Show at the Millicent Rogers Museum

Tomorrow I will be traveling to Taos for the annual juried Plein Air PAinters of New Mexico show.  I had two paintings juried in:

Standing Alone
12x16
I painted this very close to Penitente Canyon and it is down the La Garita Road.

I painted the second one in Taos ( well close to Taos and it is Kevin MacPherson's pond. 

The Pond
12x16

This was painted in the spring - everything was just starting to bud out with the exception of the Aspens- they still looked pretty dead.

Well the reception is from 5 to 7 and should be a good time- try to make it if you are in the area.

How to Avoid being Eaten by a Mountain Lion while Outdoor Painting

 There are a few ways to keep from being eaten by a mountain lion while outdoor painting and since I have always been very paranoid about this issue, I will list a few tips on not getting eaten.

1.  Take a gun- I used to paint with a friend that carried a gun- it was always in the back of my mind- oh yes, we have a gun- if ANYTHING attacks, we will be ok.  Of course there are many things that could go wrong when trying to shoot a leaping mountain lion; I just tried to not think about it.

2. Bear spray- yes, mountain lions do not like bear spray which is really a spray consisting of pepper spray and I don't think there is a creature on earth that wouldn't be deterred from that.  One downfall- the animal, human or wild, has to get rather close to be sprayed. Oh, but you say, bear spray can spray from 15 to 20 feet.  That is still too close for me.

3. Travel in a large group of painters.  Yes, this will detour a mountain lion- - they don't want to take on a large group of screaming, frenzied painters.... would you?

4. Take a dog.  Cats hate dogs- even big cats.  Now a big cat is not going to be afraid of your miniature schnauzer or poodle so you need to have some common sense here. Hound dogs, labs, german shepherds or even monster big dogs like great danes- that's what I'm talking about.

This is Buck - my 6 month old Lab



Well, yesterday, I went painting at the last minute- took off in the middle of the afternoon- decided to paint at Penitente Canyon - I knew that I could call my painting friends, Coni and David but they would have a difficult time trying to make it to Penitente at the last minute so I took my dog, who ended up being a great painting companion- he stayed close and growled alot at probably what was a mouse or two- but it made me feel safe. I don't really know how well he would handle a large cat showing up but we were lucky and didn't have to worry about it.

There are lots of wonderful rocks at Penitente Canyon- if I were mountain lion, I would want to hang out here for awhile.

The 14x18 painting that I painted at Penitente.

Well, hope these mountain lion tips will help you plein air painters out there.  Stay safe!

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...