Estes Park -part 2

Endo Valley Sunrise
11x14

The next day we were up at the crack of dawn again- 4:30 to be exact, and out of the room by 5:30- I stumbled up onto a hill in Endo Valley and painted the view to the east as the sun was rising- it was really hard to choose- the view to the west was very dramatic and I wished that I could have painted two views at once. Coni was still working on her painting and Peg and Patrice had left to town to get a bite to eat so I decided to paint another in the same area and so I moved into a grove of aspen and painted an 8x10.

Aspen Grove
8x10

After that I painted my miniature- a 4x6 of an Aspen for the miniature competition.  I didn't get a picture of it. After that, Coni and I went to lunch- I felt as if a whole day had passed already and it was just lunch time.

A beautiful Day at Rock Creek

Coni, dave, and i took off to Rock Creek to paint in some snow for a change- what a beautiful day!  It was warm and sunny the entire time and a good winter painting experience.

Coni is ready to paint!

David is getting there!

I always have a difficult time trying to decide the best scene to pick- there were quite a few to choose from-  I was looking for strong value patterns and ended up picking some Aspen by the road- the sun changed the light patterns before I had completely set up the easel- so I knew this was going to be a quick one or I would lose those great shadows- painting partly from observation and partly from memory, I was able to get one done that I was pleased with....

Rock Creek Melody
11x14

I finished fast enough to walk around and take a few pictures- the pictures didn't come out that great as the light was bleaching everything out- I was thankful that we were out early enough to get some nice color.

Dancing Leaves

Dancing Leaves 16x20

This was painted up Pinos Creek Road - I was drawn to the color and was able to actually get off of the road to paint as well- an added bonus.  I had a hard time trying to keep my palette in the shade- something that I was determined to do- I know that had the sun been shining on my canvas, this painting would have been about 2 shades darker.  This is a large plein air for me so I moved rather quickly -

Aspen Glen above Zapata

There is a beautiful small lake above the Zapata development and the road ends somewhere close to Zapata Falls.  There were so many different colors of green in this area that I should have named it study in greens.  It was a beautiful little area and it really was difficult to choose a motif to paint- there were just too many.  Happy Fourth of July everyone!

After participating in the Headwaters Trust plein air event, I headed to Santa Maria, a private trout club at the base of Bristol Mountain. Jim and my son Jason had already headed up earlier and so took off at about 3:00 and watched the sky stay completely brown with dust all the way there. It was rather depressing- like a huge fire was burning close by. I got settled in to the fishing trailer and the guys were nowhere to be seen- I thought "could they be fishing in this horrible wind?" Yes they were..

Good thing because Jason woke up with the stomach flu at about 12:30 that night and plans kind of changed.. No more fishing for the guys and I stayed up on the mountain a little longer so that I could at least get one painting done. Since this area is above Creede- it wasn't even close to budding out anywhere so I had a difficult time finding anywhere that was very inspiring.

I finally settled on a group of Aspen in an area out of the wind- oh yeah - the wind was blowing by then..

I painted the above 8x10 and drove home and went through my bout with the stomach flu the next day..

Wishing for Spring

I have been looking for any tiny bit of green in the landscape that I can but to no avail so I painted this small 6 x 8 last night. I just kind of made everything up- and it's about as green as I could paint it. I will still be searching for some signs of spring around here but until then , it will have to exist in my imagination.

Happy New Year

I have been learning about my new Mac and and this is my first post. I think I am doing something wrong with trying to resize my photos - it took forever for the above photo to upload. Well, the above painting is not a plein air as it is 30x40 but I thought I would post it anyway- Happy New Year everyone!!

Colorado Mountain Plein Air Festival -another painting

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...

Aspen at Rock Creek

I painted this small painting after doing the morning stream painting. This was a tough painting as there were no shadows on the trees. I also put the paint on quite thick.

12x16
This was painted at Rock Creek - south of Monte Vista, Colorado. The colors will be changing soon so I decided it might be nice to get some summer paintings before it is too late. There were a few visitors to the area but I pretty much had the place to myself.

Approaching Autumn

6x8

The sun is changing it's direction, the air is cooler and fall is on it's way. I did this small painting from a picture I took last year. I am anticipating the beautiful fall foliage and the colors- my fave time to paint.

Looking through trees

24x36

I have been trying to get some studio paintings done lately- here is a painting of the San Juan mountains. I truly enjoy painting fall.

Alamosa River Canyon

Coni and I decided that we really needed to get out and paint so we decided to drive up the Alamosa River Canyon since it has great shadows- even in the middle of the day since the canyon is so narrow. But as there were tracks on the road it was obvious that it was being used so I knew that parking on the road was out... We wondered around and took some great pictures but no paintings this time... We could have painted down the canyon further but it was a little windy and I just don't think we had it in us - just one of those days. This is a picture of some old barns and cabins grouped together- the snow is beautiful but I am really tiring of it. Oh well, we had fun gabbing all the way up and all the way back-- and Coni finally got to see the very small town? of Jasper.

Rock Creek

Well, Coni and I finally made it to Rock Creek to paint together- it took some time but we made it and on a beautiful day at that. On the way up there were some of those high, white, wispy clouds- the nemeses of every plein air painter but we

had made up our minds and were going to paint! Half way through laying out my painting the high, wispy, clouds disappeared though and I was left with the decision- do I paint this as a high wispy cloudy scene or do I go with the sun........ I went with the sun even though that is totally against my plein air rules.Hey I change the rules when high wispy clouds are involved.

I painted the mountains to the west at the end of the road and I apologize for the image - I took it in the sun and it has some glare spots- shadows too. I took a picture of Coni with her painting and will have to get it in my next post.

Plein Air at Rock Creek

Coni and I were planning on painting at Rock Creek since there is quite a bit of snow but yet the roads are plowed since there are individuals that live there year around- but she called and cancelled because she had some deadlines to take care of. I decided to go painting by myself which all of a sudden seemed kind of strange since I hadn't been painting by myself for quite awhile. Rock Creek is beautiful- lots red rock cliffs.... I was painting this scene with my back to the red rock cliffs and a little thought went through my head-- I bet this is mountain lion territory- ooooh...

I remember hearing stories about how quiet mountain lions are and so every now and then I would look over my shoulder ---just to check- you never know. Then I thought- it might be wise to look for tracks just to see if any were in the area- well I didn't see any so I went back to painting. I never did see a mountain lion but it's funny how your mind starts playing little tricks on you and you just feel slightly uneasy. It's rather hard to concentrate on painting when you are looking over your shoulder all the time as well..

"Shaw Lake"

When the fall was at the height of it's glory I knew that I had to get outside and do some painting. I had been working rather hard on the studio but when the colors call I have no choice but to stop and paint. My mom and I went up to Shaw Lake- located above Big Meadows Reservoir and we painted this scene. What a glorious day it was! It seems even more glorious as it is now trying to spit snow outside my window. I've decided to start posting before and after pictures of the inside of the house so stay tuned. It's sad, instead of painting icy branches against a backdrop of soft dark evergreens, I am painting quarter round that will trim up my floors... yawn. But it is almost over!

The Zapata

11x14

Coni asked me to go to the Zapata Ranch and scout out the place for her art class. We just thought it might be good to check it out before a large group of painters show up - especially when you're not quite sure where it is etc. Well after getting through the gate we approached a heavily forested area; it was just beautiful. It was easy to see many compositions while driving but we settled on this spot- It didn't take me long at all to start painting this nice little grouping, with very small amounts of editing. Coni painted a beautiful grouping of trees to the east of my location. This was a great place to paint and we also painted small paintings later in the afternoon- I will post that one next.