Long Road Trip: Week 1 part B

Day 3 and 4: Drive to Castle Rock State Park in Idaho. Google maps gave me an alternate route, only an extra 10 minutes about an hour away from our camp spot. Sometimes Google lies. What google didn't tell us; it was a washboard dirt road for 27+ miles so we rattled a few screws loose in the camper. Literally.

Beavertail Cactus were in bloom in the park

Acrylic 12x12

I have many sketches of barns adding up because I feel the need to draw

every single barn we drive by. Barn obsessed.

Cleaned my pastels and right before we left realized I left the lids in Denver. Not something you can just run out and pick up - foam padded lids to my plein air box. So, I've got the pastels in other boxes but still needed to bring this to attach to my easel and tripod. Not efficient.

This old barn behind Tracy's General Store in Almo, ID

Then we were off to Boise, ID. Our highlight was seeing Shoshone falls near Twin Falls. Every single thing we drive by has a unique beauty to it, it's so fun seeing new things and going to places we've never been before. Very grateful.

Shoshone Falls, ID

Day 6: Drove through Bend, OR and would love to come back and spend more time here. A pretty park in downtown, a real art gallery, cute downtown area with shops, etc. After a brewery and dinner stop, headed south to be as close to Crater Lake as possible. I have 20 or so paintings in my head just hoping for time to get them on paper one day.

Day 7: Spent the day at Crater Lake National Park. Ed did a 33 mile ride around the rim and I got to paint. We did a short 1.6 mile hike up to Watchman Lookout for even more incredible photos.
Like most spots, it was empty and beautiful at 8 am but by noon packed with tourists, kids, buses and way too many people.

Paint spot along Crater Lake rim near the Lodge

Then I sketched the Lodge

Crater Lake National Park

Pastel 9x12

Most of my art is posted on Instagram here. Thanks for reading!

lisahutart@gmail.com

http://www.lisahut.com

@lishutart on instagram

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do." Rumi

Long Road Trip: Week 1 part A

Hi friends - you all know how much I love a road trip and now I'm on a long one. My husband and I are traveling with our 24" camper across the Northwest. He's biking and I'm painting. Actually we are doing a lot of driving, camping, cooking, seeing stuff, googling stuff (when we have service) and taking photos. The only bad thing about camping is slow cell service, no wifi - but it's also the great thing about camping. I don't realize how much I just google stuff ... until I can't.

Starry Hollow Ranch - Utah

Day 1: We camped at Green River Campground in Dinosaur National Monument, it was really pretty along the river - but 100 degrees. No hookups, so I'm already grateful for the generator Ed bought last minute because all women in their mid 50's deserve AC, camping or no camping.

The drive was beautiful; fields of yellow Mules Ears, paintbrush and just a few lupine.
I managed one sketch but the mosquitos were relentless, I gave up and ran for the camper. We visited the Josie Morris cabin (how interesting was she! - She was married 5 times and hung out with some bad cowboys - read about her here).

Campground along Green River - Dinosaur National Monument

Day 2: we camped at a Harvest Host - a network of farms, wineries and museums that let you camp for free in a boondocking kind of way. Then you repay the kindness by purchasing from their farm, store or winery. Starry Hollow Ranch, a private farm outside of Salt Lake City was a beautiful spot, 22 acres with views all around. There was a barn, chickens, goats, alpacas, horses, dogs ... a few of my favorite things :) Genny was a great host, we toured the garden and I learned a lot about chicken eggs. We had a quick stop, I managed one painting of their view. I have several sketches not completed yet, lots of photos and good intentions.

Our spot next to the barn

A beautiful evening walk

The goats slightly curious as to what a plein air setup was

Sunset at Starry Hollow Ranch

Most of my art is posted on Instagram here. Thanks for reading!

Turntable

Thanks to everyone that came to the Summer Art Market this past weekend - I so appreciate your friendship and purchases. SAM is always a great mixture of reconnecting with friends, meeting other artists, connecting with complete strangers ... worrying about the weather and happily selling art.

Congrats to Christina V. for winning a free painting in my drawing. Who says you can't get free stuff anymore?

On Saturday night I attended the Alzheimer's Association Art Auction, it's the biggest art weekend for me of the year, every year. After a long week; on Sunday night I fell asleep at 8:30 pm and slept for 10 straight hours. Awesome.

So, about this painting ... it still needed a little work and was in a corner of the studio (kind of forgotten to be honest) but on a whim late Saturday night I decided to finish it and bring it to the booth on Sunday.
One buyer looked at it and thought she liked it positioned horizontal - rather than vertical. It surprisingly worked and the name changed from Spring Awakening to Turntable. All I could think of was turning the tables or looking at something with a new perspective. Sometimes I beat myself up for being so abstract and loose but this time it magically worked.

 Next time something doesn't feel complete, or I'm not seeing it quite right, I'm going to do a little 90 degree rotation and see what happens. If you see me out plein air painting and I suddenly start spinning around, you'll know why. Thanks "L" for your fresh perspective and purchase. It was certainly meant to be. Have a happy week everyone.

Turntable

24" x 48" Acrylic - sold

lisahutart@gmail.com

http://www.lisahut.com

@lishutart on instagram

Breakthrough

I vividly remember painting this work - it was the first time I realized how joyful painting made me feel, especially when I had no expectations. I was deciding that I was going to paint no matter what.

I've always been an artist, but spent years wanting to be a painter and it took a lot to finally make that happen. The leap was to just do it and letting go of what might or might not happen (lots has happened, by the way).

It's always made me happy when I look at it on my studio wall. I glanced up at it tonight and decided it was time to pass the explosion of color on. I hope someone else likes this bright abstracted cloudy work. If not, it may go back on my studio wall so I can reflect on my creative journey just a little bit more.

No expectations.

Heres to break-throughs of all kinds.

Break Through

16x20 Pastel

Framed $350

Hope I see you this weekend at: ASLD Summer Art Market
Saturday & Sunday - June 8th & 9th, 2019
9 am to 5 pm  Booth #22

lisahutart@gmail.com

http://www.lisahut.com

@lishutart on instagram

Hey Bud!

PAAC is currently in Grand Lake painting this week - I'm getting out with them as the weather allows, but also busy preparing for ASLD Summer Art Market in 2 weeks.

I have lots of new work; "bin" priced stuff at $25-$50, original cards for under $10 and many pastels and several large acrylic and oils. More work than I can fit in the booth as usual.

This year I'm sharing a booth with my friend Robyn. Check out her stuff here. She is accomplished in a variety of mediums and will be showing her beautiful animal portraits, representational still life and landscape oil paintings ... and fun contemporary acrylic pours. Basically, what I don't do - she does. Between the two of us, it's like having 7 different styles. Ha! Please stop by to say hello.

ASLD Summer Art Market
Saturday & Sunday - June 8th & 9th, 2019
9 am to 5 pm
Booth #22

Spring is a little late this year, it's supposed to snow in a couple of days up here at 8,600 feet. The aspen have barely budded out and the mountain peaks look like February. Trail Ridge is not open this weekend. Mount Baldy is covered in white and peeking behind these trees that I sketched from Grand Lake Lodge this morning.

I've never noticed that when aspen trees bud out, the base is bright red and the leaves electric green, I'm going to watch them this week and see how fast they open.
I mean, I always liked being outside as a kid - probably because our parents said "go outside and play and don't come home until it's dark". It was the 70's. I was sitting outside drawing back when I was in single digits. Some things never change. So, I guess I'll credit my mom for my love of nature - thanks Mom.

Hey Bud!!

5x7 pen and ink watercolor

Happy Little Trees

What!? Two posts in a week after being absent from blogging for months? I'm on a roll.

Below is another painting that I am donating to the Alzheimer's Association Art Auction. See yesterday's blog post so I don't bore you with all the details again.

The second photos are aspen paintings done by MIM artist Katie Dimmer titled "Hiking through the Aspens". Hiking and aspen trees are some of my favorite things so it was an easy choice to paint something to go with Katie's art. Her "story" recorded on the back of her art touched my heart too; memories of running a family bakery and also reminding me that a person's love of family says it all.

Since I've been painting plein air I've grown to appreciate all seasons, not just fall. The green buds are so vibrant in the spring and winter holds so many hues of white, purple and blue, and hints of every single color in the rainbow. Painting a gray tree trunk is anything but gray and harder than it looks. Get outside and take some time to sit under a tree. Look at the complicated lines in a leaf, stare at the gray trunk and see how many colors you see. Bob Ross may have had the answer to it all, painting happy little trees over and over. I want to do that.

For sale at the Alzheimer's Association Art Auction, June 8th at the Pat Bowlen Field House at the Broncos Training Center.

Happy Little Trees by Lisa Hut

24x48 Acrylic

Hiking through the Woods by MIM artist Katie Dimmer

(3 separate paintings before framing)

Always with gratitude for your support, Lisa

Upcoming events:

ASLD Summer Art Market

Booth #22

Grant Street between 3rd and 4th, Denver

June 8th and 9th 9am to 5 pm

Oasis

Each year I donate a painting or two to the Alzheimer's Association for their annual Art Auction in June. In case you are a new reader, you can visit my website here or the Alzheimer's Association here to read about this fantastic program and fundraising art auction. My regular readers, you've all heard about it many times before. Stop yawning.

So, this year I was inspired to do my pairing (called a pairing, because they will be sold together) with a little watercolor done by MIM artist Rena, titled Pre-storm Brilliance. First, it's a sweet little painting that I fell in love with. Second, I immediately could picture a much larger version with a very calm sky ... more like post-storm.

Art is so much more than painting a tree - I reflected on Rena's painting and thought a lot about the storm of a dementia diagnosis and all the chaos and dark clouds that follow. Normally, I don't "copy" a painting but I loved everything about this work and wanted to make a much larger version of Rena's tree - as a reminder - that after each storm there is a time of peace with a big calm sky.
A reminder to myself too.

So, I hope someone else feels the peacefulness I tried to paint into this work - just in case you also
are in the middle of a storm.

Oasis by Lisa Hut

24x30 gallery wrapped canvas - oil

Prestorm Brillance

by MIM artist Rena Reck

Always with Gratitude for your support, Lisa

Upcoming events:

ASLD Summer Art Market

Booth #22

Grant Street between 3rd and 4th, Denver

June 8th and 9th 9am to 5 pm