One of the fun tricks of oil painting is to do an underpainting of the entire canvas to set mood and lighting.  The red background in the above painting sets an intensity for a hot summer day with strong shadows.  The finished piece is warm for a sunny day. 
​Light lavender works great for the low light of November.

My son, Van Jensen, was home for a week and was reminded of breaking his nose during high school basketball practice leading to a discussion of me breaking my nose twice as a child - once getting hit by a wooden swing and once having a heavy pedestal table with my brothers on top smashing my face.  When I was in high school I started begging my parents for a nose job and they finally agreed.  They took their time, long enough that I decided I didn't need it and could live with a broken nose.  The conversation inspired these two paintings.

I'm never quite content with brilliant orange poppies and light lavender lilacs but each spring they burst into bloom together with their odd color scheme.
Both are gifts from favorite women who were buddies as little girls through high school.  Both ended up living in Lewellen as married women.  One was my mother and the other an art buddy - Alice Bailey.  
My mother loved the country and wild things - the poppies are from her.  Their long spindly stems sway with the slightest breeze turning their spray of color in interesting shapes.
Alice Bailey was a lover of the genteel - beautiful costumes, classic paintings and formal settings - the double lavender lilac was a gift from her.  Alice had an walled-in English garden with a little grass, walking paths and bountiful flower beds.  Many of my paintings are from photos taken in her garden.
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With Covid 19 and social distancing, birding has risen to the top of my to-do list.  We participated in the May e-bird count and spotted thirty-five species at our bird feeder and around the place during a couple of days of watching.  Notably absent were flickers this year.  We do have red-bellied, downy, hairy and red-headed woodpeckers however.  I had been finding chunks of wood on my walking path and found the newly hollowed out hole for one woodpecker.  Unable to identify the bird sitting inside I resorted to the Cornell ebird site and listened to woodpecker calls, making it very clear it was a red-bellied woodpecker.

Here is the nearly finished pair hanging in my studio.  To answer the question of time, paint and brush time was about 20 hours - or about 40 years of experience!

Sometimes when I am painting I get excited about the colors on my palette.  The one on the left is done with three primary colors - ones that are more muted Nebraska colors.  I used these same three for about ten paintings in a row including the November and Abandoned series.  The palette on the right includes a bright red and Manganese Blue - more of an aqua blue.  These are great for flowers.  I had a great time making yellowish greens and blue greens for the leaves.

​We have had so many cloudy days, I thought I would share this recent painting of our little walking bridge across Blue Creek.  My daily walk starts with crossing this bridge and heading out through the pasture and around the lagoon.  Each day is different as the seasons and weather affect the color and light.  

When painting I am trying to turn a flat canvas into the appearance of three dimensions so the viewer sees into the distance.  A trick that is based on reality is to make the back objects lighter and cooler.  This is readily apparent on a misty day but true anytime.  

(On a side note - thanks to the Scottsbluff Star Herald for great coverage Sept. 26.  Read here.)