Eagle Paintings

Quite a while ago I posted a painting of an eagle, I have committed to paint 4 paintings for nephews earning their eagle award from the BSA. Here are paintings 2 and 3, one more to go... the paintings are small, 9x12 so in this smallish format I wanted to have fun with the brushes and marks that describe the form of the bird and environments. The colors were fun to play with here and there, the more I study about color the more fun I have just trying new things and trying to make progress as a painter, still my color has much room for improvement but every once in a while I paint something that makes me smile, not because it is a great painting but because I learned something and feel myself growing. This year I am 52 years old, I have been working as an illustrator for nearly 25 years, some days I feel like I have arrived and some days I feel irrelevant. I wish this roller coaster of emotion would smooth out and not be so dramatic, I still need to feel relevant and I still need to provide for a family, so that means I need to work for many more years, maybe not as long of hours but work none the less. I guess this process is called life, we learn, grow, increase, do, rinse and repeat, everyday  until we die. Sounds good to me as long as there is fishing mixed in here and there.
Here are the paintings.

Friends of the Teton River Poster

Every year I make a poster for a local organization, Friends of the Teton River to help announce and advertise the annual river celebration, this is the 13th year of the event. I started creating the posters in 2004. I served on the board of directors for many years and care about what they do so the poster is the least I can do for them, plus it gives me an opportunity to paint something fun and use my rusty graphic design skills. Anyway here is this years poster. I had a great time painting and designing it.