Week 32 An Orange Kind of Month

The aspen trees seem to be turning earlier this year, I probably said that last year too. I've been painting aspen trees all week and had the pleasure of some fellow artists to keep me company.

Everyone dutifully wore orange as it's hunting season and we are surrounded by, and painting on, National Forest and BLM land. There was a little incident last year that made me paranoid and you could read about it here. Today, I headed towards Fraser and found this amazing group of trees on County Road 50. I wasn't the only one enthralled, every car driving by stopped to take a photo.

County Road 50

pastel 12x18

Artists with the heaviest backpacks ever

Cheryl wins! Sort of ...

(This from a few weeks ago)

Backpacker Lori on left -5 lbs.

 Painter on right 25 lbs."at least"

This is why we sometimes paint out of the back of our cars

 A favorite spot in RMNP - have painted here for the last 3 years

Requires a 30 minute uphill hike and 10 minutes of scrambling over boulders

with the cumbersome pack - but so worth it

Smart painters wearing orange!

Debby ... in orange!

  

Robyn - orange shirt under the jacket

laura gets to paint too! She's there ...

Jennifer - in the middle of a field with a very big canvas

 

Safe from hunters in National Park, no orange needed

Cheryl, Robyn & Anita

Another perfect spot 

Lounging safely in RM National Park and he knows it

Apparently, he didn't wear orange - National Forest

Get out to see the Aspen if you can ... and wear orange just in case!

Week 31 Animal Kingdom

It's that time of year when I spend as much time in the mountains painting as I can. Indian summer. Perfect weather (except for the smoke currently surrounding us). Aspen leaves turning. All kinds of reasons to be here. I'm very lucky to live in Colorado and appreciate it every day.
So, we have a hare living around our property, I've seen him a couple times this summer. It's either a jackrabbit or a snowshoe hare. It's as big as a medium sized dog, not a little fluffy bunny, so a hare either way. Google teaches me a lot.

Sunflowers are everywhere and along every highway in town

next time you are frustrated with traffic try and look for the sunflowers

Indian Paintbrush still to be found in the high mountains

Fluffy fox

White tailed jackrabbit or snowshoe hare - I can't tell

Driving through open range means you encounter this type of traffic

He refused to move even as we slowly crept up on him with the car

I moo'd at her "Moooove"!

Week 30 Labor Day Driving Adventures

Labor Day weekend, a time when you shouldn't drive up I70 ... oh, about 3:30 pm on a Friday night. But I did. I rolled out of town late and paid the price by crawling up the highway with thousands of others headed to the cool mountains. In my continual practice of choosing to view the world as "glass half-full" I blasted the music and enjoyed the gorgeous sunflowers all along the highway - creeping along at 5-10 mph.

My husband and I adventured out to find some early aspen trees turning and ended up doing a little unintentional 4-wheeling. I took lots of photos because yeah, I'never going back down that road. When we finally popped out on a regular dirt road I'm pretty sure I saw a sign that said "off road vehicles only" - hmmm, no such sign at the other end.

Now that I'm safe and sound I could paint that 4 wheel drive road

We would have missed this stunning view high above the Colorado River

south of Hot Sulphur Springs

We saw no other cars on this road - good thing because it was too narrow and not many places to pass. But hey, we did see this old armchair out there. I would have sat in it for a photo but was sure a bunch of wild animals would have jumped out the back.