Plein Air Painting on the Yellowstone

Welcome to Yellowstone, 8x10" oil

I was accepted into a plein air paint out, Plein Air Painting on the Yellowstone, August 9-16. Look for me out there next week. I'll post my paintings and photos on my Facebook page. I'll also be showing my work in their exhibit. If you're in the area, please stop by and watch us paint or visit the show. 

Park County, MT.   August 9-16, 2014 Surrounded by four majestic mountain ranges, Park County offers a beautiful natural setting for relaxation and recreation along the legendary Yellowstone River.  The quaint and quiet town of Livingston is steeped in the history of Lewis & Clark, Calamity Jane and Yellowstone National Park. Visual artists, writers and musicians call Park County home.  We invite you to come and experience why so many are drawn to this inspiring area.  Artists will be painting from Wilsall to Cooke City and Springdale to the western border of Park County, Montana. Fun activities will be planned throughout the week ending with the Wet Paintings Exhibit. For more info, visit livingstoncenter.org

As featured on LivingstonCenter.org:

S’ZANNE REYNOLDS  founded her painting and photography company, Studio Zanne, in Austin, TX. She spends much of her time as a resident artist in various towns, traveling across America and abroad on her “plein air” explorations of the great outdoors. A member of the American Impressionist Society, Reynolds’ artwork enjoys a growing global audience and is collected throughout the US, as well as Europe.

After a 15 year career in the advertising and publishing industries with companies like SicolaMartin, GSD&M and Harcourt, Reynolds returned to fine art with a bold vision of her surroundings, expressed in strong images, brilliant color and a style uniquely her own. Described as seemingly effortless, her work explores a spontaneous approach to the impressionistic landscape and provocative portrait, capturing a mood or expression with a clarity and candor of brushstrokes.

Reynolds studied under contemporary masters including Ann Templeton, Huihan Liu, Peggy Kroll-Roberts and Nancy Bush. Early influences on her career include Wolf Kahn, Paul Gauguin and the Blue Rider German expressionists. After post-graduate fine art studies in France, her European explorations included painting in Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, England and the Netherlands.

Reynolds earned a BA in Fine Art in Illinois and a BFA in Graphic Design in Texas. She has served as faculty at the Contemporary Austin Art School, formerly Austin Museum of Art’s Laguna Gloria Art School, and offers workshops in her local and visited communities. Reynolds is currently venturing out on painting and photography tours across the US in her travel trailer while engaging in the art scenes around the country.

http://www.studiozanne.com
http://www.studiozanne.blogspot.com

West Yellowstone Gallery Sales

Montana Majestic, 6x8" oil

I'm excited to announce that my West Yellowstone gallery, The Nymph's Emporium, sold this plein air piece for me the first of August....to a nice Utah couple from who wanted a souvenir of the Yellowstone area.

My art (top right three) at The Nymph's Emporium, Fine Art and Western Wear

My artwork, far left, at the Nymph's Emporium

Plein Air Sales in West Yellowstone

These three paintings went to a great new home in July, to the owners of the KOA. The art work depict their property here in West Yellowstone; they show my favorite hillsides to revel in nature, to feel wild and alive! 

Hillside Happiness, 8x16" oil

Wildflower Frenzy, 12x10" oil

The Old School House, 6x8" oil

O Beautiful For Spacious Skies...

Happy Independence Day, America!

Images are taken from the Upper Loop, Yellowstone National Park.

Words below are by Katharine L. Bates, 1904

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain;

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood,

From sea to shining sea.

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!

America! America!

May God thy gold refine,

Till all success be nobleness,

And every gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self control,
Thy liberty in law.

Dedicated with a grateful heart 
to my God Parents who each served this country, 
and who teach me daily, by their great examples, 
what real freedom is. 
I'm so blessed!

On the Way There, Part 1

Breathtaking above the Gibbon Falls, Yellowstone Park, WY

On the way to Yellowstone's Canyon area, I find myself getting side tracked quite easily with other gorgeous vistas that I'm wanting to stop and photograph.

Gibbon Falls, Yellowstone Park, WY

Massive and majestic-- above the Gibbon Falls, Yellowstone Park, WY

Buffalo path  I took from the roadside to some innocent looking water.

Much of Yellowstone consists of marshlands covered in streams and water like this one. You'd never suspect that it's over 100's of degrees just by looking at it. All of the grassy areas to the right and left of that path are extremely wet and muddy. Some places you even sink in up to your ankles. When I drove back by later that evening, I saw steam rising from the water, so I was glad I didn't go in!

I passed by here later to see steam rising and bubbles out of these hot springs. 

Behind this stream in the distance, I saw buffalo rolling around in the marshlands splashing water all around like a great sprinkler. It was beautifully backlit...but I'd have needed a different lens. And sometimes you just have to enjoy the moment rather than photograph it!

Buffalo print. 

I found some buffalo hair on the way back to the truck; it's quite soft. I added it to my journal.

Celebrate World Oceans Day

Monterey, CA - Point Lobos

I'm a little late in getting something out for World Oceans Day, but I figure every day should be Ocean Day. So, I have a special treat for you from guest blogger, leading green industries publicist and publisher of Green Techies, Debrah Dubay of Austin, Texas.
.....................................

 “There is Something for Everyone in the Sea”

   by Debrah Dubay, guest blogger, June 8, 2014

   Original from Cleantechies.com

Nobel-prize winning author John Steinbeck recognized five decades ago the need to study and protect the world’s oceans. Steinbeck argued that investigation of Earth’s oceans was critical to the success of humanity and deserved the same funding and organization as space exploration. Steinbeck wrote, “We have not, as a nation and a world, been alert to the absolute necessity of going back to the sea for our survival.” He recognized the economic value and need for sustainability and knowledge of our vast oceans and all they contain.

Steinbeck shared his love for the sea in an open letter to the editor of Popular Science magazine in 1966 saying, “There is something for everyone in the sea—incredible beauty for the artist, the excitement and danger of exploration for the brave and restless, an open door for the ingenuity and inventiveness of the clever, a new world for the bored, food for the hungry, and incalculable material wealth for the acquisitive—and all of these in addition to the pure clean wonder of increasing knowledge.”

With three-fifths of the earth’s surface under the seas there is nothing simple about protecting them as a whole or about creating and protecting marine reserves. The value of these reserves was discussed in a New York Times, NYT article, Sustaining Resilience at Sea. The article covered a report by Nature Climate Change finding that the ability of ocean species to endure effects of global warming depends more on the overall health of ecosystems where the species live rather than on the individual species. Just a few months prior to the NYT article Pew Charitable Trusts announce a partnership with which it is seeking to establish a new benchmark for the protection of ocean ecosystems by creation of the first generation of great marine parks around the globe by 2022.

Organizations, universities and others have long since acted on Steinbeck’s vision of systematically studying the world’s oceans. Yet work needs to be done to expand on engaging public awareness and increasing public sentiment to protect world oceans. A fun and valuable way for individuals to become involved in efforts to save the world’s oceans, beaches and the sea life found there is to join in celebrating World Oceans Day coming up June 8th. Go toworldoceansday.org and see how you, your kids and your family can participate and raise awareness in your community for the condition of world oceans.

Yellow in Yellowstone

Singer, Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Gettin' Yellow in Yellowstone!

"There's a bright golden haze on the meadow,

There's a bright yellow haze on my Corgi,

And the "pie" is as high as his Cardigan eye...

And it looks like it's climbing right up to the sky!

Oh, what a beautiful morning,

Oh, what a roll-around day,

He's got a wonderful feeling,

Everything's smellin' dog's way!"

That's one happy stinky boy rolling in the horse apples! Look at his tongue, even! Eew! The rest of my day was dedicated to cleaning dog...and trailer! But not before I took some beautiful shots of this gorgeous day...enjoy!

Lyrics borrowed from Oklahoma's "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" 

The clouds were glorious on the campground today!

Heading out to pasture from my trailer

Through the gates and up the hills...huffing and puffing

Free at last!

Love all the wild daisies in the fields

Mother Nature

Sunny one minute, raining the next...then sunny again.

Old school house

Leaning from age and weather

Neighboring ranch...love all the dandelions

Singer!? Are you eating what I think you're eating!!! No! No! No!

One of my favorite views

June is always cloud month

The campsites are over the hill and between all these trees planted by the owner

June is busting out all over!

A close up of the campground

Cloudscapes

Singer doing Corgis all around the school house

More cloudscapes

No shortage of cloudscapes today!

Singer pauses before taking off after a field mouse or bird

The light dances across the plains, going in and out of view as the clouds go by

Our favorite school house again

All cleaned up...for now!