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.

Week 29 Best Trade Ever

Today I hiked back up to Lake Isabelle since I only had time to do a sketch when I was here last weekend. The lake had been half drained since Sunday but the paintbrush were still showing off their colors. I brought along friends which made it exceptionally fun. We learn new vocabulary and laugh a whole lot.
I accidentally left the bug spray in the car and the mosquitos were vicious. The trail is very popular and eventually I planted myself in front of the next group hiking up and begged for some bug spray while offering up a trade of M&M's. Luckily, I'm not the only person out there who think chocolate and hiking really go together. A nice woman saved me from being eaten alive and received M&M's for payment. Great trade.

So, it's always nice chatting with people on the trail, you know you already have something wonderful in common, loving nature.

Last Chance Paintbrush at Lake Isabelle

9x12 oil

Week 28 Did you say chocolate?

A really fun project for me this month was doing this painting for Third Eye Local, a marketing firm in Wisconsin. When they asked if I could paint a store front with a holiday theme for Fazio's Chocolate, I said ... mmmm, yes!
It was equivalent to asking my old dogs (labrador retrievers) if they wanted to go for a walk. Sometimes we would say "waffle" just to see the ears perk up - "waffle" was close enough to "walk" that the dogs would go crazy spinning around in circles. I miss them and their lovable destructive labrador ways. So here is the finished painting, soon to be seen on some chocolate packages headed out to holiday shoppers. If you find yourself near Fazio's Chocolate in Elm Grove, WI please stop and have some chocolate for me.

If only they knew how much I love chocolate ...

Week 27 Solar Eclipse: Big and Small Stuff

Today was a big day for small stuff. Like errands.

I ran errands this morning and my last stop ended as the much anticipated solar eclipse started. I found myself in the King Soopers parking lot with a group of cashiers. They were outside passing around one pair of glasses and kindly gave me a peek. It was pretty cool. Then I got home and the neighbors were gathered with even more glasses and an old fashioned shoebox for viewing.
Super cool.

I had started this painting a few weeks ago in anticipation of the eclipse and there it was waiting for me to finish this afternoon. It was nice to stop thinking about all my small stuff and see this big thing today. And then paint a big thing.

Back to regular small stuff tomorrow.

Solar Eclipse I

36 x 36 Acrylic

Week 26 Steamboat Springs Paintout

Well, it's not really week 26 but I've neglected posting, so I will still number my posts in order. I'm in Steamboat Springs for the week painting wth PAAC. I got rained out this afternoon so thought I'd take advantage of the bad weather and do some "housekeeping". Ya know, all that stuff we don't really want to do, it's just "art housekeeping" for me. Gave up the real housekeeping years ago. If you stay gone painting, there isn't much to clean. That's my plan anyway.

Last night, I got in a quick painting and many insects died for the cause. They insisted on landing on the paint, on the canvas and on me. All choices were sadly ... fatal. The birds at this camp spot are scavengers and I'm waiting for one to swoop down and pick up a pastel thinking it's a cheeto. Let you know how that goes.

This morning I set up to paint along the Yampa River and guess what I saw? A big yellow duck, and a swan and a unicorn. Seriously. You see the craziest thing when you get out of the house.

Along the Yampa 12x12 oil

I haven't pulled out the oil paints for awhile so here's hoping I remember how to use them this week!

 First came the swan and rubber ducky - grandpa was in the swan.

The best kind of tailgating!

Then the darn cloud storms moved in ...

Here's the Unicorn floating on by

Some watercolor sketches of wildflowers that I did over the July 4th weekend

Indian paintbrush at North Supply Trailhead in Grand County

Just working on design for this - obviously not accuracy

Week 25 Stop and Paint the Roses

I'm back from my trip to Australia and had a fantastic time. Kangaroos, koalas, rain forest jeep tour, waterfalls, a boat trip out to the great barrier reef, sea turtles, whales, dolphins, and I saw only 3 or so terrifying spiders. I did not scream once. It was good.
I posted daily on instagram while I was gone - you can check it out here. You don't need an instagram account to view my stuff as I'm posting publicly.

I did get out with my friend, Anita yesterday to paint in Littleton -we chose the War Memorial Rose Garden. It was beautiful with roses of every color and I want to go back. (don't I always say that?)

Highlights from the trip included snorkeling on the great barrier reef. I floundered in the water like a tourist (total shark bait) for the minimal amount of time so I could say I did it, then swam back to the boat to do a sketch. I know my strengths.
One of the crew told me at the end of the day how some people come out and don't snorkel or dive but actually just sleep on the boat. He said what a waste of time and money. He obviously didn't see me skipping the second afternoon snorkel trip, taking a nap and drawing at the other end of the boat.

The best place was visiting the Lone Pine Koala Bear Sanctuary - us and a bunch of preschoolers feeding kangaroos - fantastic. Then there are the Koala bears. They are mesmerizing and I honestly could have watched them all day. Katt and I took some time to sketch.

This was Noosa National Park at Alexandria bay. We saw dolphins and whales off in the far distance.

This is Australia - mmmm.

We saw a lot in 2 1/2 weeks from Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and all the way to Cairnes. I didn't paint as much as I wanted - was with my husband and daughter. Unless you are traveling with other artists people don't really want to stand around all day while you paint apparently. So I can't wait use the reference photos and get some studio painting done.
Thanks for following my art journey!