La Garita

La Garita is the closest I can get to the mountains in the smallest amount of time. It consists of many ranches and a small general store that serves great lunches for an incredibly low price.  There is also a church standing alone at the base of the rock ledges which are basically the gateway to the mountains to west. I don't know the history of this church- wish I did, but I know that there is a coalition working to restore the church to it's better days.  I've heard that the inside is something to see so I will have to explore a little the next time that I make the trek to La Garita

Standing Alone
12x16

La Garita
9x12

The painting above is not too far from the church.  In the late afternoon, I drove up a rocky dirt road, bouncing all of the way to get to this spot.  It was a nice view.  The drought conditions in the San Luis Valley are clearly evident in this painting as the grass is yellow, not a beautiful green as I have seen in years past.

La Garita Aspen

This was painted up La Garita again- I painted this with the light to my back looking towards the west-- The paint is very thick on this canvas- the size is 14x18.  I feel alot of anxiety right now- I know how beautiful the mountains are with the golden trees and I would like to paint 24/7 but can't- frustrating!

North of Penitente Canyon

I decided to visit someplace that I've never been before today.  Many people have talked about Penitente Canyon and Peg Immel even had talked about going there to paint sometime, but I was never sure that I had actually been to Penitente Canyon.  I know that sounds stupid but there are so many rock outcroppings around La Garita that I thought that maybe I had driven through it and just not known it.  So today I was going to find the answer to the question- "Have I really ever been to Penitente Canyon?"


Well I hadn't- I took off from Del Norte and took the road from Del Norte to La Garita, which is something I don't do-( I usually go to La Garita from highway 285) and  there was a sign for Penitente Canyon and so I took off down the road.  Just to make sure that I didn't pass it by, I stopped at every forest road that had a canyon marker just to make sure that I didn't miss it.  I had almost reached the small La Garita church which I could see in the distance and do love so well and lo and behold -- there it was- a large sign for Penitente Canyon!  I drove in and there were people everywhere. Here all this time when I was painting the La Garita church I felt like I was in this isolated little area and not two miles away is this major pilgrimage to Penitente and I didn't even have a clue.

It was cool- little rocks sticking up everywhee and beautiful green bushes but- IT WAS CROWDED! So, I knew some spots that look just like it on the La Garita Road and went there.  This area is north of Penitente and there is a trail that takes off between the rocks and probably in all likelihood, ends up at Penitente Canyon. This was tough to paint - not too many shadows...

Workshop fun

I have participated in a number of workshops and always enjoyed them. I've taken workshops from some of the best names in plein air, Matt Smith, Kevin MacPherson, Ralph Oberg, Tom Lockhart, but, I had never taught a workshop until this last week. It truly was an enjoyable time with one exception-- the weather! The first day I had planned on lecture in the morning and painting at the ranch in the afternoon, but we ended up in the studio painting from pictures because the wind was blowing horribly. I felt fortunate to have a studio large enough to house all of the easels and painters. The second day was beautiful! Above is a picture of everyone painting some trees up the La Garita road - I had planned on them painting the La Garita Church in the morning, eating at the La Garita store for lunch and then driving to Poso campground for that afternoon. Everything worked just as planned until we went to Poso campground. All of the leaves had blown off the aspen and so it was rather dead looking- especially compared to how it had looked the week before. That explains why everyone is standing on the side of the road painting- it was the only area where aspens that were still pretty.

This is the La Garita Church - the weather held out for us at this little church- I think that everyone enjoyed painting it although it was a challenge.