Winner: Artist's Choice

This last weekend at the Women of the West Show my painting "Bending Water" was honored as the Artist's Choice Winner. Yippee!
It is always nice to win an award, any award, but I would have to say - this is the one I most covet because it is determined in a vote by the other artists in the show. And of my works in this show - this one was the last I would have selected to win. You just never know.
Thank You to the other artists. It was a good opening and a lively night in Boulder. Thanks too, to Ron and Ann Wilcock's who put the show together at Earthwood Gallery on the Pearl street Mall in Boulder.
As to the award itself- I am sure other artists have different criteria for how they select their Artist's Choice but when I make my vote,  it is for the painting in the show that I most wish I had painted.

Women of the West 2012

Tomorrow night, Friday, September 7th, I will be in Boulder, Colorado at the opening of Women of the West 2012, featuring work of the women represented by Earthwood Gallery in Boulder.
Join us for food and art at Earthwood Gallery on the beautiful Pearl Street Mall, just a short drive from the Denver metro area.

This show comes right on the heels of a week of painting in Rocky Mountain National Park that culminated in the Western Light show that opened on Friday, August 24 in Estes Park and will hang through October.
Paintings hung in these two shows represent my very best work from this last Spring and Summer.

Highlight of the Week!

All Spring we, Sue McCullough, David Montgomery and myself, have been talking about hiking in the high county during out time in Estes. Our show, Western Light 2012, opened the night before, so with most responsibilities behind us we headed up to Loch Vale, a high country destination about 3 and 1/2 miles in from the Bear Lake trail head. Dawn Normali, friend and fellow painter joined our merry band and we headed UP from the trail head at 9,475' to 10,465' - where you see us in the photo above. I am not sure where Dave found the air to play that flute.

What's a Painter to do?

I am all for documenting what's in front of you but find very little to inspire in layers of grey atmosphere. With such smokey air quality in the whole area we found ourselves looking for short views and more intimate scenes - like: canyon waterfalls, small streams, tree groupings, and the lily pond below- complete with koi.

We went out Moraine Park (part of RMNP) one morning  and I painted this aspen group. On another day in that same area we spent time spying on a huge herd of Elk not 20 feet from us. They did not seem bothered by the air quality but it sure put a damper on my inspiration.

Copeland Falls was another kind of "short view" and we perched our easels on a big flat rock and painted the upper cascade. David Montgomery's painting and easel are there on the left. Sue McCullough had already closed her box and put her piece safely away, and my unfinished piece is on the left.

Are We Even on the Same Planet?

The time painting out in Estes Park this year was, - I hope, unusual. These 3 photos were all taken at very nearly the same location, early in the morning, high in Rocky Mountain National. The top 2 are from years past and the bottom one is the view that met us on our first morning out. The area around Sprague Lake was almost unrecognizable. Smoke from fires east of Colorado made for less than ideal painting conditions and I found myself looking for more intimate scenes like the trail that through the woods and around this huge Ponderosa Pine.

Painting in Rocky Mountain National Park

On Wednesday afternoon I caught up with Eldon Warren in RMNP. He painted, looking right down into the water - see the FISH also posted here - very gutsy, very beautiful. Those fish should be proud.
And I painted Eldon, painting the fish - which I have yet to finish. sigh.

Other WILDlife in Estes Park

These are some of the other painters gathered in Estes Park last week; some painted in the Plein Air Event and some did not. Here, Dennis Reinke, Dewain Stoll and Cecy Turner paint in the downtown Quick Draw.














To the right are David Harms,
suffering from Quick Draw
anxiety,
KC Benson, and
Sterling Hoffmann whose piece "Legible Cascade" won Best in Show at the 2009 Event - formerly known as Estes Park Plein Air Event. Check it out
on Sterling's website.




















In another part of town
- I am painting with
Maggie Renner Hellmann,
Lou Renner, Eldon Warren,
and Margaret Jensen.
Eldon and Margaret stand
with Eldon's painting
clearly enjoying a really
beautiful day.










The bottom shot shows
Ulrich Gleiter painting
the model in the Downtown
Quick Draw, which he won.
Later, Ulrich would go
on to win First Prize
in the Plein Air
Event show.
Gratulation! my friend!

Click on any of the photos to see them larger.