Saturday in South Fork

Saturday, July 5th, I will be at the Mountain Artisan Gallery in South Fork, doing demonstration painting and talking about my work. The Mountain Artisan Gallery is at 29919 W. Us Hwy, 160, right next to Coldwell Banker on the north side of the road. Drop by for a visit and shop this beautiful gallery that features some of the best of Colorado's artists and craftspeople.

12th Annual PAAC Show in Denver

PAAC, Plein Air Painters Colorado, 12th Annual Exhibition at Abend Gallery in Denver is a major show featuring some of the country's best plein air work. Sue McCullough and I were both juried into the show and will be at the Opening Reception, Friday night, July 11 at Abend Gallery, 2260 E. Colfax Ave. Denver, CO.
You can now see the entire show in the online catalog: http://www.abendgallery.com/html_shows/12thannualpaac/paac.htm

Hittin' the Rails in Alamosa

I painted down by the tracks in Alamosa 3 days last week and Tuesday morning Sue Mc, Heidi Algrim and Carol Watson joined me. We also garnered a little local publicity when Andrea from KENY tv in Alamosa came by, shot some footage and interviewed us for local tv. I'm not sure if anything I said made sense.

Hittin' the Rails in Alamosa

It is always fun to talk to tourists and wave them on their way to Antonito or to LaVeta. This engine left early to pull a passenger car to Monte Vista. I just had time to sketch it before it took off and in the end it was the best thing I did in 3 days of painting. Painting at the tracks is hard. So many people I knew came by or later said "Hey, I saw you painting down by the station".
There is a certain amount of pressure to at least, sort of look like you know what you are doing; and on top of that there is the job of trying to bring something fresh to very familiar material. My percentage of successful paintings from there is very low but I still go back. Maybe it's the challenge. My favorite part of this piece is the trees.

Left Over From Last Week

This is the first painting I did last Wednesday in Zapata. It is 12"x16" and I was just able to take a photo of it today. The documenting photo of the view is in last week's posting "From Conejos in the West ...". On that day, I was pretty happy with this and not so happy with the piece that depicted my view of the Dunes. As I reflect on them now, after the fact, I think I really like the view of the Dunes better. The brushwork seems a little more spontaneous; maybe because I was rushing to get it done before my umbrella blew away with my easel attached or before I got sunstroke, which would have been as a result of not being able to get my stupid umbrella to do anything but give me grief.