Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Painting the Golden Triangle



Well, this past week was a fun one although much different than I am used to--- I paint very few buildings when plein air painting. I suppose the reason for this is because I head for the hills -- about as far from civilization as possible and by the time I choose a place to paint there are very few buildings within my vicinity if at all. So you can understand what a panicky feeling I had when I took off to the Golden Triangle in Denver to plein air paint for two and a half days for the High Plein Air paint out.

The Golden Triangle is a really cool neighborhood directly south of the "tall building" downtown district of Denver. GTMD includes the museums, Capitol, The Colorado Ballet, many galleries, restaurants and interesting old structures within a triangle that exists within the streets of Lincoln, Speer, and West Colfax. I have seen maps that have included a few more streets to the east of Lincoln that are included in the district but for painting purposes we were to stay within the three streets mentioned.
My first painting above I called the "Green Door"was 12x16. It was actually the last painting completed before driving home on Thursday. I was intrigued by the contrast of the ultra modern buildings including the Denver Art Museum with the foreground buildings - which were old and slightly shabby. I loved the shadows hitting the shabby buildings in the early light so we ( my friend Deb and I) skipped the check in that morning and got to painting right away.
The other two paintings were of buildings observed within the district- I fell in love with the house in "Jewel in the Triangle" It was bright red on the south side with a huge sign advertising a real estate firm. I just used the bright red color on the right side of the painting without any detail as I wanted to concentrate on the door.
The last painting "1110 Acoma" was a very interesting building that I had to paint. It had great shadow patterns. Painting this was a challenge as I had a lot of visitors. I am not accustomed to this as I paint in wilderness and the wildlife has no interest in my paintings (although I have had cows try to eat my paint before.)
All in all it was a wonderful experience-- the people were extremely friendly and the galleries and restaurants organizing the check in were fantastic. I regret not making it to the happy hours but by then sheer exhaustion had settled in. It was a fun time and kudos to the GTMD!

2 comments:

Denver Don said...

Hey! I got your blog on a google alert the other day but this is the first I've had a chance to respond. You really did get some good stuff. I only got one out of that event, but have been doing well since.

Drop me a note and I'll send you some pics of my recent favs.

Susan McCullough said...

Hey Don, thank you.. I had a lot of fun there- but have not done a painting since I got back- its getting pretty cold here. I would love to see your pics