Set a Spell

Oil on board, 6" x 6"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
Email don@dailyartwest.com for purchase


Brenda got a great deal on three chairs that once graced a hospital waiting room--five bucks apiece. She plans to re-upholster them, and there's room in the studio to do that. So here they are...in my studio.

I have always resisted having comfortable chairs in the studio. I know myself too well. I fear the embarrassment of having someone visit my workplace and discover me snoring away in some cushy recliner.

Recliners they're not, but still, these chairs are pretty comfy. There's one facing my painting wall now, at a nice viewing distance. And for the first time, I can study a work in progress in complete comfort. Lately I've been studying and studying.

Call before you visit...wouldn't want to break my concentration.

Autumn Leaf

Oil on board, 5" x 7"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
Email don@dailyartwest.com for purchase


This beautifully mottled Cottonwood leaf laying on the gravel roadway seemed to sum up the season with great simplicity.

Downstream

Oil on board, 5" x 7"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
SOLD

Cottonwood Autumn

Oil on board, 6" x 6"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S
SOLD


This time of year the evergreen forests provide a beautiful deep green foil for the golden cottonwoods. Catherine Creek trickles along so quiet and gentle these days--it's hard to recall the raw power it displayed in springtime, when it tossed these large tree trunks up onto the gravel bar like pick up sticks.

Small Grove at Sundown

Oil on board, 5" x 7"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
SOLD

Slow Water

Oil on acid-free canvas board, 6" x 8"
$150 plus $7 shipping in U.S.
Email don@dailyartwest.com for purchase

A slightly larger painting today. A quiet evening at one of my favorite places along beautiful Catherine Creek.

Hill Pasture

Oil on board, 5" x 7"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
Email don@dailyartwest.com for purchase

More cows--at a distance this time--looking fairly content in their High Valley pasture.

Squash on Green Cloth

Oil on board, 6" x 6"

$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.

Email don@dailyartwest.com for purchase

Striped Squash

Oil on board, 6" x 6"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
SOLD


It's October, and you know what that means...that's right, it's decorative gourd season!

Angus Bull 2

Oil on board, 6" x 6"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
Email don@dailyartwest.com for purchase


Wooly bully returns yet again. It is fun sometimes to take an image and see where it will go when it is painted multiple times. Here the format changed from horizontal to square, which necessitated a different approach to design. I tried to let the painting lead me--not the other way around-- using shifting colors and values to create a different mood...or is that moood?

So much of learning to paint is about control; trying to gain command over the medium and develop fluency, so the painting will do what you want. And ironically, so much of being a good painter is about learning to relinquish that hard-earned control, so the painting in process can lead its own "life." In a curious sense, the developing painting becomes independent of you. You just try to help it along, staying out of the way as much as possible, giving up the illusion of control. If you're lucky, you become an intensely interested onlooker and can be as surprised as anyone at what results.

I'm honored to have been invited to join Daily Paintworks, an online group of a dozen very fine daily painters. Check us out at http://www.dailypaintworks.com/.

Hereford Cow Profile

Oil on board, 5" x 7"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
SOLD

Under the Willows

Oil on board, 5" x 7"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
SOLD


It has been a little crazy lately with other commitments, but hopefully I can get back to a little better posting routine now.

We attended a sensational show this evening by a group called The Young Americans. They're a song and dance troupe of young people in their late teens to mid-twenties who travel around the world performing in cities and towns large and small. As soon as the group arrives in town they begin workshopping with local schoolkids from fourth grade through high school. And after two days of intensive rehearsing, the youngsters put on an unbelievably complex Broadway style show for the community, dancing and singing side by side with The Young Americans.

What an incredible experience for these kids--no doubt life-changing for some. And for all who witness it, what a wonderful affirmation of the power and value of creative endeavor.

Some of you may recall the posts about my two week printmaking residency last June at Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts. Their "Monothon" fundraiser is going on this weekend, and I had the pleasure of attending today and making a few monotype prints.

Artists from all over the region converge to work in the print facilities. Ten or twelve of us at a time take three-hour shifts working with Master Printer Frank Janzen and a team of energetic volunteers. The prints produced are offered for sale on the last day to make money for the institute's worthy programs.

Monotypes are one-of-a-kind prints made by painting inks on a sheet of clear acrylic plastic, then laying paper on it and running it through a hand-cranked press. I decided to work with the image of the Angus bull I painted for the October 1st daily, just to see what changes the image would undergo in this different medium. The process is spontaneous and unpredictable...lots of accidents, happy or otherwise; but it's that sense of experimentation and discovery that makes it enjoyable. Of course the three hours whiz by and just when you feel you're getting warmed up, it's time to quit. Oh well, it was still fun.

New Prints!

Four new Giclees have been added to the Print Collection. These are archival reproductions of the original paintings. I have hand-signed and titled them in the lower margin.
To see the whole collection and learn how to order, visit http://dongrayprints.blogspot.com/




The Shallows

Image size: 7" x 5", paper size: 10" x 8"
Visit Don Gray Prints to purchase




Breakfast

Image size: 5" x 7", paper size" 8" x 10"
Visit Don Gray Prints to purchase




Fell Off

Image size: 6" x 6", paper size: 8" x 10"
Visit Don Gray Prints to purchase




Hall Door

Image size: 6" x 6", paper size: 8" x 10"
Visit Don Gray Prints to purchase

Her Full Attention

Oil on board, 6" x 6"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
Email don@dailyartwest.com for purchase


I don't think cows have a lot going on upstairs, if you know what I mean. But in a stare-down like this, I always wonder what's going on in their heads. Maybe they're wondering the same thing about me.

Fur Coat

Oil on board, 6" x 6"

$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.

Email don@dailyartwest.com for purchase

She Said WHAT?!

Oil on board, 6" x 6"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
SOLD

Cow gossip.

D97

Oil on board, 5" x 7"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
SOLD


Now it's the lady's turn. She posed patiently for me. Much more polite than old wooly bully.

Angus Bull

Oil on board, 5" x 7"
$125 plus $6 shipping in U.S.
SOLD


I came across this big fella while out driving the farm roads the other day. He glowered at me while I skidded to a stop and I knew immediately this was the pose I wanted. I snapped a quick photo out the window and jumped out to take some more. By this time he had lost interest and was ambling toward the cows that were keeping him company. I yelled and banged on the pickup trying to get him to stop and look back again, but he was so through with me--I didn't even get a sidelong glance.