The two pieces that have been accepted are below. Both are from the recent trip to the Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks. On the left is Grizzly Falls, Morning and on the right is ​Lower Yosemite Falls, Late Afternoon.

May 4th, 2019 was the first time I participated in the Park Hill Art Club Show and Sale. It was a fun reception with a lot of folks showing up at the Park Hill United Methodist Church gym to peruse the wide range of artistic styles. Presently, I am vice-president of the club which means I am in charge of co-ordinating instructors and classes for the fall, winter and spring sessions as well as the basic calendar of events.

MOP 2019 PUBLIC PORTFOLIO WALKTHROUGH
SATURDAY MARCH 23, 5:30 PM – 8 PM
MCNICHOLS CIVIC CENTER BUILDING (2ND FLOOR), 144 W. COLFAX AVE, DENVER

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

WINE AND BEER AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE (21+)

Participants in the MoP Portfolio Reviews will display their work for an evening Portfolio Walkthrough. This event is free and open to the public.
Browse an incredible amount of photography on display and meet artists and reviewers in a casual setting.

I participated in this event as part of the Colorado Photographic Art Center's involvement with the Front Range's Biennial Month of Photography. I hope to see a lot of people at the Walk Through.
​

During the month of August 2019, two of my pieces -- Great Sand Dunes Evening and The Great White Throne Evening --on on display as part of the juried show at the Depot Gallery in Littleton, Colorado. My friend Joe Rotello snapped the pic of me in front of my pieces. The reception on August 2nd was well attended, standing room only in the gallery once the reception started. 

I'm trying to get as much creative work done before I have to go backs to my 'day job' in January. Although, even that will be a bit of a short duration. I have one more quarter of teaching at the University of Denver before I am basically retired, though not officially until June 30, 2019. Then, I hope to turn my full attention to my art and art business. So, far I've been a bit of a dilettante with that endeavor. Trying to maintain focus of the immediate tasks at hand rather than spreading myself too thin.

My latest piece is "Near Sunset, Deva, Thor, Brahma and Zoroaster Temples." This is the third piece I have done of these formations, but this digital painting is at a different time of day and from the perspective of the Bright Angle Lodge overlook. The San Francisco Peaks are in the background.

I'm definitely getting the hang of the wireless mouse with my new iMac. Over the past three weeks, I have completed two brand new pieces.

I've never been happy with my first attempt at creating a digital painting of The Great White Throne, but this second version captures both the early sunset and the impending thunderstorm that would roll in that night.  From the torrential downpour that erupted, water gushed off the sides of the canyon walls to flood the Virgin River and wash out sections of the park road. This piece will replace my first attempt on this website.

I had also wanted to capture the imaginary border that separates Arizona from Mexico through both the inclusion of this stand of organ pipe cacti and saguaro cacti in Arizona against the backdrop of the Sierra Madre Mts. in Mexico. For me, in some ways, the transversing clouds and  jet trails indicate just how permeable this border is and how impossible it is to contain life through that border.

The hardest part of acclimating myself to my new iMac is getting used to the wireless mouse as my paintbrush tool. It is much more sensitive than the my old wired mouse. But, I have completed a new digital painting of The Organ from the Virgin River Trail in Zion National Park using the new tool.

I thought that I would try to visually illustrate how my digital painting techniques differ from my digital photograph. On the left side of the screen is my original jpeg photograph. It is definitely nothing to write home about as it is underexposed, problems with contrast between the rocks and sky, etc.  Indeed, in most instances, I would consider this particular photograph a failure.

However, after applying a number of techniques in camera raw filter, in choosing colors and saturation filters that grow from my memory of seeing this site,  using a dry brush filter and digitally painting to eliminate chromatic aberrations of the camera lens as well as utilizing the burn tool to create a better sense of visual depth, the image on the right is the digital painting that I have completed.