Five States in Six Days With Three Kids

Whew. That about sums up last week. We arrived back home on Sunday night after a six day trip to Yellowstone (starting in Arizona) going through Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and back. Our 11, 9, and 2 year-old did really well considering we had many long days in the car and spent each night in a different place. Thank goodness for books, games, and big sisters.
   The trip was a whirlwind, but very beautiful. Along the way my wife fell in love with several of the very rural towns in Idaho and the scenery throughout Idaho and Utah is definitely a landscape painters paradise. As soon as we shake off this cold we all seemed to pick up on the last day of the trip, I plan on starting a whole series of paintings from many of the places we visited, a few of which I've included below. So much inspiration I discovered along the way is just fighting in my head for first dibs to get laid down on canvas. I look forward to getting started! *cough* *sneeze* *sigh*

Regular Painting and Posts to Resume

Well, after months of saying to myself "After I finish this batch of illustrations, I'll start painting again" only to see that promise fall to the wayside when a fresh batch of illustrations roll in, I've decided that the only way I'm going to get time to paint is if I make time for it. Starting today I'm scheduling a block of at least two hours to paint, every day. It's my aim to work on commercial work from 9am (the earliest I can get into the studio after I get the kids off to school) to 2:30, and then paint from 2:30/3 until 5 or 5:30.

I need to get the brush back to canvas and the only way I'm going to accomplish that is by forcing it into my schedule. While I'm hoping to pick up where I left off, I've also been thinking a lot lately of experimenting more with texture. Seeing some of Michael Workman's originals in Santa Fe made me realize there's a lot of room to explore textures by not only layering the paint, but also by manipulating the surface.

Expect more regular posts starting this week!

I'm not dead yet!

Despite my lack of posts lately, I have not in fact fallen down a well or been trapped in a cave by a rabid bear. Illustration has been keeping me busy lately as well as some changes in our family schedule (kids' soccer games/practice, etc). My mom has been doing some really neat color/mood studies lately (see 1 and 2) that have been giving me some ideas. So, apologies for the lack of posts lately. I should be back to posting more, interesting paintings soon enough.

Have a happy and safe Halloween! I'll be out this Sunday night with my ten year-old vampire masquerade dancer (an interesting twist she came up with), my eight year-old zombie soccer goalie (another fun twist), and my nearly two year-old...something-or-other. We haven't yet decided what to do with her yet, but I'm sure it'll come to us. Eventually. ;)

"75 for 75" project - part two!

Being exposed to so much great art and beautiful scenery over the past five days has been a big inspiration and has made me want to start another "75 for 75" project.  So, on the way back from Westcliffe, CO yesterday, I challenged my mom (Adele Earnshaw) to another "75 for 75" battle starting Wednesday, October 6th and ending on Saturday, November 6th. We're going back to our roots with this one and I'll be doing landscapes (with a dog or two thrown in possibly). Adele has had many requests to repeat the bird theme, so she will be focusing on bird studies. Each day we will post our paintings on our respective Web sites (see below) as well as on our Facebook group page. It's always a challenge for me to balance my commercial illustration work with doing a painting each day, but over the past few months I think I've got a little more practice under my belt and I'm pretty confident that I can make the painting-a-day goal.

The goal is to produce at least one 5 x 7" painting each day, but I might not stick strictly to the 5 x 7 format. While Adele will be painting 5 x 7's, I might mix it up with some 6 x 8's, or 6 x 6's. I'll let the composition dictate the size, but most pieces will probably be 5 x 7.

We'd love for you to drop by now and then, take a peek at the work, offer some comments or words of encouragement, or simply just follow along! As before, each piece will be available on our Web sites, unframed, for $75.
Here are the Web sites where the work will be posted:

Adele Earnshaw: http://adeleearnshaw.blogspot.com

Shane Rebenschied: http://turpitout.blogspot.com

As with the last "75 for 75" project, I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to expand my abilities, try out new things, and I'm excited to see where it takes me.
We look forward to hearing from you, and let the games begin!

Oh, and since I posted so close together, don't forget to read about the Westcliffe trip below. :)

Westcliffe

WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD!

I'm back, and I'm alive! I was hoping to blog each evening, but I quickly discovered that standing in the sun all day combined with the altitude wiped me out by the end of the day. It was all I could do to stay awake long enough to participate in some light conversation before crawling between the sheets and passing out.
   The trip was great fun though. We had long hours in the car, but it was offset by great conversation and some beautiful scenery.

Driving through New Mexico, we were treated to a rising full moon while it was still relatively light outside. We arrived in Westcliffe, CO late that evening but were up fairly early the next day to hang pieces for the show, and then we were off to search for good scenery for some plein-air painting.

Many homes were built in among the trees. I wonder which came first, the trees or the homes?

This one will definitely become a painting. I eventually figured out that the reason the grass was so green here was because it was soggy wet. The cows made "splurch" sounds as they walked through the boggy green zone.

My easel set up, ready to paint. Eventually I'll get an Open Box M, but for now it's a borrowed and broken mini Julian.

Fortunately you don't have to look far to find an incredible vista. The vibrant greens and yellows provided a great contrast to the blues in the Wet Mountain Range. There were also a lot of Aspens changing to brilliant yellows and oranges in the mountains.

   We spent a little over half the day on Friday and another half day on Saturday out painting and collecting reference. One thing I discovered while standing near fields containing hundreds of heads of cattle, is how often they defecate and urinate. Holy smokes.

Earnshaw snapping some shots of cows mugging for the camera.

The aforementioned cows

It wasn't all cows. There were some beautiful horses out and about as well.

While it was definitely a kick to be outside painting, my plein-air abilities are quite rusty so I spent lots of time scratching my head, turping out pieces, and making the cattle blush with my swearing. It's certainly a challenge, but one I look forward to besting in the future.

Joanne Hanson evaluating her piece. She ended up with three great plein-airs.

Joe Garcia putting the finishing touches on a great landscape.

Me, holding the brush badly, doing a 15-minute speed painting of a cow. I didn't even have time to set up an umbrella.

Our collected work from earlier in the day. From left to right it's Earnshaw, Earnshaw, Hanson, Hanson, me, Garcia.

The show on Saturday night was a lot of fun and I had a fantastic time talking with some great artists. Sunday morning we packed up and took the back-roads out of town where we came across miles and miles of incredible Aspen, changing to stunning, brilliant yellows.

This guy was surrounded by Pine Trees and so made a wonderful, yellow stand-out.

The variations of yellow were dramatic.

The back-roads drive didn't seem to last long enough as before too long we met up with a highway, then a freeway, and were on our way out of Colorado. Fortunately, we split the drive back to Arizona into two days so it didn't seem as long as the drive out.

   So now I'm back in the studio, catching up with work, and looking forward to the next trip. I'll also be announcing a new painting-a-day project with my mom, Adele Earnshaw, later today so keep your eye out within the next few days for some regular paintings being posted here again.

As always, thanks for stopping by!