Platte River Perch

Platte River Perch__a study for larger commission

Like yesterday's post, this one was painted en plein air along a remote stretch of the Platte River in western Nebraska. I am working on a commission...groups of works for a ranch there. My friend, Tina came with me, and drove the "mule" while I photographed and painted...we had a blast!...This snaggy tree near the bank was a landmark for us, and every time we drove past, there was a different type of bird there. We saw turkeys at the base, then in the branches we saw, kingfisher, a cormorant or a grebe, hawks and eagles, and a king bird...I can't decide whether to put an eagle or a hawk in the final painting, but it will NOT be the awkward looking thing I painted here. I call this one a "hawkle"

 

 MY FAVORITE type of work is WHATEVER takes me OUTSIDE, on farms and ranches...ANYWHERE in America. I enjoy the process of discovering a location, getting to know it's light and shadows, and hopefully hanging around long enough to see changing weather and seasons.

These days, while in the midst of my Birdseed Project, I am noticing BIRDS and the role they play in the MOOD of a place

Rows of White

Rows of White__12 x 12 oil on linen__available

A few weeks ago I painted this in the cold morning paintout at the Bohaty Farm in Nebraska. This was after the "warm-up" painting that I posted...

British White Cattle are very pretty, and gentle. They gathered around as we set up to paint them...seeming to enjoy the extra company!

Below is a picture of me painting this one! Look hard and you can see what I saw!

 

Remembered

Remembered___8x10 oil study

If you look at the tree trunks on the left you can see some of the actual grasses that stuck to the paint when I painted this on location in Nebraska last week. The day started very cold at the Bohaty Farm. They just updated their web site with some of the photos I took! Go see the Sandhill cranes that stopped by their beautiful farm that day!
 By late afternoon when I painted this, most of the snow had melted and the breeze died down and I could actually feel a little warmth from the sun...This is a long abandoned farm owned by my friend, Allen. Since it is surrounded by busy farms, everyone in these parts REMEMBERS its purpose, and the families that once lived and worked here! I bet everyone has a farm in teir memory!

Amy's Lake

Amy's Lake___8x10___sold

This lake has a name, but I forget what it is. Since my friend, Amy lives here, I call it Amy's Lake.

It is near David City, Nebraska, where I painted last week... the location where I painted the coots on that cold windy day! M.B. took this painting home with him...THANKS, M.B.!

British White Warmup

British White - Warm-Up

Last week in Nebraska, I painted with a group outside in various locations.

One location was the Bohaty Farm, one of the top breeding places for the beautiful British White catte. It was a PERFECT DAY on their farm: enthusiastic cattle people were there to purchase at their auction, the fields were full of Sandhill cranes and the artists were scattered around, creating works in oils and watercolor.This one is my morning study. I often grab a tiny canvas as a warm-up.

5th and Nebraska

5th and Nebraska___tiny oil study for Allen and Anna

This beautiful home is where Allen grew up and now lives with Anna! They are a couple of the founders of the Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art, in David City, Nebraska. I stay with them whenever I visit there. They sweetly were my "ground transportation" last week, meeting me at the airport in a FIERCE hail storm...the kind that ONLY happens on the Great Plains!

And it hailed on us from Omaha all the way to David City, where it froze solid and then was covered with a few inches of snow. Waking to the fresh snowfall I just had to get out in it and PAINT. Since the house is on the corner of 5th and Nebraska, I have given this little study that name. That's me below, in the cold...

Duck Creek Lightning Night

Duck Creek Lightnings__24x30 oil on linen__a commission

I have a commission to paint a ranch in Nebraska. I have been there several times, most recently in June (Tina was my travel buddy)...The very first day there, we had the ranch to ourselves, so we tromped around with the help of some "wheels" they provided...This place is situated on the Platte River, and there were miles of wild places to explore. My FAVORITE impression happened as we pulled away at dusk, and I tried to capture it here. Storms were approaching from the west, with thunderheads building, and I am just sure I saw some distant lightning.  In the wetlands were DOZENS of "lightning bugs" and they seemed to be blinking replies to the lightning in the clouds....

_______________________

Here are some locations for a few of my workshops. email me if you want more info on any of these...

And here is a link to a SPECIAL ONE.

I can't wait to see the water go down the drain BACKWARDS there!

July-August ___weekly__Austin___ "Chocolates and Chiaroscuro" 

Sept. 15, 2012___Salado TX

2013___New York City, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania...

2014___February 23-March 1___New Zealand

**BE SURE to tell me if you sign up! I like to send things to my students to get them ready, keep them "seeing", and thinking, and talking about it!

Plain View

Plain View___6x8 oil on linen___one from Passing America__$350 unframed

This one has a story...it was painted for my current exhibit, "Passing America...".

...in the place with the biggest sky of my travels: western Nebraska...Because I ran out of panels that day, I painted it on a "loose" piece of linen, and then never found time to mount it, so it was not delivered it to the museum for the show! I have since mounted it, so it is available unframed...

The Digital Goddess, Kim Komando mentioned my "Last Year on the Farm" in her newsletter this week! I have received some HEARTFELT notes from all over the country from people who are missing their farms, too. Click for Kim's newsletter, and scroll down halfway for my feature (it's a video)

Moonrise Laughter

Moonrise Laughter__6x8 oil on linen panel___SOLD wet!

Have you seen the harvest moon? A few days ago we were all together having a little picnic before I did one last demo of the moonrise, and the workshop folks broke into singing "Shine on Harvest Moon". Here is that last demo of a wonderful Nebraska Workshop.
The title is from my own favorite song of the Plains: "Calling Out Your Name", by Rich Mullins...the lyric is this:

"The moon moved past Nebraska and spilled laughter on them cold Dakota Hills..."


These aren't the Dakota Hills, but there was a lot of spilled laughter as I demonstrated and the group chatted and enjoyed one another for the last time....what a group! They came from all over the place with many fun stories to tell....Precious friendships, now, and I cannot wait to meet up again....I hope y'all are painting!!!!
have you seen the Passing America paintings?

Chilly Morning at Allen's Old Place

Chilly Morning at Allen's Old Place__8x10 oil on linen__$450 with wet paint
With miles and miles of Nebraska cornfields and soybeans ready to come out of the fields, my workshop found the PERFECT HILLTOP to paint from. A hilltop place (formerly belonging to one of my hosts, Allen, but now being restored by his good friends, the Moravec's) has given us 360 degrees of landscapes to paint! You will see a number of my hilltop demos in the next few days! Whereas the sun rose QUICKLY from reds to yellows in yesterday's post, this sunrise "stalled" when low, foggy damp clouds rode in on the western breezes. Artists like when there is a LITTLE more time to grasp the glance outside.
Passing America: The Great Plains click to see 154 works from the show

Mark at the Round Barn

Mark at the Round Barn___8x10 oil on linen panel__$450
Dale Nicholls is the great regional painter from this area, who made it big in the art world.
Now deceased, this was his family's home, and this type of barn is rare and unique...It is a treasure in Butler County, NE, and we had to have special permission to bring the workshop here for me to paint this study.
My aim was to NOT get tight and paint every board on the barn, and when I do another version, I will emphasize the scale more with some more people or equipment...see the little man by the door on the left? He is too BIG for this scale...the barn is HUGE!!!
I have a few more things to post from my workshop, but for the past few days, I have been working in some of the high schools here, speaking and demonstrating and introducing them to my Chicken Clinic...Great kids here, and a LOT of fun!
See my entire exhibit Passing America: The Great Plains
Next workshop: Fredericksburg, TX, Nov 9-11...FULL MOON FUN! vvaughan8@yahoo.com

Marietta Presentation

Marietta Presentation__6x8 oil on linen panel___$350 while wet
This little church is in the distance off the northwest side of our workshop hilltop location in Nebraska. When you can see for distant MILES and miles, WHITE things catch sunlight...and the eye of an artist! My sky was crystal clear the morning I did this warm-up painting...my first from the hilltop. As our week has progressed, I have seen cloud shadows moving over this scene, and can't wait to get home and paint a larger one with my reference photos.
Passing America: The Great Plains click to see 154 works from the show

Lit Up Cloud Tops

Lit Up Cloud Tops__6x8 oil on linen panel__$350 while wet!
There was rain predicted for each day of my workshop here in Nebraska, but somehow we managed to avoid it! These little cloud tops were in the east as the sun set at our backs on the Moravec Hilltop. I forgot the point I was making to the students when I grabbed this small canvas and put in the color of the cloud tops....maybe it was something about the complementary colors in daylight...
I am in NE for the opening of my long project, "Passing America: The Great Plains" at the University of Nebraska's Great Plains Art Museum...it has been well received, so far, and will be up through mid December! Click link to see all 154 works

Gourmet Grass Fed

Gourmet Grass-Fed___6x8 study for the Bohaty's (sounds like "BO-hotty")
We painted at the Bohaty farm today....This is a study of their British White Cattle which they raise for their Gourmet Beef business. I will be ordering some of this delicious beef, grass fed, organic and raised with tender loving care by Walter, and Nancy Bohaty!
The Bohaty family are some of the most gracious people you could ever meet, and I have feasted with them several times now...including an impromptu picnic today on their lawn with all my workshop artists!!
The study above was to demonstrate how DARK shadows are on white things, and how much color is in white cows...I didn't mean to create a compsition, so it's not great, but the lessons are there...
Here is the beef website... http://www.gourmetgrassfedbeef.com/

AND...here is a WONDERFULLY NICE article in the Lincoln Star Journal newspaper, written by their art critic, Kent Wolgamott...it is well written, and the image is clickable! http://journalstar.com/entertainment/arts-and-culture/visual/article_a0655375-4498-5346-a901-a6ca136ae0dc.html Please tell me what you think! And drop him a note if you like it!

Hilltop Sunrise

Hilltop Sunrise___8x10 oil in linen panel___$550 unframed
Yes, there are hilltops in Nebraska! I am teaching a workshop here in Butler County where there is a region called the "Bohemian Alps", because the hills are ....um...."noteable"! They rise and give GREAT vista's of the farmland. It is harvest time right now. Corn, soybeans and corn.
The painting above was my sunrise demo...the weather has been great!!! Tomorrow,...Sunrise and MOONRISE from this hilltop...stay tuned
*** if you are in the Lincoln, NE area from now to December, go see my solo show at the Great Plains Art Museum... Passing America: The Great Plains

I have one more workshop this year! COME paint with me in Texas!
Nov. is a PERFECT time to paint in fabulous Fredericksburg... http://www.fbgartschool.com/2011_classes.htm scroll down this page to V....Vaughan

Click to see SPECIAL piece of artwork to benefit a Texas fire victim. A fun way to help if you can!

Daily Nebraskan Story

Workshop Demo__after "Where Morning Gathers"___12x16__$950 unless you are in the workshop

So! Last night was the opening of "Passing America: The Great Plains"...lots of people came, on a busy night in Lincoln, NE. Bill Cosby performed across the street, and the Husker Homecoming festivities were in full force. As I type this, the Huskers are on TV, momentum on their side as they are catching up to BEAT Ohio State! (football fan, here).

I am staying in NE an extra week, to teach a series of workshops.

Today, I taught a full group of mostly professional artists. I demonstrated my technique of painting fast, by simplifying the scene into 5-7 shapes of color, and pre-mixing the colors. Below is my palette, with colors pre-mixed, in ORDER as they will be placed on the canvas. ...The demo is a derivative of my LARGEST painting at the Great Plains Art Museum..

Tomorrow we will meet at sunrise and paint till sunset! Get ready, y'all!!!

Please read the nice article below...

Danielle Rue is a young writer for the Daily Nebraskan, (University paper) and she did a VERY good job of interviewing me! Thank you, Danielle! The story is great, and makes me want to meet me! hahaha

http://www.dailynebraskan.com/a-e/texas-artist-v-vaughan-presents-exhibition-representing-the-loss-of-farms-on-the-plains-1.2645680#.ToyTzevgJDU

#72 - In the Sandhills

In the Sandhills of NE__6x8 oil on linen___ for Passing America...__$490 framed
I painted this on one of my journeys doing drive-by paintings for my Passing America...exhibit which opens FRIDAY NIGHT in Lincoln. I remember painting it during a span of time when I was churning out the works...painting and putting them away...When I got home, I did not appreciate this one! Didn't really like it, till JUST NOW!
I write this from a hotel in Ogallala, NE, at the edge of these same sandhills! I am here to shoot pictures and do a few studies of a ranch that I get to paint in the upcoming months. It is not REALLY on the way to Lincoln, where I need to be tomorrow, but it was close enough that I HAD to come, to see it in THIS season.
Having just returned from the sandhills, I see the beauty here, and this little painting above is not terrible! You might have to be from Nebraska to know what I mean )
COME SEE THE EXHIBIT if you can, or see them on my website. I now have ALL 154 paintings for this exhibit on my web site. Go take a look! You can see the size, price and availability of each painting.

there is still time to sign up for one of these two workshops below!
http://bonecreek.org/pdf/Vaughan%20workshop.pdf ...FULL

http://www.fbgartschool.com/2011_classes.htm scroll down this page to V....Vaughan

Click to see SPECIAL piece of artwork to benefit a Texas fire victim. A fun way to help if you can!

Spring Blush-Nebraska

Spring Blush-Nebraska___6x8 oil on linen panel___for October exhibit, but available The old stalks from last year's crop were falling down in the rows of this field. They make interesting textures for artists and provide food for the migrating birds. The fields were still filled with sandhill cranes, which graze all day and then spend the night on one leg in the cold waters of the Platte River. Spring is in full "verge" in this central part of Nebraska. Each farm seems to have at least one field that is brilliant green with new grass, while all the perimeter trees are blushing with sap, but no leaves, yet. Looking like Texas did about six weeks ago!

Horizon in Flames__Nebraska, sunrise,

Horizon in Flames__6x8 study for "Passing America..." exhibit in 2011





South of David City, NE the sun came through morning clouds as Allen and I set out for the start of Day 2 of this leg of my trip "Passing America: The Great Plains". Click the link to see what this project is about.

I painted fast and furiously this morning, because there were morning thunderheads on the plains, GREAT sunrise color, and beautiful views left and right!...I was working on the fog study (posted yesterday) when this view distracted me, so I took up a new panel and began this one. While this little painting was nothing more than a few color notes, we turned the car and I saw something BETTER, and moved on to paint it instead...I had the notes I needed to finish this one AFTER I painted the "better" one...I will post the "better" one tomorrow :)

My title, Horizon in Flames is derived from a song lyric which mentions Nebraska and the Plains, and has become my personal THEME song for Passing America: The Great Plains.

Nebraska Color__Flames of Fog

(#2) Flames of Fog__6x8 oil "Passing America..."___for exhibit in 2011
Adter posting over 20 sketches from my Colorado Sketchbook, I am taking a week-long detour to post COLOR, again!
Earlier in the month I took a trip to Nebraska to paint another leg of my upcoming "Drive-By" exhibit. I have posted 5 of the 13 small works I did that trip, but I did not post #2. Here it is, above. To really appreciate it, please scroll down on the blog, back to August 6, when I posted #1. The other 4 are later than that. This one I call "Flames of Fog" because it depicts the thickest fog we saw that day. Near Bone Creek in an area the locals call "The ALps", because it is hilly and beautiful there! I marveled at how the light reflects on the fog much the same as it does on water....