It’s July in Austin and today the heat index is 106 and I’m sitting in my “new” studio. It’s actually my former/current workshop where I make and prepare all of my blanks for painting and tweak anything that I’ve done on location. I haven’t had an actual studio in over twenty years. During that time I was painting out of my truck and making blanks on the driveway and in my workshop. Of course, I have had studios in the past, but this is the best one yet. Nothing fancy and maybe a little smaller than some I’ve had in the past, but it’s got everything I need and I love coming here every day to paint and hang out.
Last summer, I took two extensive road trips.
The first was to Northern Michigan. What a beautiful state. I was up there in June and painting until dark—around 10:00pm most days. I did several really good paintings which I can’t wait to post. After I returned to Austin, I restocked and took off to North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado. What a trip. I really enjoyed the different landscapes and was really taken with North Dakota.
If you’ve never been, I highly recommend making time—in the summer, of course, to see this outstanding landscape. I was so glad to have been there, because shortly after returning, I watched the PBS series on the Roosevelts and I could really understand the impact North Dakota had on Teddy Roosevelt. The landscape is so different, that I found capturing it to be formidable. I did get some really good paintings, but believe me, they didn’t come easy.