The last day I was able to paint in the Colorado Plein Air Festival, I drove to Marshall Pass. The weather was quite sketchy so I tried to get up and painting rather quickly- the above painting is of Antora Mountain - there are great views of it all along the drive up Marshall Pass- the weather didn't stay like this for long however so I took off down the mountain as the clouds were quite ominous and as I rounded the bend I saw a nice little view of aspen- the sun popped out just long enough for me to paint it rather quickly
and as I was packing up, the weather moved right in- and that was the end of my week of painting... The party was fun but I was too busy talking to take any pictures of the event-
I had major issues trying to get even close to the paint out on Wednesday- I ended going up Peterson Creek - past Villa Grove and headed up a little dirt road - looking back to the east there were some great views of the Sangres but they were soon obscured by clouds. So I drove up the road just hoping for enough time to get at least one painting done. It snowed, then the sun came out and over and over again- I finally in desperation picked a small- not particularly inspiring - stand of aspens and painted them- this is the result. I was just happy to have finished a painting at this point...
The next day I drove to Salida and was invited to stay the night at Salley Mather's house. I met Sally down at the Steam Plant along the Arkansas River and she was set up and painting when I arrived. I looked around for awhile and settled on this nice little spot-- I am amazed at the pure zest that people in Salida have for their dogs.. I have never seen so many dog walkers in my life- and they all love their dogs dearly.I painted this along one of the dog walking trails- and there was always someone standing on the bridge. I pick this chap and sketched him in quickly.
Sally and I painted this scene from her house in the afternoon- clouds are kind of like trying to paint people and animals- always moving- just a little slower....This photo is darker than the actual painting as I can see some details are lost- my apologies.... later...
I drove to Salida on Thursday- the first day of the paint out to get Coni and my panels stamped and to get some painting done because I knew that I would have a hard time getting to the paint out as much as I wanted. After getting the packet and everything stamped, I went to the river to paint . The Arkansas River goes right through Salida and the town has done a very good job utilizing the river for rafting and sight seeing. I painted this in the middle of the afternoon.
After finishing the river scene, I decided to start heading home and do another painting on the way. I took the road up Marshall Pass and turned onto Poncha Creek Road- this was a beautiful view of Ouray Mountain and I was drawn to the drama of the draws that I could see from this viewpoint.
