Peak Weekend

Today is the first day of Autumn and the San Juan Mountains wear a garland of yellow like a necklace across the front of the range where aspens grow thick between the pine trees. A most beautiful time of year and the most nerve wracking - where every plein air painter wishes they could be in several places at once to snatch the fleeting color. Due in part by a warm, dry summer, the trees were changing in the high country back in August - YIKES!  Now it is here, full blown, and we will try to catch some of it and pray that a deep freeze or fluke snowstorm doesn't cut the season short before its time.

It can also be a time of hard choices: where to go, choosing to go to a competition/event- or not, it's a great time to be IN a show but a better time to paint out . . . . and every day the window of opportunity gets smaller. In years past Sue McCullough and I have painted all over the the Arkansas River Valley and Collegiate Peaks as part of the CO Mountain Plein Air Fest competition . This year however, we are choosing to skip the event circus and head into a different part of the state near Lake City. This is supposed to be the PEAK weekend for color, so we will take aim and hope to come up with the goods. Hopefully, more about the outcome - later.

T

These paintings are all Autumn pieces that have sold recently. From the top they were painted at the Rio Grande River in Alamosa, Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, Cottonwood Pass, Colorado and along the border of Colorado and New Mexico.