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"The Back Gate" is a scene taken from one of the ranching areas around Carson City, Nevada. I liked the way the scene "framed" Mount Rose (in the mid-ground horizon). The reason it was so "lush" was the Carson River was flowing about fifteen feet from this scene. It was a hot summer day, and I liked the way the cool foreground shadows in the tall grass balanced things out.

This seasonal Carson River ran dry for a few months mid-summer as the mountain snow melt-off tapered away to just a trickle of cold water. But for this scene, it all seemed to fit just fine with the river flowing at a good pace. (We've actually seen people river rafting down this fast flowing river during peak run-off)!

Lots of desert cottonwoods around this area, as well, with there fluffy white seed pods that often fill the air the hotter it gets outside. (...a real menace for air conditioners that sucked this fluff into the condenser, minimizing cooling air flow).

The mountain range in the mid-ground is Slide Mountain (also known as Mount Rose) which was part of the mountains that surrounded Lake Tahoe, basically on the back side of Incline Village. A steep highway ran up Mount Rose from the Reno area to connect the Lake with Reno residents.

"Edge of the Forest 2" depicts an area on the west shore of Lake Tahoe known as Angora. This area was tragically destroyed in a fire a few years ago. Fortunately, I had photographed it extensively prior to this event, so I was able to use my mental recollections of the area as well as the photos I took for reference in structuring this painting.

Depicting numerous mature groves of native aspens, this area was impacted very little by human activity and also had a few small lakes nearby, one of them just behind this particular grove I painted.

The first snows of fall had left a few small patches of snow, which added nicely to the overall effect of early fall in the Sierra mountains.

"Corner of the Garden" is the latest completed "square format" painting in this series. I have recently relocated to the terrifically scenic region of California known as the "Mother Lode", which consists of over a dozen small, friendly little towns nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range.

This is another one of the areas of California I haven't yet painted in, and I'm looking forward to painting this area.

"Mountain Poppies" launches another series for me (as of late July 2011). I've always liked the small, square canvas format. It's practical from a number of standpoints, as far as I'm concerned anyway. A more affordable size for buyers and easy to transport or mail.

Initially, the idea for this series is to feature flowering areas, both in the wild and in cultured garden settings. There was a fellow artist I met briefly in Carmel, California many years ago who had a nice little gallery featuring his garden paintings. I always liked the feel these paintings had. They were much larger than 12 in. x 12 in., but still had a pleasant, calming and certainly colorful appearance.

Basically, I'm interested in seeing how I can "pack" as much visual impact as I can into this square format.

"Winter Sun", another painting from my Lake Tahoe Series. This scene, high above a mountainside on Lake Tahoe. I liked the contrast of the frost covered pine trees, with the long shadows on the snow in late afternoon. The cool chill of the snow, with the bright warmth of the sun.

"The Pink Bush" was painted from a location in the high desert area in Joshua Tree National Park, in Southern California. Not sure what type of bush this was, but they appeared in springtime, with these often tiny, bright pink blossoms.

Vibrant as these tiny blossoms were, I thought it would be fun to paint its location in a dry desert arroyo. These dry arroyos usually flooded during periods of heavy rain which could come usually during summer "monsoon" season or wintertime rains, which often were quite heavy.

Most of the time, these plants growing in these arroyos managed to survive these rains and only the rarest, heaviest rain would tear out plants and trees. The pink bush pictured here, grew a few feet to the left of the active drainage area, thus saving it from most heavy rainfall, which roars through these arroyos then dries out shortly afterward as the water quickly drains down through the sand of the desert.

These dry arroyos, as desert hikers know all too well, are like manicured walkways in some garden. As long as you avoid brushing against various cactus varieties, you have a ready-made walkway to navigate on foot (or mountain bike) the scenic, arid desert.

"Greener Pastures" is basically a "compilation composition". I worked from a basic photo from a magazine and added or eliminated things. The fence was different, to start with. I chose to simplify the fence and painted it with fewer wood crossbars. I think there was a house and horses in the background. I decided to leave them out. The flowers are Texas bluebells.

What I wanted to emphasize was the bluish-purple wildflowers. Apparently I succeeded, as the painting ended up spawning three similar paintings, all of which sold fairly quickly. Some of these paintings were small (9 in. x 12 in.), some were large (24 in. x 30 in.). Pleasant, and fun to paint, I may do more fence paintings (....of a different type and style than the one shown here).

Although the composition itself appears simple and obvious, I played with it visually to decide how the clouds and fog shrouded trees would appear and add to the overall appeal of the scene. In most cases, a simple straightforward composition can have greater impact on the viewer than a more "busy" or complicated scene. But it all has to tie in with the overall composition to truly succeed. It's a fine line that distinguishes a simple, but boring painting, to a simple eye-catching painting.

I considered including an old barn and/or some horses, but felt it would create too many diversions from what I wanted to emphasize which was the Texas bluebell flowers. The fence, clouds and fog-shrouded trees were basically back-drops for the flowers. They added depth and dimension to the scene without detracting from it.

"Shadow and Sunlight" was another painting with an odd outcome. As pleasant a scene as it was, it seemed painfully dull and lifeless when seen next to some other paintings. It didn't sell at the gallery I brought it to, so I took it home. Out of intense curiosity, I then brought this and three other paintings I had on hand to a small, high-end gallery to see what sort of reaction I would get.

Amazingly, the gallery owner chose THIS painting as the "nicest" (her description) of the four! So once again it was obvious to me that a painting which seemed dull and hopeless in one gallery...was a "perfect" choice in another. So what's the deal! How can you win? Well, for one thing, I realized LEAVE A FINISHED PAINTING ALONE. If it's any good at all, someone, somewhere will like it enough to buy it at a good price. As with any product, people tend to pay well for things they like. No need to bargain.

The subject of the painting was, again, a scene from the shores of Lake Tahoe looking towards Mt. Tallac. I liked the way the shadows of late afternoon stretched out across the white sands of the shoreline, giving it sort of an abstract appearance.

Sadly, and in spite of the favorable review by a gallery owner, I decided to destroy this little painting shortly after, and painted the canvas white in preparation for another scene, which has since been completed and sold. A waste of a finished painting, I suppose, but I always reserve the artists right to decide the fate of any canvas, for better or worse.

It's worth mentioning that famous French Impressionist, Claude Monet, would on occasion toss paintings he'd done (and didn't like for one reason or another) into piles of burning leaves on his property! His art dealer nearly had a stroke upon hearing such news, as Monet's paintings had attained huge prices by then. Such is the life of artists and "artistic temperment".

"Edge of the Forest" was sort of a transitional painting. I had a different painting finished on this canvas. The same subject matter, just painted differently. It went to the gallery, was displayed for a few weeks, didn't sell and was returned to me.

I looked at it in my own home for a few weeks and decided to change a few things, resulting in this painting as it is now. Basically, I just put in more detail, defining things a little better. I returned it to the gallery and it sold within a few weeks.

The subject of the painting was from a scene around Fallen Leaf Lake, a small lake adjacent to Lake Tahoe. I was intrigued by the contrast of the shaded area, looking into the bright sunlight of the meadow with its patch of young aspen trees just beginning to show the first signs of fall color, as the nights began to get colder. Actually, this scene could be done on a larger size canvas with even more visual impact for the viewer...as well as a higher selling price.

Someone else apparently liked this scene as well, since it sold within a few weeks for a good price, following my "new" alterations to it. Moral of the story; sometimes a more defined painting results in a quicker sale.

"River Reflections" depicts the golden and pink reflections of late afternoon on a portion of the Carson River which we often hike in. As described in the paragraphs above, this river attracts herds of wild mustangs which quietly appear and wade through the water while sipping the water. Hopefully, in the years ahead, efforts will be made to limit and prevent developers from building right up to the river bank.

I have seen small fish in this river. Not exactly sure what they are, but I believe salmon are to be found here at various times of the year, though not year 'round as this river basically goes dry almost every summer during August and September when the last of the winter snows melt away on the nearby mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe.

"Carson River Clouds" was a small painting I did on the shore of our local Carson River. This is actually a very scenic area and has water flowing in it most of the year. It goes practically dry during August and September when the last of the mountain snows melt away.

As is usually the case in areas like this, housing projects are beginning to pop up very close to the shore of parts of this river, detracting from the otherwise natural look. Fortunately our local nature conservation group is fighting to keep development at a respectable distance from the river and the wildlife which lives in and around it.

Nevada is somewhat known for its wild mustang horses which are allowed to roam through the state, and more than once I've been by this river when small herds wandered within a hundred feet of me as they drank from the cool river waters.

This was painted at a time when I was using a pseudonym name (i.e., Farris) which I later discarded, though a small handful of my paintings still have this signature on them. This particular painting sold fairly quickly to a local resident.

"Washoe Lake" is a small 12 inch by 12 inch sketch I did on location at a lake near where I live. The lake, seen in this painting in the mid-ground, fills according to the amount of fall and winter rainfall. Some years, like this one, rainfall was minimal so the shoreline was quite large. This is where I chose to paint this scene from.

While outdoor sketching is fun and you can learn a great deal about composition and light and how it effects color, I personally prefer the comfort and convenience of the studio. Most of my first eight years of being an artist were involved with painting these types of "plein air" (outdoor) scenes.

In the last thirty years, thousands of artists across the country have taken up this style of painting. The main advantage is that you can spend perhaps an hour on painting a small scene, then charge hundreds of dollars for the end result. So many artists flooded the market with these plein air sketches that now it's much more difficult to sell these types of paintings.

Originally, the "alla prima" (done at one time, outdoors) scene like this was only intended to record a quick indication of the composition and general lighting of that particular time of day, and not meant for a "finished" painting. I'm inclined to agree with this side of this argument. After a sketch like this, the artist would then make a more detailed and finished painting utilizing what information he got from this sketch.

Nowadays, particularly with the digital camera innovations, the same thing can be accomplished much more efficiently with a wide assortment of camera settings available. The camera, in effect, becomes the "sketch book".

[On a historical note, this also is where portions of the last John Wayne western, "The Shootist", was filmed. It's the scenes where John Wayne and Lauren Bacall are in a horsedrawn buggy down by the shoreline of a lake].

"Winter Colors" was a painting I did a few winters ago. It's based on a scene we observed during an extremely cold winter weekend getaway trip to the great little northern California town of Susanville. The small lake in the mid-ground of the painting was frozen solid. We enjoy cold weather, but this adventure pushed the limit on REAL cold.

This is a classic story of what most artists live with. Shortly after this painting was completed, I somehow convinced myself that it was "too blue", "too bleak", "too cold looking"....too something. I destroyed the painting by painting it over completely white in preparation for a new scene!

A close friend who loved this painting nearly punched me when she found out what I did. Even worse, a few months later, a client saw this image on a CD that I had made and said, "Wow! That's great! How much is that?". I told her it was "no longer available" and she said, "Ah, too bad. I would've paid $800.00 for it". And just at a time when $800.00 would have been greatly appreciated.

That's the way it goes sometimes. Every artist (even the most famous ones) regularly destroy there own artwork. Claude Monet was reported by his own family members to have thrown over a dozen canvases he had completed onto piles of burning leaves in his back yard, in an effort to destroy work he considered of inferior quality. (His art dealer at the time nearly had a heart attack when he found out).

I look at this image now and still like it...especially when it's summertime and 104 degrees outside. Nevertheless, next time I destroy a painting, I will make every effort to avoid showing the image to a potential buyer. Still, I do have the painting in digital format. It's also a good lesson showing that every painting has a buyer...regardless of what the artist (or anyone else, for that matter) might imagine.

"Winter Studio View 1" was a scene from one of the second floor windows of my mountain studio. I had looked at this view hundreds of times, in all sorts of weather and light conditions, and finally decided one quiet winter evening as a new storm settled in to tackle the delicate lighting as late afternoon glimpses of veiled sun filtered through the thickening clouds. Twenty four hours later, there was over two feet of fresh snow on the ground...and the storm continued for another few days, totally obscuring the more delicate look I wanted to get in the early phases of the storm.

As the new snowfall built up on the branches, I sketched in the basic scene, then laid in the dark purplish and green undergrowth of the pine trees in the foreground. As I recall, this is amongst the very last paintings I did using oil paint (and the companion painting below). Coughing and gagging, windows open (despite below freezing temperatures) I knew my days of using oil paint were going to have to end soon, before I started coughing up blood.

My allergy to oil paint solvents was becoming more than I could handle and I tried to make these final paintings reminders of all I had learned about using oil paint, which I had finally become adept at, but which was now poisoning me. I'm pleased at how they turned out, but was regretful at now having to abandon a medium which I had used from my first days of painting some sixteen years earlier.

When these were painted, I didn't yet know what medium I would turn to as my primary medium of choice (and hopefully, mastery). I toyed with watercolor years earlier, but didn't like the filmy look. Fortunately, I befriended another artist in town whose primary medium had always been acrylic, and he knew EVERYTHING acrylic was capable of and was kind enough to allow me to watch over his shoulder as he worked.

This shortened the learning curve I would have had to endure trying to figure out the challenging acrylic medium. From then on my goal was to continue the "look" I wanted in my paintings....but using acrylic instead of oil paint. In retrospect, I can say that acrylic is a far more versatile medium than oil paint, and from all the research I've read, a far more durable medium as well.

"Winter Studio View 2" was the second of two paintings I did during a storm that swept into the mountains in the town I was living in at the time. This view was painted (from the second floor window of my studio) as a break in the storm melted off some of the snow which was nearly covering the trees, as in the view above.

The small tree in the center was actually the top third of a pine tree. A freezing fog was sweeping through the trees with varying intensity. Sometimes the background trees were obscured from view, but I liked the times they were visible, often for only a minute or two before fog once again swept in.

Impressionist painter Claude Monet often did series similar to this, painting successive canvases every few minutes as the light changed. This seemed like an ideal time to do this in my own immediate environment.

"Trail to Shadow Mountain" was one of many scenes I painted when I had my desert studio in the high desert region of southern California in 1988 to 1990. This particular scene was actually a view from my front yard, and I got to observe it during all seasons at all times of the day.

During the spring tiny, bright yellow, aromatic flowers blanketed the area in large patches, and had a sort of pungent sweet peppery smell. This only lasted as long as rare rain showers kept the desert watered. Usually, this sort of flower only lasted two or three weeks before being burned off by the desert heat. So this painting depicts springtime in the high desert.

The small "mountain" in the mid-ground was actually just a hill, strewn with boulders. The locals referred to it as Shadow Mountain, since it seemed to cast some sort of shadow at most times of day. It was the only real dominant feature of this particular area, and was about a fifteen minute walk from my studio. It was a beautiful spot and I hiked out there often. Eventually, I wore a path to Shadow Mountain, as depicted in this painting.

The real mountain range was in the background. It was part of the mountains bordering Joshua Tree National Monument, where I also hiked quite often. This was painted in oil.

"Big Sur Coast, evening light" was a large, plein-air (outdoor) sketch I did while on a "source material" journey to that area of the California coast. The early evening light seemed to cast a dream-like aura over the entire scene and the ocean, which was reflected off the brighter left hand side of the ravine I was in, onto the sand in the mid-ground, which was both in shadow and full light of the early evening/late afternoon, and onto the hill side on the far right of the scene.

That effect of reflected light off these diverse landscape features is basically what I wanted to document in this painting.

"Slide Mountain" This is a scene from Washoe Lake, near Carson City, Nevada. This lake has diminished considerably over the last few years due to decreased rainfall/snowmelt in the adjacent mountains. I was attracted to this scene by the way the afternoon shadows cast a long shadow on the sand of the drainage channel (also known as a "wash").

The gnarly, bent limbs clearly indicated the way the winter storms would blow primarily from off the mountains to the left (which are in the area of Incline Village, by Lake Tahoe) and roar into this Washoe Lake area with winds so strong it would blow over large truck trailers as they traveled the nearby highway into Reno. This was normally a dangerous route during winter storm season and was often blocked by highway patrol for safety reasons.

This oddly scenic region had a large number of these trees, bent and twisted by the winter storms and winds. As the area would drain of water, these dry desert-like channels would form. For me, the perfect foreground for this view of Slide Mountain (also known as Mount Rose). It's one of the mountain ranges that ring magificent Lake Tahoe.

Situated in the high desert, this area was very hot in the summer months, and rather arid. The roots of these trees would often become exposed by erosion. Famous Impressionist, Claude Monet, would actually move entire trees around in a painting, or change or alter groups of trees (to accomodate his perception of "visual balance"). Or add or delete tree limbs, according to how he wanted to visually balance a scene. The reality is that the viewer is rarely aware of what is a "real" scene, and one that has been pieced together.

This is also another example of a painting that was never in my possession long enough to be displayed in a gallery. It was sold to someone we knew in the Birmingham, Alabama area. Incidently, this is also an example of a work where I put in LOTS of detail. Not always needed or necessary for each and every painting, it obviously seemed to please the buyer of this piece.

[Historical note: For movie buffs, this is one of the areas where a scene with actors John Wayne and Lauren Bacall in a horse and buggy was filmed for the movie, "THE SHOOTIST". During filming, Washoe Lake had considerably more water in it; up to this tree in fact. I think the movie was filmed in 1972].

"Road of Poppies with Red Barn". This scene reminded me the types of landscapes the French Impressionists would pick for suitable subject matter worth painting (minus the lady with flowing dress holding a large unbrella). As it turned out, quite a number of the Impressionists chose this type of subject matter, and practically all of them had a similar scene as this in there finished works.

The red barn, incidently, is just to the left of the forested area on the horizon. The enlarged view of this painting will show it better. A red barn next to a large tree. But the scene basically is a tour-de-force of the primary colors, red, yellow and blue. Prior to this canvas, I hadn't done a scene like this and wanted to add it to my overall output of finished work.

"High Desert Shadows". This painting has become a bit on an enigma. Since I posted an entry which included a photograph of this particular painting on my "Odds and Ends" page on this website, I've had some inquiries about it.

Here's the situation: This painting is one of my last large plein-aire paintings I did using oil paint (I developed an allergy to solvents used in oil painting, so I stopped using oil paint in 1997). It's in my personal, private collection of paintings I've done and wanted to keep for myself, normally not seen by the public. The other paintings (large and small) in my "Desert Series" (1983 to 1996) were sold many years ago, shortly after I finished work on them (some before the paint had dried).

Technically speaking, this painting is a "study", or sketch, which I then developed into a finished painting by returning to the location five or six more times for a more thorough observation of the subject. A common and long-standing practice amongst plein-aire painters. It turned out so well, I decided to keep it. Some collectors actually prefer this type of painting over other approachs to finishing a painting.

It's an authentic, plein-aire (painted outdoors) scene depicting one of the more unusual high desert plants (Cat's Claw) of the Southern California region against a background of weathered, desert mountain peaks in the fall season. Conceived and executed in the Impressionistic style. Cat's Claw (botanical name: senegalia greggii) is one of the few desert plants which retained it's dark green leaves year-round.

I did a small sub-series of plein-air paintings involving the cat's claw bush, and this was the largest of those. Tiny, delicate yellow flowers appeared on this plant in springtime. These plants grow wild in the open desert, but are relatively widely spaced from one another.

Unfortunately, the lanky branches were laced with very sharp thorns, similar to a rose bush, which would snag on anything (including skin) that brushed against it. Tiny green leaves conceal deadly thorns on gangly branches. (I ruined more than a few shirts over the years by this plant pulling threads). This particular cat's claw plant is probably well over fifty years old (at the time I painted if), judging from my research. A tough, hearty, native desert shrub!

As one of the last, large (and original) plein-air paintings I personally own from my "Desert Series", I place a high value on it, of course. (It's also one of my early ones in that series). It was never intended to sell (or even be viewed by anyone but myself and a few close friends). Most artists have works of this type in there personal collections, and this is one of mine.

I consider it absolutely among the finest (even superb), representative examples of my early plein-air desert paintings from that period of time, which is why I retained it for my private personal collection. Lots of very delicate pastel-like colors and shadings and an over-all softness of brush stroke which I favored at that time. It is signed and dated (1986) in the front lower right corner, and yes, it is moderately textured in foreground highlight areas. (Click on lower right corner of image in the left-hand column for enlarged view).

The only reason it has come to anyone's attention now is because of the above-mentioned article I posted in January 2015, concerning the relevancy of historic paintings to modern works of the same genre (i.e., plein-air paintings). There has been some interest in the last few years concerning various works I have produced. This painting, rarely seen by the general public, is now unexpectedly getting some attention.

As such (and all things considered), I would not sell this painting shown on the left hand column (High Desert Shadows) for anything less than $20,000.00 (twenty thousand United States dollars). Since it was never available or intended for sale, I never gave it much thought in monetary terms. If I had to place a monetary value on it, this is what I would conservatively value it at as of January 2015.

So that's the story. Thank you for your inquiries! I hope I have cleared up a few questions concerning this painting. I'll be glad to address any further concerns regarding this painting if contacted.