Longbranch Studio

I’m putting together a weekly class for people in the Limon area. We will focus on fundamentals of drawing and watercolor. Message me if you want added to the list for more details.

The road to Bear Lake has some of the most stunning mountain scenery in Colorado. In order to get this one it took some balance and a bit of stupidity as I stood on a hillside falling sharply to the creek. The lighting made it all worth it. Watercolors on paper 14x10”

Late summer evenings are peaceful times in my country. Early evening light is something hard to resist. 10x7” oil.

“The New West” a painting about change, old meets new and the incredibly vast prairie. I had this painting designed for some time before I was ready to paint it.

My Westcliffe paintings, all watercolor and each subject a different challenge. The road to Hermit lake was rough and muddy, the church mosquitos were extra hungry and the light was in and out, the truck was next to the highway, the barn was a narrow road, and the little scene was from the Jeep extra rainy. All fun and looking forward to a return trip.

Recent blog about painting in the field

The Reality of Field Work- A Day in the Mud The reality of field work is mud, bugs, hot, cold, forgetting pieces of equipment, getting your vehicle stuck, paintings tipping over into the dirt, rapidly changing weather and light. So why do it? Well because of photo reference like this:

Legendary Panhandle cowboy Tom Blasingame, who was born in Waxahachie in 1898. He rode his first horse at the age of six. At ninety-one, he was still on the job at the JA Ranch south of Amarillo. Two days after Christmas in 1989, he dismounted his horse, Ruidosa, stretched out on the grass, folded his arms across his chest, and died.

Photo courtesy the JA Ranch, where Tom worked for 73 years.

Detail is really just hyper-awareness of shapes, lights and darks, hard edges and soft. Learning to observe these things and then accurately capture each in the medium of paint...well that takes at least a lifetime. jrmonks.com