Provo Temple and Ring of Fire oil paintings

I painted both of these quite a while ago, but never really got around to posting them online. I painted this one of the LDS Provo Temple primarily so that I'd have a picture of the temple for my own home. I'm now offering prints of it if anyone is interested. One of my favorite details is where it says "Holiness to the Lord - The House of the Lord", because that embodies what a temple is.
The second painting added today is an abstract painting I did around the middle of 2009, playing with color and trying out thickly applied oil paints. I recall commenting to one of my family shortly after finishing it that abstract art like this can be way too easy. Looking back now I can see better how abstract art usually has some meaning or value behind it beyond just a splattering of colors.

Sketchbook - 2 March 2010

I recently acquired a set of gouache paints and have started trying them out. Here are a couple birds of paradise and some test strips using gouache in my sketchbook. I have some observations:

1. Gouache can be re-worked after it dries by adding water
2. Gouache acts a lot like watercolor
3. It's a really good idea to use quality paper. My sketchbook pages are thin, so they crinkle heavily when they get wet.

I'm currently working on a painting using them on a vinyl record, inspired by some of Lawrence Yang's paintings on vinyl records. I'll post pictures when I finish.