Painting in Durango - plein air pastel

It's nice when you don't have to travel far to find something to paint.

Sky From 3rd Ave - 12x12"
pastel on light brown cardstock
© S.Johnson

And, after hiking up Engineer trail this morning, I was feeling too lazy to drive anywhere, so I just walked half-way across our street to the grassy median, and painted from there.  Sitting, of course.

I've sort of been wanting to paint this house for a while, so this seemed like the perfect time, especially since the next 4C paint out is in Silverton, and that's all about the buildings and architecture.  Good practice for that.

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Photos from the hike, which was about 8 miles and topped out above timberline at 11,900'.  This is a top-notch hike for wildflowers, and they were stunning this year - surprising, given the lack of rain and light snowpack.

No landscape photos, because about 1/2 mile from the junction to hike up Engineer, a cloud positioned itself right in front of the sun, and proceeded to grow to epic proportions in the windless sky, killing the light.  Disappointing from a photographer's standpoint, but that's the way it goes.

Instead, I bring you a batch of butterflies and paintbrushes:

Coronis Fritillary

Western Paintbrush - while the sun was still out

Rocky Mountain Parnassian
This, and the butterfly below, were stationary on flowers while the sun was behind
the clouds above timberline.  They require the warmth from the sun in order to fly.

Arctic Blue on Sneezeweed

Rosy Paintbrush

West Coast Lady - first of these I've ever seen

Purplish Fritillary

Painted Lady - underside

Milbert's Tortoiseshell

Painting along the Rio Grande, and Treasure Falls in photos

Another long weekend trip in the mountains, this time crossing the Continental Divide.

Destination:  the Rio Grande Reservoir area, located about 25 miles west of Creed, CO.  Friends Sarah and Todd left last Tuesday and secured a primo spot about 30' away from the Rio Grande river, and we met them there on Thursday.

My goal was to do four paintings while there; I ended up completing two and getting maybe half way through a third that I probably won't finish, but may try later as a studio painting.  

The three issues that put a damper on an otherwise great trip were:  1) smoke from the 6-week old Little Sand fire, burning in a canyon near the Piedra river near Pagosa Springs that ranged from minor haze to headache-causing; 2) the massive die-off of spruce and fir due to bark beetles; 3) ants...but not like any ants I've ever dealt with.  These were everywhere, and literally dictated the few places I could paint.  These were large black and red ants, aggressive and territorial.  Stand anywhere near where they were, and within seconds, they were on your shoes, socks, clothing, skin - immediately biting.  Thankfully, no stingers on these, but good grief - it was a major hassle to try and paint!   

On to the paintings.  This first one, done the day we got to the camp, is one I'm quite pleased with.  I loved the view immediately, and that pair of trees - a blue spruce and Douglas fir behind - were the perfect accompaniment to the curving braid of the Rio Grande.

Rio Grande View - 12x12"
pastel on sanded black cardstock
© S.Johnson

The next morning, I decided to do a morning painting to take advantage of the lack of wind to do reflections.  I'm almost out of my 12x18" Artagain, so I've been sticking with the 12x12" or the 8.5x11" (which I managed to forget to bring on this trip), or occasionally, the 8x16" handmade boards with Golden pumice grit.  

Anyway, I can make many things work with a square composition, but this wasn't one of them.   I think you can see the appeal of this:

Side Creek Reflections

I've cropped this to a 16x12" format, and like it much better.  This is an offshoot creek of the Rio Grand that has lots of still water, these fabulous reflections, and surprisingly, many large cutthroat trout.  I enjoyed watching them dash around grabbing whatever insects made landings in the water while I painted.  They have surely tempted many an angler with their size and abundance (I counted 14, most over 8"), but they didn't get that big by biting on flies and lures.

Later in the afternoon, I went back down to the same area I'd painted the first day, this time to capture the view upstream.  This was one of those paintings that fell short of expectations, for various reasons.  The hardest part was trying to paint that whole mid-ground of dead spruce.

Riverside Spruce - 16x8"
pastel on board with Golden pumice ground + black acrylic
© S.Johnson

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Some of the few photos I ended up keeping from the trip:

Shooting Star - the first time I've seen this flower in 35 years

Wayne fishing along the Rio Grande above the reservoir

 Series of photos of Treasure Falls, located along Hwy 160, about 3 miles west of Wolf Creek Pass:

A trio of paintings along Cascade creek - plein air, pastel

Finishing touches and photographs, finally, for the paintings done over the weekend's trip.

Orange Lichen and the Green Pool - 12x12" - plein air
pastel on dark brown cardstock
© S.Johnson

Thursday afternoon's painting, done about 30' from our campsite right along the creek.  There were so many fun things going on here that I had no trouble deciding on this as my first painting.  Some new challenges for painting water as well, such as being able to convey the effect of underwater bubbles and turbulence produced by the little fall of water passing through the channel of boulders.  The foreground pool appealed to my abstract gene, and then there is the river itself.

And the boulder, with its fissures and color variations, including some bright orange lichen, which ultimately inspired the sort of unusual title for this painting.

Embankment Aspen and Shadows - 11x8.5"
pastel on maroon cardstock
© S.Johnson

Another view right from the campsite, looking up and across the creek.  This is aspen country, so it was a given that they had to figure into at least one painting.  This was Friday morning's painting, done before breakfast.  I was reminded again of what a challenge it is to try and depict the massed greens of a forest - in this case, aspen, spruce, fir and probably some ponderosa pine.  

Fallen Rock and Tree - 8.5x11"
pastel on turquoise cardstock
© S.Johnson

Friday afternoon's painting, done a mere 15' from last weekend's painting "Creek Cascade".  Wayne and I had both been fascinated by the fact this full-grown tree was coming right up out of a large slab of limestone.  Strong shadows and patches of rust-colored moss - along with that tangle of roots - made it a fun challenge to paint.  The hardest part was dealing with the shadows, which changed by the minute:  by the time I'd finished the painting, the blue shadows had covered most of the creek.

We had great weather on Thursday and Friday, and because of the long hike we did on Friday, I'd planned to spend Saturday painting some aspen and road views I'd scouted out.  Alas, clouds rolled in early and stayed late, killing the light and dramatic shadows I wanted to paint.  So, I went out with my camera instead and spent a few hours photographing the creek..

...Wait:  hadn't I recently mentioned that I seldom take photos of moving water because they just don't do justice and aren't inspiring to paint from?   That's true.   That wasn't the intent with these photos, as you'll see in tomorrow's post, which I will dedicate just to this subject.

Here are a few flora and fauna photos from the weekend's hikes:

Blue and White Columbine in profile - one can never have enough photos
of this beautiful wildflower

Another native orchid!  Species unidentified

Fritillary species

Common Ringlet

male blue - unidentified species

Common Arctic - they seldom land and are very wary, so this was a luck shot indeed

Animas River, plein air pastel, 12x12 inches

From yesterday, a late afternoon painting at Santa Rita park.

Perins and the River Split - plein air
12x12", pastel on black cardstock

A quickie piece, sort of, from my decision to head out at 4:30 PM to try and paint.  

The Animas river divides for a short section right at the park.  I painted a section of the little island bank, in winter, here.  Anyway, looking upstream and west afforded this view of a backlit cottonwood, the shaded side of Smelter Mtn. and Perins Peak off in the distance.  

I got it 90% finished on location, came home, and finished the remaining areas before it went on the "not finished" pile.  Took a photo, which was horrid, and showed what I felt were small, but glaring, issues that seem to only be visible in photos, and fixed those.  

Looks better now.

My original plan was to paint at the Dry Fork area a few miles west of town yesterday, while Wayne hiked.  We've been having these monsoon-like clouds and storms build up over the past several days, and I hadn't given any thought that while they are great to paint from a distance, when they are overhead, they kill the light.

Duh.

So, I turned it into a photo session and hike instead, which was rewarding on its own.

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Western Flag - native iris

the view I'll paint next time 

A Silvery Blue - one of the earliest blues to appear in spring - on unfolding iris

Gambel's oak leafing out along the trail

Silvery Lupine 

Colorful member of the Pea family 

Beautiful, and apparently very rare, Purple Lily 

Impressive clouds to the east, but no rain

Canyon of the Ancients - plein air painting and photos

Took advantage of another fantastic day to head out for some hiking and painting...

Overlooking Sand Canyon - plein air
9x12 inches, pastel on black cardstock
 © S.Johnson

West of Cortez is a BLM-managed area known as "Canyon of the Ancients NM".  It has several Anasazi pueblo ruins within the main canyon - Sand Canyon.  A 6.5 mile trail runs along the canyon from north to south, and today, we opted to check out the northern end, as there is a large puebloan ruin site right near the road.  Unfortunately, it's nothing but rubble, having either been excavated and filled back in or not excavated at all.  Not even photo-worthy.

But, the hike was!  I decided to bring along my lightest plein air set-up along, just in case I found something worth painting.  That consists of my pastel box, a piece of foamboard with a 9x12 paper taped to it, and a stadium chair, which I can strap to my daypack.

We hiked a bit over 5 miles, and this view was at about 1.5 miles.  I saw it and knew I had to paint it on the way back.   After hiking another mile and dropping about 600' in elevation to the wide bench, we hung out for a bit and then came back up to this area.  Wayne read a book in the shade while I painted.

The snow-covered mountain there?  That's Sleeping Ute, as seen from the north and much bigger than the painting I did of it last month.

Anyway, aside from some really treacherous areas of mud (I keep forgetting that it is mud season here for a bit longer), the hike was great.  Spring is definitely on the way - here are some photos:

A species of phlox, I believe

Southwestern Orangetip - one of the earliest butterflies of spring

Another sign temps are warming up:  the lizards come out to sun themselves

And, an interesting shot across the canyon along the bench - an exposed section of sandstone, showing an interesting gridded erosion pattern:

A Prelude to Fall - San Juan Mountains

The summer continues to blaze by, and feels like it's rapidly drawing to a close.  There is a sense of urgency to cram in as much outdoor activity as possible in the high country before the season ends.

Two painting excursions - to Lemon and Haviland Lakes - in the past week have resulted in unfinished paintings that may or may not make it to completion.  One has promise; the other not so much.   Lately, it seems my creative energy has been focused through the lens of my camera rather than my pastels and paper.  So, I have to run with it.

Today, a trip back up to hike and fish along west Lime Creek.  Since our last trip a month ago, the deerflies have finally been knocked back, the summer alpine meadows are transitioning away from green towards the golden browns of fall, and a new round of mountain wildflowers is making an appearance.

August 30 in photos:

Cascading falls along Lime Creek

Raspberries along the trail - tasting as good as they look

A marmot casts a wary and scornful glance from his look-out point below the trail

A tiny Arctic Blue nourishes itself on a Showy Daisy

Mountain Gentian, filterized

Mushrooms, everywhere!

Monsoon skies

A hike to Crater Lake - wildflowers and monsoons

Friends from Flagstaff visited us over the weekend, and since all are avid hikers, I suggested we do the hike to Crater Lake, as wildflowers were likely to be peaking, and the trail - while high at its starting elevation - isn't particularly steep or strenuous.  It's about 11.5 miles RT.

Here are some photos from the hike:

A view of Engineer Mountain, as seen from Andrews Lake, where the trailhead for Crater Lake begins.  Monsoon storms were predicted, so we tried to get an early start.  

Cloud reflections in the lake - this is a 3-part vertically-oriented pano

Along the trail at one of the many vantage points of Engineer.  The wildflowers were incredible on this trip. Here, Orange Sneezeweed brightens up this open meadow section of the trail.

Higher up, a field of Elegant Death Camas (so named because they are very poisonous and many early settlers died from eating their roots), some purple daisies and Rosy Paintbrush make up the majority of wildflowers.

About 1/4 mile from the lake, a marshy field is filled with Elephant's Head flowers, which are members of the Snapdragon family.  

Crater Lake with Twilight Peak in the background.  Approximate elevation here is 11,300'.

The gang:  Radka (visiting from Slovakia), Eva, David and Wayne

Heading back, this is what the skies looked like about 30 min after we left the lake.  

Looking back along the trail, about 1 3/4 miles from the trailhead, as the trail leaves a wooded section...

...and this is what it looked like ahead.  

Taken about 3 min. before it started raining on us and the camera went bye-bye in the pack.  The rain started out as a light sprinkle, progressing to sleet and then hail that felt like getting hit with BB's.  There was lightning a few miles away, and thankfully by this time, we were in the final, forested switchback section of the trail.  We ended up running the last mile in the icy, cold rain, and probably not my preference after having just hiked 10 miles, but hey - it's an adventure!  I only slipped and fell in the mud once, and my trusty REI rain jacket at least protected my backpack and camera from getting soaked.