Plein Air Painting

The weather has been unusually cold and wet this winter and I haven't been outside to paint very often.  The spirit was willing but the fingers were numb!

At last a beautiful day found several painters hard at work at the Davis Ranch. Lots of varied subject matter to paint including several long views, trees galore and a river and waterfalls.  Still, inspite of all the natural beauty I chose to paint an old rusty water tank truck that had been parked many years ago and not moved since.   Have wanted to paint an old truck and seen so many well done but never attempted one until now.  Quite a challenge to get the proportions right.  The ranch owner treated us like royalty artists and provided with a delicious spread  of food beyond our wildest imaginings.  It is so very nice to recognized as something special even when we are not sure we deserve it.  Heartfelt thanks from all who painted and enjoyed the food.

More Paintings of Big Bend

I have added a few more photos of the paintings done at Big Bend.  These were a little too big to fit in my scanner and had to be photographed, downloaded and then uploaded to my blog.  Took about as long to do that as some of the paintings took to paint!  Hope you will enjoy looking at them.

Sierra del Carmen through Cottonwood Trees

Rio Grande from Boquillas Overlook

Santa Elena Canyon from the East

Window View - afternoon

My latest fantastic trip - yes, Big Bend

Returned Friday from a wonderful trip to Big Bend National Park in the SW corner of Texas separated from Mexico by the Rio Grande river.  Fabulous, beautiful, stark, colors of rock so varied, so pink, peach, purple, every shade of gray, brown and sometimes scary dark colors without names.  Cactus of every kind, pine trees, mesquite, oaks both tall and stunted. In Boot Canyon came across a stand of Maples as colorful in November as any in the NE - not mentioned in my little trail guide and a complete and brilliant surprise!
Painted every day - the weather was perfect - blue skies, 70-80 degrees daytime.  Hauled my painting gear to different places each day, endless things to paint.  Got up early to paint the famous window view with the moon still hanging in the pale blue and pink sky and then with joined Courtney, who is one of my two best hiking buddies.  We hiked up to the South Rim in the High Chisos, a 13.5 mile round trip and saw the most incredible views - the Santa Elena Canyon 20 miles away, the Sierra del Carmen which extends into Mexico and many other peaks and vistas whose names are not known to me.  If you haven't been to Big Bend you should go!
 I have posted some of the paintings from this trip.  These are small enough to be scanned so I did them right away.  The others will have to photographed first so I will do that later.
Oh, I sold a painting of the Santa Elena Canyon to a lovely couple from Switzerland who came down to the Canyon just as I had finished painting it.  It is so wonderful to find people who will see a painting they like and without hesitation just buy it.  I and all artists appreciate that sort of support.