A Visit With Stephen Quiller

Where do I begin to talk about a great day?
Good weather, good friends, serendipitous meetings - it's all that.
Last week, Dave Montgomery, Susan McCullough and I went up to Creede to mix some business with, well business. In May, the 3 of us will hang a show at the Creede Repertory Theatre Gallery and looking it over seemed like a good idea; of course, finding a place to paint along the way was also a priority. So once our business at the Theatre was finished we looked for some caffeinated fortification before heading up the canyon to paint.
On the way we decided to try to catch Stephen's Quiller in his studio (Quiller Gallery is down the street from the Theatre).











We were rewarded by finding Steve at work on a 360 degree mural for the new Creede Repertory Theatre Building. WOW!
Steve, talked about the piece in process- generous to let us look at eveything - like our busting in on him was the highlight of the day.

I can't say enough about how much I admire Quiller, as an artist, designer and all'round good guy but I felt so fortunate to get a glimpse behind the painting at the easel, to the artist's mind during work in progress. Be still my heart!
The mural is not yet ready for public viewing, and being kept somewhat under wraps - if I show you too much - I'd have to kill you all. . .

We saw some pretty big sections of the final piece, but also his layouts and small mock-ups; the charcoal sketches, alone 'bout made me faint with creative desire and passion. Nothing fires my jets like seeing, in a tangible way, the artistic process. WOW!
And if our chance meeting could not get better,
he and Marta joined us for coffee - and picked up the tab.
Thanks Steve!