Cedar Mesa, UT, part III - a still life of sorts, plein air pastel

Sandstone Still Life - plein air, 12x12 inches
pastel on brown cardstock
© 2012, S.Johnson

The last painting done on the trip, quite different than the others.  This sandstone cliff, divided into tiered layers, offers mini alcoves and undercut areas that are ideal for a variety of shrubs and grasses to eke out an existence, producing a most attractive rock garden.  I was impressed with the tenacity of the small juniper at the top, and the contrast with the cool blue-gray-green of the adjacent sage.  

This was about 20' away from the RV, so I was able to sit in the shade to do this painting.  With mid-afternoon sun directly on the facade of the rock, the color nuances from variegations within the sedimentary layers,  mineralized desert varnish and organic contributions from lichen were readily appreciated.

I had plans and visions of painting more grand, sweeping views of the landscape, but I've come to realize that I really dislike standing in full sun to paint.  So, an umbrella for my easel is next on my equipment purchase, and next time, I'll paint the view up Arch Canyon one sees from atop this sandstone outcropping...

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Along the Pine - pastel

Along The Pine
pastel on Strathmore 400-series charcoal paper
9x12 inches

Started last week (on the day I got sick), and finally finished and photographed.  Done at my computer with my plein air set, because I've just been too lazy to move the painting operations to my downstairs studio.

I could have titled this:  "What I would have painted if I had painted on location", because that's essentially what it is.  Over Labor Day weekend, we decided to hike/fish/paint along the Pine River, located east of town about an hour away.  In fact, the Pine River (also called "Los Pinos") trailhead is about 1/4 mile from the recent PAP4C paint-out piece I did - "Late Summer in the Pine River Valley".

I brought my streamlined plein air set-up with me (stadium chair, pastel box, foamboard with this 9x12 piece of paper taped to it) intending to paint while Wayne fished.  The Granite Peak Ranch (where we painted) is huge, and one must hike about 3 miles along the ranch easement in order to get to FS land and thus fish and camp, but luckily, the trail is is level and a really easy hike, so I didn't mind hiking the gear in that far.

Painting didn't happen - got distracted with photographing flying things, and the rapidly building monsoon clouds eventually killed the light completely.  But, I took this one photo of the river and knew I'd paint it.  I also discovered that my stadium chair is ideal for protecting my pastel box from getting soaked when hiking back in a rainstorm.

Biggest challenge was that dark forest background and trying to balance abstract shapes with just enough detail.  One thing I've noticed is that my darkity-dark-dark pastels are actually *plenty dark* for this tan paper, vs. the black Strathmore, where I was always working to get things dark enough.  Gee - who knew?  So, I found it much easier to obtain those values.

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Some obligatory photos from the hike:

Unidentified flower, filterized

A section of the trail through an aspen stand

"Me and My Shadow"
A Green Comma butterfly shows off its brilliant topside colors on a dead tree

Green Comma on white thistle
With folded wings, it looks like a dead leaf - perfect camouflage! 

Spruce Shadows - plein air pastel, 12x9

Spruce Shadows

pastel on black Strathmore

We are back from our 3-day trip to Taos, NM and vicinity.  And, as always seems to be the case, my expectations and plans seldom materialize into reality:  in this case, to do several plein air pieces on the trip.  In fact, this was the only one, and it's certainly not unique to Taos, or New Mexico for that matter.  But, that's okay - at least I got one painting in.

The trip was great, and we saw and did a lot in a relatively short period of time.  Since it was the first time I'd been to this region of New Mexico, it served as a valuable exploratory trip for future painting expeditions:  finding the most scenic and feasible locations for painting, and getting a general idea of the area itself.  

Contrary to most trips, I didn't get a lot of photo-worthy landscape photos, although I scored big in some great photos of other subjects.  Part of this was due to the issues with smoke from the huge forest fire in northern AZ:  on Wed late morning, the smoke was so thick that it made being outside at all unpleasant at best and unhealthy at worst.  We were exceptionally lucky that the winds changed and there was absolutely no smoke or haze during our drive back yesterday.  

This painting was done on Wednesday at our campsite, after a full day visiting the famous Mission church in Rancho de Taos, the Taos Pueblo, driving along the Enchanted Circle loop, and taking a short hike in the mountains after the smoke had blown away.  Incidentally, it was also my birthday, and really was a perfect topper for the day.  

This tree, which I believe is an Englemann spruce, was right next to our campsite.  I was originally a bit dismayed by what appeared to be no good plein air views at the campground, but as I looked at this tree, I realized that its roots, bark texture and colors, and the afternoon light hitting it would be worth painting.  

set-up with my French easel 

As usual, I was aware of the shortcomings in my pastel palette, particularly the greens.  But, that's part of the challenge, I guess, of plein air painting with pastels.  I'm looking forward to adding more to my collection with both a gift certificate I received for my birthday as well as the check from the juried show.  

Anyway, despite the lack of on-location painting, I did get a ton of source material for studio paintings.  I'll probably work those in between local plein air work.

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Here are some select photos of other subjects taken around the campground:

Globe Flower (Trollius albiflorus)

Hoverfly (Syrphidae family) visiting a Wild Strawberry flower

These look like bees, but do not bite or sting

Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)

This individual was very beat-up - this is one of the earliest butterflies of the season - but they are quite striking when their wings are intact.  

Western blue-tailed butterfly - male (Cupido amyntula)

"Blues" - members of the Gossamer Wing family of butterflies, are abundant at this time of the year.  I have been lucky to photograph many species, and I'll share more photos in future blog posts.

Clematis (Atragene occidentailis)

These lovely flowers are low vine formers and usually found in deep shade along moist mountain hillsides - like our campground.

Colorado Wildflower series - #1

Yikes - a week since I last posted here.  Given how much material (photos, anyway) I've obtained in the past week, that makes no sense.  I've been meaning to post; in fact, I was trying to select photos for a Sky Friday post yesterday, got a bit overwhelmed by my choices, went on a 7.5+ mile hike in the afternoon, and got nothing posted.

I've also been doing the unpacking thing, and had to repair my beloved Danish modern studio table that suffered a broken leg during the move (even well-built furniture cannot withstand a heavy box of textbooks falling on it from above...).  Pastel trays are on the table and the laptop is set up to view photos for painting reference.  And yet, I've painted not a thing.  I keep thinking I will, but then I do other things throughout the day, and nothing happens.

Anyone else have this sort of thing happen to them - a stall-out of sorts, for no real tangible reason?  Ugh.  It's frustrating to say the least.

I've been busy organizing and re-naming all the photos I took during our drive out here, in preparation for doing a series of paintings.  That's almost done, but it's a tedious and time-consuming process that I can only handle doing in batches.

Also, we have been going on the most glorious and amazing hikes many of the days, and that's also taken up a fun part of my time.  In stark contrast to CT, where I actually did not enjoy being outside, here I just want to be outside hiking all day.  It's glorious to be back in that physical and mental environment.

At any rate, material is building up and needs an outlet.  So, for starters, here is a series of photos taken of CO wildflowers.  Each hike we've been on has allowed me to capture more and more of the botanical loveliness offered up in this state.  I've referred to an identification guide purchased last year - Wildflowers of Colorado, by Don Mammoser, as well as http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/, to try and identify the flowers.

For all you wildflower aficionados, I hope you enjoy these - more will be on the way.  The location of the photo is noted as well.

Harebell [Campanula rotundifolia]

location:  Purgatory trail

Wild geranium [Geranium richardsonii]

Purgatory trail

Cutleaf coneflower with bee [Rudbeckia laciniata]

Purgatory trail

Rocky Mountain bee plant [Cleome serrulata]

Hwy 285 near Buena Vista

Smooth Blue Aster [Symphyotrichium laeve]

Purgatory trail

Unidentified

This plant, with clusters of white flowers, was found along the wet soils of small streams along the Purgatory trail.  

Wildflower Series #4 - King's Cyn Trail

Here is a selection of photos taken during the hike up Wasson Peak:

Parry's Penstemon

This showy plant produces clusters of stems with multiple pink flowers.  "Penstemon" means "five stamens".  Multiple specimens were found in the sandy wash bed during the hike.

Caliche Globemallow

A very common spring flower seen along the roadsides and trails in the area.  "Caliche" is a hard layer of  calcium carbonate rock that is found under the topsoil.  This is identified from other Globemallow species by dark purple stamens (not quite visible in this photo) and wider spacing between flower branches.

Desert Onion

Examples of this plant were found in a very limited area along the trail.  I've not seen them in any other locations before or since.

Barestem Larkspur

Larkspurs are beautiful, distinctive flowers found in various biotic zones.  This was another flower found in a very discreet location along the trail.  One of the guidebooks specifically mentioned its location along this trail, so I feel lucky to have seen it.

Barestem Larkspur - close-up view

Wildflower Series #3

Here is another set of wildflower photos taken over the past two weeks.  The first three were taken along the Silverbell Road/Ironwood National Monument area, and the last three were taken in the Buenos Aires NWR trip on Easter.

Ocotillo bloom

These brilliant red blossoms on the end of an ocotillo cane look like the end of a lit torch when viewed from a distance.  The imposing thorns and green foliage are also clearly seen here.  Ocotillo leaves only come out after periods of rain, and are quickly shed during drought conditions to help the plant conserve water.

AZ Jewel Flower

This attractive plant goes by other names, including Silverbells.  It is frequently found growing near or under larger scrub plants.

Mexican Poppy - yellow variant

This plant shows a rare variation - pale, creamy yellow flowers - that are a contrast to the much deeper yellow-orange normally seen.

Mexican poppy - white variant

This photo, taken in a field along the BANWR dirt road, shows an even lighter variation with a dark yellow throat.  A few of these were scattered amongst the abundant orange poppies.

Unidentified 

Also found in BANWR, these delightful flowers were frequently found alongside poppies.  None of the wildflower guides I consulted had photos I could identify as these flowers.

Godding's Vervain

These plants form eye-catching clumps along the side of the road.  This was along the dirt road in BANWR.

Desert Wildflower Series - #2

Here are the next set of photos of spring wildflowers.  These were taken in Ironwood Forest National Monument. A dirt road heads through Avra Valley, going past the still-active Silverbell mine and west of Silverbell Peak through the Ironwood NM.  and heading west behind the mountains.

Desert Sunflower

Wild Heliotrope - variant

This is identical to the photos shown of the normally purple wild heliotrope, so I assume it is a white variation/subspecies.

Fiddleneck

Small yellow flowers appear along the curved, hair-covered stem of this plant

Clump of Blue Phacelia

These flowers, shown in a cluster here, are frequently found growing in large groups under various shrubs.  A rocky area on the side of the road that appeared blue caught my eye; it was a small field of these flowers.  

Wild Hyacinth, redux

Another photo of this attractive flower, taken along a hike in a wash near Ragged Top Mtn. outside of the Ironwood NM.

Desert Wildflower Series - #1

Happy Easter to those who celebrate this holiday in any fashion.  For me, Easter is a celebration of renewal and rebirth of nature.  The days are getting longer and the temperatures are warmer and living things shake off the dark cast of winter and begin to show themselves.   Everyone, whether they observe this as a holiday or not, associate flowers with Easter.

So, as promised, here is the first set of photos showcasing some of the lovely wildflowers found in the desert.   Using some field guides available here at the public library branch, I've identified them by their common name where possible.

There is a misconception (aka a "negative stereotype") by many people who live on the east coast that the desert is a dry, desolate place where nothing grows except maybe tumbleweed and a few scattered cacti, and is teeming with rattlesnakes and scorpions.   Let these images put that ignorance to rest!

Mexican Poppies

Large areas are carpeted with bright Mexican poppies in this area at the base of a slope in Saguaro National Park west.  Typical Sonoran desert vegetation is seen in the background:  saguaro cacti; paloverde tree, creosote (aka greasewood) bush, and various cholla.

Poppies in detail

A cluster of Mexican poppies is shown, along with a few yellow Bladderpods.

Wild Hyacinth 

Another, unfortunate, name for this lovely member of the lily family is "bluedicks".  I prefer wild hyacinth myself.  

Poppies and Cholla

Another patch of the colorful poppies surrounding some cholla cacti in Saguaro National Park.  Poppies close at night and do not open until the sun is well up in the sky; this makes for difficulty obtaining superb photos because of the lighting issue.  

Desert Chicory

These flowers are frequently found in groups alongside Mojave lupine.

This particular image was taken in Ironwood National Monument, west of Saguaro Nat. Park.