“Spearfish Creek I”
Watercolor on Clayboard
The warm colors of fall and the sparkling highlights of Spearfish Creek, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This area is always there, and never ceases to amaze me by it’s beauty.
Painting with watercolor on the clayboard, I am able to layer color in the same manner as applying glazes in an oil painting. This gives the painting a luminosity that I am increasingly valuing.
“Lookout Mountain Sunrise”
6×6 Watercolor on Clayboard
Using a very “painterly” application, this image reflects the beautiful sunrise I get to enjoy from my home in the Black Hills of South Dakota!
Making it a “glass half full” start to the day, most days!
“Spearfish Canyon Colors”
6×6 Watercolor on Clayboard
Although they are now quickly fading, the beautiful colors of fall which we have enjoyed have truly inspired my work this year!
I’ve had more professional painting time in the last three years to explore the beautiful area in which we live, especially in the fall. Now, I am bracing to embrace winter, as it is closely nipping at fall’s heels today!!
“Spearfish Canyon I”
6×6 Watercolor on Clayboard
Rocky cliffs rising from either side of a meandering creek, accompanied by a winding road and infused with trees in fall spender. This is the beauty of Spearfish Canyon.
With forecasts of cold days ahead, I am thinking back to the beautiful fall season we have enjoyed in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota!
There is beauty to be seen everywhere you look. The fun of being an artist is in discovering that special thing each time I pick up a paintbrush. It is the gift of being human: we can all look for beauty in our daily lives.
“Spearfish Creek II”
6×6 Watercolor on Clayboard
I am exploring the unique effects I get from painting with watercolor on a specially prepared board, called clayboard. This board, made by a company called Ampersand, is coated with an archival kaolin coating, which allows the watercolor to float on the surface before drying. A special medium is also used with the watercolor. I use a brand called Schmincke, and I finish the painting with a coat of a spray finish for watercolors, by the same company. Framed, the pieces do not need to be under glass. I like to not be separated from the painted surface by a pane of glass. See more of my recent work at at the Spearfish Arts Center http://www.spearfishartscenter.org/bonnie-halsey-dutton.html and Prairie Edge in Rapid City.
“Spearfish Creek III”
6×6 Watercolor on Clayboard
The Fall colors are prime in Spearfish Canyon right now. I was up there this week, grasping it’s beauty and sketching. Such a lovely place to live in South Dakota… I count myself very fortunate.
This painting is currently on display at the Spearfish Arts Center, along with other paintings paying homage to our area and to the season! Spearfish Arts Center Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/SpearfishArtsCenter
For more on Spearfish Canyon, visit the Spearfish Canyon Foundation website: http://www.spearfishcanyon.com/
“Rimrock I”
6×6 Watercolor on Clayboard
I’ve always associated this cabin at Rimrock Lodge in Spearfish Canyon as a iconic site of old Spearfish. This wood cabin perches precariously over the canyon wall, and can be seen from the road as it twists by the entrance to Rimrock Lodge. Although closed for the season, the Lodge is still in operation, and their website is: http://www.rimrocklodge.com/index.html
Spearfish Canyon colors are in full burst right now: if you are in the area, take a few minutes to drive down the canyon and enjoy the peace it will bring you. Fall in South Dakota can be short, so don’t put it off!! If you can’t make it, check out people’s postings online and check out the official Spearfish Canyon website: http://www.spearfish.com/canyon/
“Bear Butte from Mt. Roosevelt”
6×6 Watercolor on Ampersand Board
As seen from a great distance, Bear Butte rises up off the plains as a marker signaling the North Eastern edge of the Black Hills of South Dakota. Mt. Roosevelt is outside of Deadwood, and this view can only be glimpsed for a short time as you make the steep climb up the mountain. This is the old route into Deadwood!
“Bear Butte Spring”
6×6 Watercolor on Ampersand Board
I’m looking for feedback on my blog… anybody? What is right before you that you often overlook…?
Endless skies… something we take for granted in my area of the world: Sunsets and sunrises… that, too we see so often, it almost becomes commonplace.
Living for awhile in the Philadelphia area, (which I loved), I did find I missed the open sky and the sunsets. Nestled in rolling hills with tall trees and tall buildings all around, all one saw of the sunset and sunrise was a darkening of the sky. A pink glow directly overhead was the signal of a sunset, which I could not witness.
What is right before our own eyes is a magic we often do not see: watch for the next patch of open sky, and the majesty of the next sunset. This is Bear Butte, in South Dakota, outside of the town of Sturgis (famous for the Sturgis motorcycle rally there every August)
“Crow Peak at Sunset”
Crow Peak looks different to me each and every time I paint it! This painting has already moved on to a new home! 🙂