Heading Off

Today Cam and I will be heading off to Europe and leaving the boys behind- first on the agenda is Barcelona where there is a great Joaquin Sorrolla Art exhibit- I am trying to convince the Spanish tour to go. Next we will be heading to Paris to the museums there and then finally to London. Sadly, I will not be painting on this trip, but hopefully will have some great pictures to show when I get back.

As the Sun Sets

I got a new camara and decided that I would just play with it for awhile- my girl and I are going to go Barcelona, Paris, and London with her high school Spanish class for spring break, so I want to make sure I take great pictures on the trip- hence the experimentation. This is a picture to the east of my house - everything is still golden...

Now the sun has set in the foreground- but the mountains are slowly starting to turn pink.

Final picture- my camera didn't like taking these as it was flashing red on the landscape mode- the mountains turned a nice pink color but I have seen them turn much more red under different lighting conditions- they don't call them the Sangre de Cristos for nothing....

Sand Dunes Exhibit 2009

I had to submit my images to the Denver International Airport for a show they are sponsoring at DIA in the fall featuring the Sand Dunes. I painted the above piece last January and got just a smidgen of the dunes in it. As I look at this painting it's amazing how much I can recall about the day; I had tried to get as close to the east range as I could and then- ran into a locked gate- there is nothing worse than going for miles, thinking that you are finding a great new solitary spot and then WHAM- there's a locked gate. So I just stopped and painted there, it was also very cold- slightly breezy in fact- you just can't remember those details when you take a picture.

No, this is not a plein air- I painted it in the studio before I got sick; I might have shot this a little dark and I think that I will want to do some adjustments to this- later....

I did this painting quite awhile ago but I still like it-- I took off on the Medano road and at the tire air filling place, I caught this great view- the Sand Dunes are so quiet in the winter since there really aren't too many visitors so it's great if you are searching for the peaceful solitary scene. I submitted these today - since today was the deadline- nothing like waiting until the last minute.....

Sicker than a Dog

Well it was my daughter's 18th birthday on Sunday and I really wanted to have a party for her- and was not feeling well at all. I dragged myself to the kitchen to make her requests; fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy and banana split desert. I doped myself up pretty well with Tylenol cold medication and Mucinex- as I have learned that mucous truly is my enemy. I made it through the dinner- not with blazing colors but I survived. After the guests left and I immediately retired to bed; somewhere in or out of consciousness I thought "I am sicker than a dog."

Then I thought- have you ever really seen a sick dog? Most dogs I see look pretty healthy - even when I've seen some pretty bad places in foreign countries- the dogs always look pretty happy albeit skinny. The only dog that remember seeing sick was my husband's dog Max. Max was a big, happy black lab that had a terrible habit of sniffing crotches all the time. He also had a habit of gorging himself at dinner time- especially if he got any scraps from the dinner table. Well, we were newly married and I gave him a bunch of scraps to eat and he was fat and happy in the carpeted utility room. All of a sudden I heard this horrible sound and ran to the utility room to find I was too late- he had thrown up everything all over the carpet and now was preceding to eat it AGAIN!!! Yuck!! I threw him outside and cleaned up the slimy mess- and he was left outside for the day.

I really haven't been around that many sick dogs but I think they are usually much healthier than people- I wonder where that saying came from?

I feel much better today but not well enough to paint- sorry......