Wyoming Plein Air- Day One

Wyoming Plein Air- Well it was fun and I was sad because I had to leave early and missed the show on Saturday but the painting was good and Coni and I had a great time. These are the paintings I completed on the first day of the show- the top was a train parked by the tracks - done in the afternoon - it was leaning to the left which helped create a sense of movement. The lower painting was the first of the trip- I started this at about 9:30 Sunday morning and was impressed with the shadows on the foreground buildings- I really enjoy painting down by the tracks in Cheyenne- so much history.

Small Caboose

Coni and I decided to go to Alamosa and paint next to the trains, power plant, and cool junk area. We saw this cute little caboose sitting on the tracks and decided to paint it. There was one problem-- a huge fence between us and the caboose making it very hard to get the detail. This is basicallly as much as I could see- so there is not a lot of detail in this painting and it was a trying process for me. When I haven't painting for awhile such as being on a long vacation, I have a difficult time painting plein air for the first few paintings- almost as if the experience of painting is foreign to me. I will be posting small stories about my trip to Spain, Paris and London later. It was a whirlwind trip and was exhausting. But I loved it-more about that later....

Grain Elevator

This Grain Elevator is appproximately 1 mile from my house and can be seen outside of my windows. There have been times when the potato warehouse behind it is burning trash etc. and it makes for some very interesting effects but for this day, I waited until the sun was setting and ran over and painted it quickly- there was a lot happening in the clouds and they were moving fast.

Urban Landscape #2

12x16

Coni Grant and I decided to paint Alamosa again- the old power plant was my choice for painting material while hers was painting the train on the tracks. It was late morning and I was painting into the sun so my subject was shadowed. I enjoyed the plant- it has alot of negative space and I truly just like the change from what I normally do and people are amazed to see you painting things like this- one woman commented " Why are you painting this stuff when you could be painting something much prettier?" Men like it though-most guys like old junkyards etc. and see no problem with painting old power plants, trucks, trains, etc. It was a good day.

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!