A New Home

It's been months since I posted a new blog. It's been quite a year and much has happened since my last posting. The biggest and best thing that happened in my life is that I got married and moved from my home in Colorado to California. A completely new life and new place to explore and grow. It's all exciting and scary at the same time. My wife, Janice, who is a budding watercolor artist, lives in Folsom, California. So I followed her there and we are making a home together after being married in the Grand Canyon last September.
It is my greatest intention to be more prolific with my blog entries and share some of the sights and discoveries I make in this new life. We are situated between the ocean which is just an hour and a half away to our west and the Sierra Mountains to our east which is also about an hour and a half away to Lake Tahoe. Yosemite National Park is a little over two hours to the south of us as well. There is plenty of subject matter to paint around here and since I have been moving more towards seascapes recently, this gives me a greater opportunity to study and paint the sea and all it has to offer. I still get jazzed up when I think about painting those waves, and the wind, and the rocks, and the boats. I just love it and I love painting it.
As we explore together this new place I will also write about what it is I am learning and how my work continues to grow and develop. Perhaps a few photo demonstrations as well. I ask that you join me in this journey....rather this new journey. In the meantime I have posted here a few paintings from the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art Plein Air event I was invited to again this year. Janice and I were married on the last day of the event on the rim of the Grand Canyon. Who could ask for a more beautiful and perfect place of beauty to celebrate our life joined together in love.

"A Shady Spot" 12" x 12" oil on canvas

                         "Cedar Ridge"  9" x 12" Oil on canvas

Colorado Governor's Invitational Art Show

The 22nd Annual Colorado Governor's Art Show is coming up soon. The Gala Opening is April 27th and located at the traditional Loveland Museum in Loveland, Colorado. The Show runs through June 2nd. This will be my 10th year as a participant of the show. It has always been a positive factor for me in sales and exposure. Many of my friends and colleagues have joined me as participants in this show throughout the years. Traditionally many of the works consist of Colorado landscapes and the vast subject matter that exists throughout this beautiful and dramatic state. Horses, rivers, lakes, and of course mountains and other various elements of the state are displayed in this prestigious show. This year I decided to shake things up a bit and made the choice to do  paintings that are focused on other areas of the country that are different from Colorado but are still as beautiful just the same. Since so many denizens of this state are rarely natives of Colorado, the majority of the population are transplants from other states who are drawn to the recreational and economic opportunities that exist here. I know many friends and residents who originally came from both coasts and from other beautiful states such as Arizona. My contribution to the show this year consists of two seascapes and two scenes from the Grand Canyon. The ocean has become quite a muse for me over the past few years and its lure draws me ever closer. The sea has made a profound impact on me internally and to such a degree it has become a very favorite subject of mine to paint and express.
The other impact made on me is the Grand Canyon. Since I had the privilege to participate in the 2012 Grand Canyon Celebration of Art and Plein Air on the Rim, I had the rare opportunity to become intimately involved with this magnificent wonder of the natural world. I became profoundly moved and emotionally attached in a very spiritual way painting this place from sun up to sun down for seven days straight. I can't help but want to share these new and deeply moving places that have had such an impact on me personally and artistically. I feel it is very important that I show and display this influence on my life in such a grand show.
All images copyright Jake Gaedtke, 2013

A Grand Mornin'  18" x 20" oil on canvas

Rhythm In Blues 18" x 24" Oil on canvas

Temples Of Time

"Temples of Time" Oil on canvas 20" x 20"  Copyright Jake Gaedtke, 2012

The universal reaction for most people when they experience the Grand Canyon is one of humility and of an overwhelming contrast of something so huge next to our smaller selves. The age of the canyon and the spectacular work of nature that never ceases to amaze us, captures our imagination and  the realization of how little control we really have in this world and this life. To capture those emotions in paint and canvas is very challenging, and yet freeing. Atmosphere, aging rock, color, light, exquisite shapes, and depth all come together for me to respond to this wonder I see before me.

This painting will be on exhibit and available for sale at the 2012 Grand Canyon Celebration of Art Plein Air on the Rim Event. I was very fortunate to be selected along with 24 other very fine artists to participate in this year's plein air event this September. I am so much looking forward to it. Each participant was asked to create a studio painting of the Grand Canyon for the show that will hang with our spontaneous plein air paintings we will do in a weeks time. I can hardly wait!

Autumn's Repose

"Autumn's Repose" 24" x 24" Oil on Canvas   Jake Gaedtke copyright, 2012

Calm. A seasonal calm. I took this from a place that is very close to where I live. It's a grouping of ponds where people like to come and fish, walk, ride their horses, run, or sit and read or think. For me, I like to paint. You can see from it's beauty, why it is a popular place to come to. I simply can't resist painting water. It's a connection that I am so very close to. It's something that goes so far back in my life. There is so much of myself in this painting. I hope there is a lot of me in all of my paintings, but some go deeper than others. This is one I am especially fond of because of it's deeper meaning on a personal level. I notice in the Fall that the warm colors of orange, yellow, reds, and ochres permeates even the atmosphere. It's not restricted to the trees. Even the sky seems to take on a yellowish hue to it as Fall reflects itself everywhere. It's what causes that smell in the air that is Indian Summer. A crispness I feel that teases at the winter season that is to come. I added more warms in the sky to give the painting an overall harmony of yellow-orange so you are immersed in the season that is Autumn and in this case the quiet that is Fall.

Equestrian Nobility

"A Warming Chestnut" - 9" x 12" - oil on canvas
"Grazing" - 10" x 8" - oil on canvas  Copyright 2012, Jake Gaedtke

Landscapes have been my primary genre of subject matter for many years. To be sure, I love the landscape and it is my favorite subject to paint, however, I have always considered myself an artist where any subject is game for my canvas. Whatever catches my heart and my eye. I love painting horses and I continue to study and paint them when given the opportunity. I am not a full-fledged equestrian, but I do love the sensuality and forms of horses. Their character and beauty continue to raise my passion for painting and drawing them. The more I paint them the more I want to learn about them and broaden my knowledge. I learned to ride when I was a very young man and always surrounded myself with horses throughout my life. These paintings were recently done for the 2012 Western Stock Show held in Denver. I was invited to show some of my work for the Stock Show Club which is a private show and, unfortunately, not open to the public. I still considered it an honor and an opportunity to show some of my equestrian passion to those who know the horse. I do plan on doing more horse related paintings in the near future.

Heavenly Morning

"Heavenly Morning" 18" x 24" Oil on canvas

This scene is from a location in Pagosa Springs while I was there for the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters National Show. The river is the East Fork River that snaked it's way through a canyon and then came out into this open area. I came on this scene around 6:30 in the morning. The clouds were low and just starting to dissolve as the warmth of the morning sun increased. The glow of the mountain was peaking through those clouds displaying the start of a new day as the sun's light bathed the mountain. The experience was just a split moment in time and like most staggering beauty, lasts but a few moments. It was long enough to get off a couple of frames with my camera. I painted a sketch from those photos, and then ended up with this studio painting trying to capture the romance and calm of what looked to me to be Heaven  on Earth.

Colors Of Colorado

"Last Light On Elk River" 24" x 18" Oil on canvas  "Last Light On Elk River-Study" 10" x 8" Oil on canvas
Copyright Jake Gaedtke, 2011

The Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters have a new show that just opened this Labor Day weekend at The Steamboat Art Museum in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The name of the show is Colors of Colorado. It is a new kind of plein air show. We asked our members to participate in four separate paint outs in four separate locations throughout Colorado during the four seasons in 2010. Those locations included Ouray in the Winter, Grand Junction in the Spring, Buena Vista in the Summer and Steamboat Springs in the Fall. We asked the participating members to create one studio painting from one of the study paintings they did at one of the paint out locations. The results being this show we call Colors of Colorado where we show the field study plein air painting along side it's studio painting. Members were invited to show two other plein air paintings they did during the paint out as well. As a group we felt it is important for the public to know how we use our plein air paintings as references for our studio paintings. They aren't always an end in itself but a means to an end as well. We used to call them "field studies" before the name plein air became so popular. That's what they are.......studies.......note-taking to be used in the studio.

The painting shown here, I did in Steamboat Springs in the Fall on The Elk River. I love this river. It meanders through all kinds of cottonwood trees and aspen trees. I just finished another painting in the late afternoon when I saw the sunlight hit the cottonwood tree as it was going down. I quickly set up again and worked for about 20 minutes to capture that last bit of light. It was so fleeting, I had to do most of the painting from memory because it was gone in a matter of minutes. But I feel I got it.
The RMPAP are honored that our show is the inaugural exhibit for the newly renovated addition to the Steamboat Art Museum. It's a real funky and exciting space. Our show looks fabulous there. Opening night was very well attended adding a lot of interest to what we do.
I might add that in the main space of the museum is an amazing exhibit of the work of Scott Christenesen. An inspiring show that includes some of his very large work as well as studies and everything in between. The two shows combined makes this a very worthwhile trip to see.
Both shows run through October 15, 2011.