Impression Evergreen

"Pikes Peak Winter" Colored Pencil Dominating the skyline at Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak has been inspiring explorers, gold seekers and artists for over 200 years. It’s named after the adventurer Zebulon Pike who first beheld the majestic mountain in 1806. Rising out of rugged terrain, Garden of the Gods is a glorious gateway to the remarkable peak. During the winter Pikes Peak is speckled with white snow as much of the powder has been whisked away by a ferocious wind. The dramatic scenery features red sandstone slabs that stand out sharply against the dark greenery flourishing below. In this drawing, the white of the paper is the lightest end of the value scale while the foreground shadows are the darkest end. Shading the bushes is an effective way to create variety in tone, describe forms and imply detail while generating interest in the foreground elements. The subtle gradations clearly define the separate sections of brush. The composition’s warm undertone i

Spotted Towhee Rustling through the leaf litter below the dry scrub brush that laces the steep, Colorado foothills is where you’ll find a hefty sparrow known as the spotted towhee. Such beautiful birds, the males have a white belly, orange sides and a black head, throat and upper parts. The back and wings are flecked with white spots while the red eyes are the defining characteristic. During the early spring, those males creep up to the top of the thicket and sing all day long while trying to attract a mate. In the breeding season they eat mostly insects but they’ll also dine on acorns, berries and seeds. They’re nest cup is built deep inside a sharp briar and usually concealed somewhere near the base of the shrub. A close cousin, the eastern towhee, used to be considered the same bird as the spotted towhee and in the past they were called the rufous-sided towhee. During the last ice age large ice sheets split the continent down the middle, isolating the separate birds into ea

"Evergreen Overlook" Colored Pencil Out of all of the drawings I’ve ever done, this is one of my favorites. An ambitious project, the composition is larger than usual for me so it took a tremendous amount of time and patience to complete. It was deeply influenced by master artists such as Benton, Kent and O’Keeffe. The arrangement was thoughtfully simplified in order to capture the essence of our mountain corridor called Evergreen, Colorado. From the southern slopes of Genesee Mountain, the Front Range foothills are carefully unfurled. Filled with smooth gradations, the billowing landscape is shaded like a piece of wrinkled clothing. The verdant mountains get gradually lighter and bluer as they recede into the distance. Crowning the rugged skyline, the snowy Mount Evans Massive is partially obscured by low-lying clouds. The dead ponderosa pine is the focal point as a halo of reflected light glows against the darkest passage. The skeletal structure of the red snag

"Forest Edge" Colored Pencil It's an early spring evening in the Front Range foothills as golden light streams through this quiet corridor. Waves of yellow grasses churn across the valley floor like a turbulent, yellow sea. The shadows are violet and their strange shapes follow the contour of a rugged landscape. The centerpiece of the scenery is a pair of red bushes that inhabit this special domain. The forest edge is a dark barrier of scattered pine trees set in the picture's background. Subtle shading helps define the individual forms while a few streaks of lemon break up the deepest greens. A single Ponderosa seems to have captured the spotlight as it stretches vertically into a powder-blue sky. In the vast expanse a few clouds drift slowly out of the west with trail edges that disintegrate into the atmosphere. Simplified shapes and exaggerated color are stippled onto the page in a pointillistic manner, recording an impression of a fleeting moment in t