Painting the West
Episode Descriptions 

Episode 1: Tetons

Pay attention to the top of the painting and keep your canvas edges covered, warns Fred as he paints one of his favorite subjects with energy and speed. A lot of cobalt blue, a good deal of white and a touch of alizarin crimson (“to keep the snow warm”) go a long way in this scene of the Teton Mountains and their lakeside visitors in the foreground.

ALT.: Fred paints his version of the Teton Mountains with spry energy. He includes a small lake in the foothills and a pitched tent with the fire smokin'.
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Episode 4: Chief Watson Totus

Fred grew up on an Indian reservation in Washington State and remembers playing with a boy who later became a chief. He recreates him here, with the feathers the Yakima tribe adopted late in its history from trading with inland, plains nations. “The main thing about a portrait,” says Fred, “is the expression that you're going to get on the face.”  

ALT: Fred paints an imposing portrait of Yakima chief Watson Totus, whom he knew as a boy.
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Episode 5: Old Trapper

Fred remembers having to do a lot of trapping in his younger days. “We had to make a few bucks and that's the way we did it.” The brush and pallet knife come together for this snowy rendition of a trapper on his horse. When painting people on horseback Fred warns, “you've got to make em sit down in that saddle. Or it looks kind of awkward if you don't.”  Besides, it's warmer this way.

ALT: It's cold out there but a man has to make a living. Fred finds beauty in shades of gray with this image of a trapper and his horse in winter.
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Episode 7: Covered Wagon

“A lot of people won't believe this, but I've traveled a lot of miles in a covered wagon,” says Fred. In the 1930s, he asked his father, “Dad, you see them things running up and down the road with the smoke flyin' out of em? Them are cars. That's what people drive on nowadays.” But no Model-T could look this good at the end of its life on the high plains.

ALT.: While many families enjoyed the luxuries of a Model-T car, Fred and his relatives traveled in a covered wagon. In this painting, one sits quietly passing its last days by some prairie trees.
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Episode 8: Miner’s Cabin

You're going to want to walk right into this painting, open the door and sit by the fire. This scene of a cabin in the woods reminds Fred of the days when he "worked the mines for a dollar a day." Using the pallet knife, he shows us how to create the impression of logs, light and reflection, allowing subtlety to rule. As always, we enjoy Fred's mix of life lessons, history and painting.

ALT.: It isn't easy making a living in the winter. Fred paints this cozy, snowcapped miner's cabin, reminding us of the things we look forward to in coming home.