joanhoffmann

"Lava" oil 20"x 24" $1200

2012-02-16T06:25:00.000-08:00

The Grand Canyon and the Colorado River explode at the rapid called "Lava". Unless you are lucky the Colorado is usually muddy brown and not chrystaline
clear and turquoise.
Painting reality, is the artists challenge-not all browns are alike. What is the feel of the color and what is the temperature, more precisely?
Colors are symbols to our psyches and painters must use all this to choose the colors that create the reality.
Remember, however that a photo is only one reality. What you see and feel is more profound. Paint it!

"Hillside" 24"x36" oil $1200

2012-02-04T14:51:00.000-08:00

Where I live the White River carves through a narrow valley and commands my attention. But across the river, I noticed this hillside covered in trees. It is ethereal: the trees are dense but still I see through them to roads and downed timber and pine trees spotting the hillside. The light is very low in early February and glows both in shadow and sun. This lighting is what we see and sense in Vermont.
I don't paint outdoors in thirty degree weather but each day on my way to the Post Office I studied the scene till I understood how I would paint it.

"Bohemian Waxwings" oil 9"x12" $390

2012-02-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

Winter birding is fun. This beautiful bird is grey but so alive that it inspires these winter colors. Birds will puff up when sitting in winter, which makes them robust.
The qualities I feel around the bird is also translated into colors. This is many layers of colors including two layers of white. Small repetitive brushstrokes enhance the puffy feel. When I sense the feel I quit painting.

"Route 100" oil 20"x24" $1200

2012-01-16T07:54:00.000-08:00

Vermont has turned white and oil painting becomes a challenge. I work best outdoors but in zero degree temperatures, I prefer indoors. The challenge is not how to make white paint replicate snow but how to capture the snowy whites of Vermont vs Colorado.
The impressionists were all about learning to depict temperatures which humans inherently feel about the scene. I think this oil does capture the feel of Vermont-the cooler temperatures in veridian.

"Half Dome, Yosemite" 20"x24" oil $2200

2011-12-31T04:42:00.000-08:00

Here is a sleeper painting. I say that because I painted it outdoors in Yosemite Valley, CA a few years ago. Because I was on a painting trip, I came home with six paintings and this one did not immediately capture my attention. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!
Every painter has the same problem seeing the essence of their own paintings as others see it. "Time will tell", has never been so apt. Painter's often jump to conclusions at the end of a painting session and announce their dislikes. Temper your personal feelings and let the painting speak to you! Remember to listen!

Vermont Sunset oil 48"x 60" $4500

2011-12-22T05:30:00.000-08:00

My new home in Vermont has inspired me to see the uniqueness of habitat. There are especially strong differences in where the light focuses the eye. I am happy to see the mix of landscape elements fall from my brush. The joy of painting is seeing gifts on canvas come alive.
I'm applying for an Artist-in-Residency at the neighboring Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historic Park. Between tedious resume tweaks with my sister, this painting fell in my lap. I stopped to take a photo to see its progress and it said stop painting.

"Red-throated Loon" oil 9"x12" $450

2011-12-15T07:39:00.000-08:00

This female red-throated loon had become famous in my area because day after day we could visit her and like my surprised friend commented, "she didn't fly away"? I was content (like she must have been) to watch her on this very low-light November day.
Grays come in many colors: red-gray, blue-gray, or pink gray like the coloring that she has.
This makes my day: choosing just the right colors. Early in my career, I had a friend making woven clothing and she asked me to paint silk blouses to go with her out-fits. When I found out how many shades of gray and baige she wanted, I was stumped. All I knew were the primary and secondary colors. My mixing skills improved immensely after tackling her gradation of colors.

"Red-Throated Loon" oil 8"x10" $450

2011-11-24T10:54:00.000-08:00

This solitary loon didn't fly away as my friend thought it bound to do. I had waited three days since I had heard that it was in my neighborhood. When I finally went to observe, she was diving and swimming and seemed as lazy as I had been. The air temperature on this November day was about 20 degrees F, and the water temperature looked the same. Its fascinating to peer into her world and feel her flotation and see her casually drift by other cacklings, canada geese and merganzers. I was content for about a half hour but I heard she stayed atleast another day.

"Snow Geese" oil 16"x20" $850

2011-10-26T04:42:00.000-07:00

Just as the Vermont Birding books say, the snow geese were in Addison County. When I arrived at Dead Creek wildlife area, there was no a sign of them and only canada geese in migration. Birding by myself and eating dinner found me in the car with the windows rolled down, the evening sunlight fading and the feeling that I was wasting my time. Bored.
Like a radio turned down low, the background music of the snow geese, on the wing, and approaching me was only faintly audible. I was looking for thousands and the sounds didn't register. But the increasing volume of two thousand geese arriving a mile away finally jolted me and I leaped from the car in time to see them winding down into the cut corn fields and out of sight.

"Royalton, VT" oil $550

2011-10-19T03:44:00.000-07:00

I'm going out everyday to paint the fall colors. It is the best way to feel the elements that make a good painting. It was the overwhelming color saturating the real scene and thus my canvas. Exaggeration? Edgar Payne said our paint colors are 400% less saturated than reality.
I paint not just what I see but what is sensually compelling: white buildings offsetting the yellow-reds of the color spectrum.

"Lake Champlain" oil 8"x10" $550

2011-09-24T06:02:00.000-07:00

Landscape Painting reflects our current Global Community

Portrait paintings depict objects and they present isolated subjects (think Grandma Moses paintings). Landscape paintings depict communities; objects bound by their connections to each other. The connections are the crux of a true landscape painting (think Maynard Dixon paintings). Is the Art World exhibiting current, relevant painters and thinkers? From global economies to community gardens, the 21^st century is governed by how we connect. The current Art World is still on the Object. When will it move beyond objects and discover the other art-Landscape?

"Drake's Bay" oil 9"x 12" $550

2011-09-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

How nice it was to return to the Life Boat Station, at Pt Reyes Nat'l Seashore with a small group of painters. We were outdoors painting each day in weather: light winds, sun and high clouds. All our senses were tuned in: the Pacific Ocean, Drake's Bay, Chimney Rock and all the hundreds of birds flying, flitting and rocking on the water!
I was teaching this Painting Retreat:
www.ptreyes.org/fieldseminars
Come join me in December at Pt Reyes!

" N. Windsor" oil 9"x12" $550

2011-09-03T15:20:00.000-07:00

Here is an oil painted as I looked towards town from my sidewalk on N. Windsor St. Its a classic New England town with beauty everywhere-even with the silt which the White River layered on the low lying areas in South Royalton.
The Vermont landscape is all about mountains and valleys even making it hard to see the sky! The shadows are strong and make for gorgeous colors on the canvas.

"Coastline" oil 11"x 14" $750

2011-08-26T12:32:00.000-07:00

I am coming back to California and the coast to paint: Tomales Bay and then Drakes Bay @ Pt Reyes Nat'l Seashore. This oil reminds me that simplicity makes a great painting: sky, rocks and water. So why does simplicity work so well?
What we really want in a painting is a reminder of place. Viewers will imagine and ruminate and ponder over one painting which they visually enter and the image will stay with them as if they had made a visit there! A good book uses the same idea. Too much detail gets in the way! Keep it simple.

" Flattops" oil 11" x14" $850

2011-07-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

How high can I get? I'm in the Rockies for six weeks and we still cannot get into the high country because the snow lingers after a sever winter. So I stood at seven thousand feet elevation (Steamboat Springs, CO) at my friend's house and painted the Flattops. This storm moved in closer to us and my class had to dive for cover. Easels went under the porch overhang and we retreated inside to watch the lightening strike less than a mile away. Of course, a glass of wine kept the painters satisfied while we felt the electrical storm pass on over the continental divide.
So, back at the easels we had no clouds and a beautiful sunset but on our canvas was a dark thunderstorm! Oh well, here's the painting from this living-in-the-moment experience.

Summer Rain, Steamboat oil $850

2011-07-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

Approaching Steamboat Springs, Colorado I saw a painting in the making. On location, it was raining over the Park Range and the Steamboat Ski Area but where I stood there were only mosquitoes, evening clouds and traffic. Often the scenes painters see are from the highways and the scene can change in just a few feet which makes the painting experience a challenge. The idalic image of oil painters out in nature painting en plein air is sometimes true but here it was not.

Helen Rehder's Hummers

2011-06-30T16:24:00.000-07:00

I am Opening my Colorado Art Show,
"Landscape Painting-Forty Years in Routt County"
July 1-Aug 7th @ Steamboat Springs Arts Council.
Its the old train Depot and I have filled two galleries with contemporary oil paintings and in the second gallery I have works borrowed from patrons which represent the years from 1971-2011.
It has been a long walk as I went through all my art and selected paintings. In addition I have contacted many old friends for their favorites. And I reconnected with patrons whom called me and said, "can my painting that I bought from you in 1974 be in the show?" Life is good with lots of art filling it full.

"Great Horned Owl" oil 9"x12" $450

2011-05-09T07:42:00.000-07:00

I am headed out to Pt Reyes Seashore this weekend for a weekend Painting Retreat at the Clem Miller Center by Limantour Beach. Join the en plein air revolution(Monet started it!) and come paint: www.ptreyes.org/fieldseminars
Last visit was within 10 feet of this beautiful observant bird that was at least 14" tall and camouflaged in the Cypress trees.
The interplay of nature and I is apparent here: it was breezy, sunny with a chill in the air and I was so excited discovering this owl exactly where I had seen it a month before. The paint flowed from my brush.

"Xantus's Hummer" watercolor 4"x6" $75

2011-04-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

Hiking up canyon at Pt Arena on the Baja we first saw the large blossoming Ironwood tree, drooping with the weight of so many petals. On a closer look, the ironwood was buzzing with hummers, with bright orange tails and beaks. They are Mexico's special hummer-Xantus's. After watching them feed and fly at lightening speed jostling for positions, we saw a lone Costa's hummer. First she was hiding below the branches, but then discovered by the others. We were less than five feet from this show. They were busy and we were mesmerized.

"Ligui, Baja" oil 12"x16" $850

2011-04-18T08:44:00.000-07:00

I started kayaking the Baja coast here, south of Agua Verde, and for seven days I was on the water and watching the cliffs undulate and always with the Sierra de la Gigante towering over the Sea of Cortez. The Baja colors were brilliant and often soft at the same time.

"Punta Valle, Baja" oil 9"x12" $550

2011-04-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

Slipping silently down the coast of Baja in my sea kayak, I was the wanna-be drawn to the canyons and wanting to explore! When I was on the sand and grounded with my margarita and watching the sunset, I missed the water. I painted four oils on location and kept my paints almost sand free.

2011-03-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

"Robin" 4"x6" Watercolor $75
The robins have arrived in Vermont with the sunnier days. A feel of Spring is in the air. The robins congregate at the grassy openings between blankets of snow and the snow keeps falling except that the new heavy white flakes float away on the pooling ribbons of water.
I used indigo blue, permanent rose and cadmium yellow to mix these nuanced colors. Is it simple?
Yesterday a painters called and wanted watercolor painting lessons because she had not captured the "simple" in her watercolors. What is it she wants, really?
I believe it is somewhere in this range of the robin. The sense of simplicity is from the effortless brush strokes, layered colors(warm to cool in the classic style) and cool darks. There is no simplicity in applying the paint but a clear vision and decisive paint application. The simplicity is in the eye of the beholder!

2011-03-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

My winter skiing and birding adventures are winding down since I arrived back in California and found blossoms peeking out on leafless branches. This meadowlark streaked through the landscape at Green String Farm during a painting class where we had easels set-up out doors to capture the budding fruit trees. Clouds still hang over the electric green grassy rolling hills with lemon yellow mustard flowers marking patterns of farmer's fields and the wind has a biting chill, but California is spring-bound. I paint with three layers of fleece and mud boots until April arrives. The birds are very busy this time of year!

"Bohemian Waxwings" oil 9"x12" $390

2011-02-08T08:40:00.000-08:00

At the same time that I recognized the Cedar Waxwings, I noticed these Bohemians interspersed in the tops of the leaf-less cottonwoods. It was a cerulean blue Colorado January day and I was gliding on skinny skis through the trackless powder. It had snowed. In the crystalline air, the flock of birds gave themselves away as waxwings. These birds gathered on thin ice banks looking for berries and when I saw them, they were rising off the open water like steam from a teakettle. Memorizing and memorable, I brought home their flocking image and painted in the studio what I recalled.

"Cardinals" oil 9"x12" $390

2011-02-05T08:38:00.000-08:00

I'm definitely east of the Rocky Mountains when I see cardinals. Unless it is on Mexico's Coronado Island in the Sea of Cortes where I spotted a pair nesting in a Palo Verde tree. But here in Vermont the snowy evergreens try to disguise these brilliant red heartbeats and I think my radar picks up the red vibrations before my eyes zero in and catch the color flitting through the needles. I saw these at Vermont Audubon offices near their sunny porch's bird feeders.

"Burlington" (Vermont) oil 9"x12" $550

2011-02-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

The snow is white, fresh and deep on the banks of Lake Champlain. The changing daylight makes for spectacular views, changing colors and silver clouds. The tiny light house blinks red at sunset for the ferry. I watch this from my window perch or walking or from the coffee shop windows. I wanted to put the weight of the crystalline air, the temperature and the heavy snow blanketing the trees in this oil, so that I can feel the melancholy pace of winter.

"Comb Ridge" oil 24"x36" $2200

2011-01-30T12:32:00.000-08:00

"Comb Ridge" is the oil pictured above and it depicts a geologic formation that is a hundred miles long from north to south, but only 10 miles wide or so east to west. It is where I like to retreat to paint every spring or fall. The hiking is wonderful on the dry sandstone although I have been caught in a thundershower and then its slickrock and wildflowers. This escarpment is adjacent to Bluff, Utah and Cedar Mesa and Monument Valley, which are all special places culturally. Today's multi-culture is thriving: new old-pueblo sites are still being found and contemporary artists exhibit new works. But I enjoy Comb Ridge for its ever changing weather and wild lands, which remain unprotected. see <suwa.org> for more info on Federal management.

"Blackcapped Chickadees" oil 9"x12" $390

2011-01-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

I am skiing through some of the best birding country in Colorado at The Nature Conservancy's Carpenter Ranch. As I floated through the fluffy powder on skinny skis, these chickadees were flying and floating in the snow covered aspens.

My bird landscapes reflect the temperature and textures that I see in the fleeting moment that this four inch long bulk of feathers skims through my view. Binoculars and bird books are for the avid birders which like more details than one can see with the naked eye. I, however, like to paint the moment that I spotted these snow white and black hatted bumps on the branches. If they didn't like to fly so much and chatter so much, I could ski right by them and not notice their energy. The energy I take home and paint.

"Cedar Waxwings" oil 9"x12" $380

2011-01-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

This January, I was x-country skiing in Hayden, Colorado and a huge flock of birds soared overhead. They all came to rest in the leafless cottonwood in front of me. These cedar chested birds puffed their bodies to insulate the zero degree temperature while they rested.
What a surprise to see so many birds on a crisp, clear, mid-winter day.