Rio Chama - WIP 3

I am sticking with my resolve to paint at least a little bit on this each day that I can. I decided to next lay in some of the basic tree shapes. It is so hard to wrap my mind around using gouache where you can put the darks in first and then highlight with the lights. This is totally against my watercolor inclinations to put the lights in first!I also darkened the cloud holes a bit more, and will continue to shade those along with the cloud shapes as I go.

I took this with my good camera, but the light situation is totally different than where I took it before, so it looks a great deal cooler than the first photo. Hmmmmm. I think the true painting tones are somewhere in between these two. I will adjust to be lifelike when I am finished with the painting.

"Editor's Note" - Now that I see this online, I see that I have achieved a "bowling alley" effect with the tree shapes I have added. So, I need to integrate them better to look less like soldiers marching in a row toward the horizon....sigh. Why don't I see these things or think of not doing them as I am painting?

Rio Chama Pano - Beginning

I know, you can hardly see this sketch on the watercolor paper. But, it is there. If you click on the photo, though, you can maybe see a few lines. I was at the Art Club and had my small camera I keep in my art cart and it doesn't pick up some of the details like my big camera. I just loosely sketched the mountains and river shape onto the paper. The resource photo was a panorama I stitched together from 10 photos while on our recent trip to Chama, NM. Barb and Charlie Lang were with us on this day and, while the scenery was colorful and gorgeous, it was nowhere near as colorful as I made this underpainting. I was having so much fun painting with my art buddies again (after seven weeks!) that I just kept choosing this color and that, merely because they looked "pretty" on the palette.

This painting will go into a 12x36-inch frame, as all panoramas should!

I completed the underpainting during this painting session. For some reason, I think I want to paint the rest of this with gouache. I have not painted with gouache for several years and want to give it a try again. I have recently seen some of Gary Keimig's landscapes done in gouache and it inspired me to drag out my paints to do that again. I was so sorry to hear of Gary's fall and need for surgery, this will mean months of his not being able to get out and about and painting more of his plein air landscapes of the West. Heal quickly, Gary!

I also have gotten Aubrey-in-the-Tutu down on watercolor paper, but will wait until I finish this one to start that. The day after I got the landscape sketched onto w/c paper, the Watercolor Workshop announced the theme for this month's project painting....landscapes with rivers, streams, etc. so since my timing for sketching this painting was so timely I will finish this one first. Sorry, Aubrey!

Sneaky Post

I normally keep my SWAP paintings under wraps until they are received by my swap partners. But, I decided to be sneaky and show you what I painted for my partner this time, but not tell anyone who that partner is. I hope he/she will like it.

I love being a part of this international group of artists, who swap paintings on a Secret Santa sort of basis quarterly. You never know from whom your painting is coming and your partner does not know from whom theirs will be coming. It is like Christmas four times a year!

Today, I will be starting two paintings by getting them drawn onto w/c paper. I really feel the need to get back to painting regularly again. I have not painted with my art club watercolor group for over seven weeks and am starting to go through withdrawal! I could not decide whether to do the painting from one of the panorama photos I shot on our recent trip or the one of our Aubrey in her tutu. So, I will start both at once! As requested by Vicki, I will post WIPs as I progress through these.

A Star in the Making

No paintings to post again today, so I thought I would share with you my next painting! I can't believe it is happening, it was just yesterday (I know it was!) that her parents sent a photo of her and a little friend at six months sitting together and wearing pink tutus... and now look at this! This is not right! Okay, it is not only right it is natural...where did the time go? I love the upswept hair in this and rejoice that she has more than when she was wearing the pink tutu at six months!

Tom had some dialysis-related health issues requiring outpatient angioplasty this week so we have decided neither of us has the energy to prepare for our Fall colors trip starting Sunday and have postponed that trip for another time. Maybe I can squeeze in some quiet time to work on painting this ballet ingenue or maybe my prior thought of a panorama painting. Changes in plans require pondering!

No Painting to Show!

I am working on a painting, but it is for my secret SWAP (Sharing With Artist Partner) partner so I can't show it until he/she receives it. These SWAP paintings need to be around 5x7 so for my next project I will try something larger. I took so many cool panoramic shots on our Chama trip that I am sure I can find something to paint from those! I want to try something to fit into a 36-inch wide by 12-inch high frame so that would work.

We had such a wonderful trip for our five-week escape from the desert heat. In fact, we had so much fun we are going back for a week during the peak (I hope!) of the Fall color season there. The forests surrounding this valley have so many wonderful aspen, oak and other colored trees in the Fall that I am sure it will be magnificent. I'll post 'em as I take 'em so you can see, too! Hopefully the colors will peak when we are there and not be too early or too late.

She's Started Pre-School!

OMG! Preschool for our Aubrey! Our granddaughter, at the age of 3 1/2, has started preschool. All seems to have gone well for her (and her parents) so far and she shows promise of being a student who enjoys her "studies". Being her grandmother, I have to think that she will enjoy the further stimulation offered by preschool and blossom further (being the super-intelligent lady I feel she is!).

PS... Yes, that is the baby doll we got her for her first Christmas...she carries it with her often. Too cool!

Goodbye Cia.....

In this new age of Internet communities, I am often struck by the closeness we feel to others whom we may never meet. This is true of Cecelia Antoinette Price (Cia). I came to "know" her through my membership in the Yahoo Groups site Watercolor Workshop. She was an artist (it so pains me to say "was") who lived in Alabama, a true southern lady who lived a very colorful life. She faux painted just about every room in her house with something colorful and had sent me photos of many of them. She truly was a muralist. She decided she had reached a point where she was going to paint what she wanted and was going to please herself so she did that in every way in her house and in the paintings she sold. She avidly set up E-Bay accounts and sold many paintings to appreciative buyers. She developed You-Tube videos of watercolor demos and wrote books about watercolor, sharing her talent.

Cia was diagnosed with cancer mere weeks before she left us. This was very unexpected and we didn't have the time left to absorb what was happening to her, which makes it harder to take and understand. But, that must be thought of as a blessing to her, for which I am thankful.

God bless you Cia, you were a good friend.....

Durango and Back to NM

Monday, we drove to Durango, CO. This is such an interesting town, with lots of Victorian architecture and quaint main streets. This photo epitomizes my memories of Durango, with the Victorian iron fence and flowers. Every storefront had hanging baskets of glorious flowers, all along Main Street. I took lots of photos of the grand hotels, etc. but this fence and flowers say it for me.

This is the Animas River. We decided to follow it along its course back to New Mexico on the way back to Chama. It was this low in some places and deeper in others along the way. The Animas River Valley was a very pastoral valley, with lots of hay fields and horse farms.

We happened to be driving through Aztec, NM and noticed a sign for the Aztec Ruins. We decided to see what that was about and I am so glad we did. These were the ruins of a large village. Some of the main kivas were restored, but lots were just the walls remaining. This was one site of ruins where we were allowed to wander throughout the rooms. Of course, the people of these village were very short people and we spent a lot of time bending to pass through 5-foot doorways. There were many manos y matates in the plaza of this village that had been excavated from the ruins. These were the grinding stones for their cornmeal.

We will be leaving this great place on Monday, we will miss the cool weather and wonderful scenery we have been able to experience. But, we plan to come back for the Fall colors that promise to be wonderful here. Just wait till you see those photos!

Another One From My Bucket List

I have really not become a train nut or something, but there is something so exciting about seeing views of an old steam train in this beautiful setting that I have taken hundreds of photos. While out exploring, we came upon an old train trestle. We eventually figured out it was being used by the Cumbres and Toltec railroad. I thought it would be so cool to show this trestle with the train locomotive going over, so that got added to my photo "bucket list" of have-to-have photos. We figured out just about when the train would be at the trestle after leaving the station (see above photo) . We drove up the mountain and set up the cameras and waited...and waited...and waited. For those of you who might be in the Chama area and want to take this photo, the time it arrived was 11:18 AM! It finally climbed up the mountain and here is the photo I was waiting for below.

Now, if I can get a photo of an 8-point buck elk before we leave I will leave satisfied! They certainly can see me coming with my camera because they hide from me. Others here have seen them, but I have not been in the right place at the right time. Sigh.

Rusty Creek

This is one example of the rusty creek beds in the area yesterday. I have some great shots of mountain streams that I want to paint, and they will all have this same color of the creek beds...rusty rocks! In fact, the name of this creek was Rusty Creek....duh!

To Summitville and Beyond

I took this photo to show you how high we climbed on the dirt road we took yesterday. This was 12,000 feet elevation! Surprisingly, neither of us noticed any difference in our breathing or any signs of being that high. Of course, we weren't hiking up there, but riding in the Xterra, but that is pretty high in the air.

This was our view on the way to the top of Lookout Mountain. These rocks contain so much iron they are this magnificent color in many places. Additionally, the water that flows down the mountains is so acidic and filled with iron that it is rusty! A sign said if you placed a nail in the creek water it would disintegrate within eight months! I will have to post a photo of one of these rusty creeks.
This is the ghost town that was Summitville, CO. This was a large mining area, I assume of iron ore given the nature of the rocks. All that is left of this town are many little shacks such as these and, now, a reclamation project sponsored by Superfund money, to return the area to its former environment. From the looks of the reclamation ponds and the scope of the job, this looks to be a big, long-term project! I spoke above of the rusty water...the reclamation ponds they were cleaning up had "bathtub rings" along the top, of rust. Really was an interesting sight/site to see.
This will have to be one of my fav photos for this trip. Along the Conejos River there was a herd of probably fifty horses running along a dirt path. I thought they must be a wild herd until we got to the end, by the river, and saw this one lone cowboy herding them to a different pasture. They were beautiful horses, with the sun shining on their backs in the early morning hours. The cowboy wasn't bad, either! I took many photos of these horses running, but I wanted to show one with the cowboy in it, bringing up the rear. Isn't being "out West" just great?!

Stay in the Car!

Yesterday we went farther afield as it was a "day off" of dialysis. We covered the 23-mile gravel road that we took from Horca to Platoro a week or so ago, which travels along the Conejos River. From Platoro, we took the 29-mile gravel road up the mountain to Summitville. It was such an interesting trip. Along the way, we came upon this sparkling little lake. Although we were on a public "road", the signs along this lake stated it was private property and had warnings of
"stay in car"! Well, Tom stayed in the car, but I quickly set up the camera for a panorama, he stopped at the right spot and I shot this series of nine shots over the hood of the Xterra and then we made a swift retreat. Shhhhhh....don't tell anybody! The scenery along this road was just gorgeous. Tom reminded me how many times I was using the adjective "gorgeous", so I switched to "majestic" as we climbed higher and higher.

I will post some more photos here shortly, we had another great day!

Barb's Hollyhocks

I posted my painting of the hollyhocks here at the RV park earlier. Barb, who was painting from the same photo as I, chose to paint the watercolor underpainting on sanded paper and then finish with soft pastels. I love her version! To see hers, go to her blog, it looks so soft and lovely.

Spontaneous Photos

Chama, NM is one of the train stations of the Cumbres & Toltec Narrow Gauge Railroad. We were heading to the store this morning and saw the smoke, which meant the train had left for the morning run to Antonito, CO. We raced ahead, stopping in five places along the highway where we could see the train well. It was such a fun time, staying just ahead enough to set up for more camera shots.

This is truly one of the advantages of taking these trips that I enjoy the most...the spontaneity of setting out to do one simple task and being able to take advantage of these special opportunities that present themselves! We plan on returning here in a few weeks, late September and early October for a week to take in the Fall colors. We have seen so many aspen, oak and evergreens here that it promises to be spectacular when they all turn colors. Hopefully, the week we have chosen will be the peak for the leaves!

Rio Chama

I was standing on a footbridge over the Rio Chama and took this 9-shot series of photos to stitch together into this pano. I also took the shot from the opposite side of the bridge, looking downriver, but have not processed that one yet. Like I said earlier, this was a beautiful area with beautiful weather....I love photographing landscapes when there are clouds in the sky.

As usual, click on the photo to enlarge it for more detail.

Great Day

This is one of the many views we enjoyed yesterday. The Rio Chama, south of where we are staying, is running much higher and faster there than here. There were many rafters and kayakers on the river and it looked like they were having a ball. When I say "we" I mean the four happy "campers" below.

This motley crew consisted of our good friends, Barb and Charlie and Tom and I. I had set the self-timer on the camera and tripped my way back in time for the photo. That is the Rio Chama behind us. We had great weather, wonderful scenery, nice picnic lunches and, best of all, a day spent with these two great friends. They are leaving Chama today, it has been so nice having them with us!

To make the day even greater, when we returned I was paid for selling another pair of earrings from my display in the RV park office. I have had lots of time for making jewelry and painting while here, I hope that continues!

Another Great Adventure

This is one of the many landscapes we visited yesterday. We were planning on taking a short morning trip to a road we had not traveled yet and then return for an early dialysis session. Well, one state highway led to another county road that looked interesting, which led to something else and it was after 2:00 PM when we finally returned. Of course, stopping every few minutes to take photos added to the time we were gone! The colors of that area were just phenomenal. This is part of the area that Georgia O'Keefe lived in and painted during the last part of her life. I can certainly see the wisdom of her choice, it is such a varied and colorful landscape here.

This is part of Lake Abiquiu. The water was so glassy and still when we were there! Wouldn't this be a wonderful place to have a houseboat?!

For my next project and post, I will stitch together some of the many series of photos I took for panoramas. Like I said, I took many photos!

Painting day

As requested by Susie Short in my prior post, here is the painting I worked on with Barb during our painting day. The RV park where we are staying this month has beautiful hollyhocks growing down the slope from the laundry room. I took photos the first day we were here and worked from those. I brought only a block of Arches 300-lb paper with me, as well as Pelikan transparent paints as my travel set. I am unused to working on the more absorbent 300-lb paper, as well as the more opaque paints, so this isn't what I expected for a result. However, I am not displeased with the softness of it. I think that hollyhocks require a more subdued effect since they are such an old-fashioned flower, or at least when I see them I feel nostalgic.

I am working on another painting now of the Rio Chama, which runs right beside the park. When we were here in May, the snow runoff made it run more swiftly and high up on the banks. Now it is a mere stream and rocks are visible on the sandbars.

I start working on another posting for today which shows some of what we saw on our adventure yesterday.

Barb and Charlie at Chama

Our good friends, Barb and Charlie, joined us in Chama for a few days. They are staying at a nearby lodge. She and I had great fun painting this morning at our motorhome while Tom and Chalie went for a drive for some photo op's. The temperature was perfect, Josh Groban was playing on my iPod player and we were painting together. As Barb said, "it just doesn't get any better than this!" I agree!

Wildlife!

We have been seeing quite a few critters in our explorations here. The chipmunk is robbing seed out of the bird feeder set out by one of our fellow RV'rs here at the park. The wild turkeys were seen along the highway and stayed there long enough for us to turn around and get some photos.

We hear of bear sightings and elk sightings down by the river just after sundown, but unfortunately that is when the mosquitoes are the worst and they like my skin too much to venture out at that time. This trip we are parked up above the river, in the open where the skeeters are not so bad. Our friends, Barb and Charlie, are due in tonight and she and I have a date to sit out by the river to paint one day while they are here in Chama. I am planning on changing that to sitting under our awning by the motorhome and painting from photos I have taken of the river! Don't like those mosquitoes!