Horses in motion - photos

From photos taken while over at our friend Sarah and Todd's place in Bayfield the other night.

You've seen two of their horses - Jypsi and Indy - in earlier posts on our Arch Canyon trip from April.

These are totally different:  no riders, just horses running, unfettered, as they evolved over millions of years ago to do.  Seeing the four of them unrestrained and released from their corral to run around on the property was a reminder of what magnificent and beautiful creatures they are.  They did have some "encouragement" from Todd chasing them, but it was clear they enjoyed the time as much as we did.

It's hard enough to photograph a butterfly fluttering around a flower, but to photograph large animals moving fast was a unique challenge.  I was happy to get as many "keepers" as I did , let alone a couple of print-worthy photos.

I've always liked those photos depicting movement, which is accomplished through both a slower shutter speed and tracking the subject with the camera to blur the background.   Other post-processing has been done to all (cropping, filters, etc.).

Here are a handful of the "keepers" - out of about 80 taken:

Indy

The herd:  Brush, Mindy, Indy and Jypsi

Mindy

Brush

Jypsi

Falls Creek - pastel, plein air landscape

Falls Creek Cliffs - 12x12"
pastel on brown cardstock
© S.Johnson

Yesterday's painting, with details (and wind damage) finished up today.

A quick departure from the river and rocks to paint in a new location near town.  I can't believe I hadn't thought to paint here before, but the only other time I've been to this somewhat hidden creek valley was last year in early spring.  I knew I wanted to come back and paint it, but forgot until yesterday.

The area, known as Falls Creek Archaeological Area, is just a few miles north of town and adjacent to Hwy 550.  However, it's not visible from the highway because of a section of cliff separating it from the valley.  There are no visible ruins, but there was/is archaeological evidence of the Basketmaker culture that lived in the area 2500-1400 years ago.  This particular view, to the west, is closed to the public to protect fragile archaeological areas.

What drew me to paint here was, of course, those striking cliffs of white sandstone.  It's as close as I can get to the Utah landscape I adore so much...just more of that pesky green to contend with, which I consider the bane of my existence as a landscape painter.  Needless to say, the greens were my least favorite part about doing this painting.

Speaking of painting green, I was thrilled to read Stapleton Kearns' latest blog post addressing that very issue:  Dealing with summer greens.  If you're a landscape painter and haven't read this post, head over there now and check it out.  I should print it out and laminate it to my easel.   If nothing else, I was comforted to read that I am far from being alone in my disdain of painting this season.

After reading Stape's post and studying that fabulous Willard Metcalf painting, I decided to apply his principle of "smuggling red" into this piece.  I frequently use purples and blues to modify the greens, particularly in the shadows, but I've never really tried reds, so this was a very cool thing to try.  Not much, but I did smudge some dark brick-earth reds into those upper dark trees.  I think I could have been more assertive with that.

Next time.  Perhaps tomorrow:  the 4C group is going back out to the private ranch in La Plata Cyn to paint tomorrow, and there's a lot of green.

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Wayne and I decided that we had such a great time at Cascade Creek on Sunday that we are going to spend an extended weekend there:  fishing, painting and hiking.   This time, I will be driving my Jeep up so I can cut off a mile of hiking along the high-clearance road to the actual trailhead with my painting gear.  The hardest part will be deciding what to paint from all the areas I saw.

With luck, I'll come back Sunday with a handful of paintings and more new photos!

I am going to have a delayed post go up while I'm gone of photos taken at my friend Sarah's yesterday afternoon, just because they are too fun not to share, and I'm as much a photographer as painter.

Animas River in plein air - pastel

Two recent paintings done along the Smelter Mountain rapids section of the Animas River:

River Boulders and Whitewater #2 - 8.5"x11
pastel on forest green cardstock
© S.Johnson

Saturday afternoon's painting.  It continues with my fascination with the flow patterns of water over and around partially submerged boulders.  This past weekend was the Animas River Days; readers may remember photos from last year's kayak rodeo during that event.  The river is less than 1/4 of that flow now.  I sat on the bank of the river in my stadium chair and painted this.  I managed to wrap it up just as the first participants in the rafting costume contest floated by.

Fallen Rock and Riverside Tree - 12x12"
pastel on black cardstock
© S.Johnson

Yesterday's painting.  This huge slab of fallen rock from Smelter was intriguing with its color gradations, fissures and shadows.  And then, this little cottonwood growing out of one of the junctions. I finally remembered to pull out the boxes of new Senn's that I bought last month, which included a cool green that I thought would be a good addition for all the foliage I paint.  Turns out, it was just perfect for river water.  

Cascade Creek - plein air painting and more

Yesterday was the kind of day that reminds me of why I love summer here in southwestern CO.

Creek Cascade - 8.5x11" - plein air
pastel on sapphire blue cardstock
© S.Johnson

At my suggestion, we decided to take advantage of a perfect summer day and head up to Cascade Creek north of town to hike, paint and fish.  We hiked this trail a few times last summer, but not more than about  5 miles RT.  I'm sort of on a roll with the river rock paintings, and was in the mood to paint, so I brought my streamlined plein air set-up along (pastel boxes, apron, and stadium chair), figuring the odds were good I'd find something to paint.

As is typical for most of the trails along mountain watersheds in this area, it basically parallels the creek, passing through sections of forest and open meadow, and periodically returning closer to the water when the topography allows for it.  We pulled off the trail around the 3.3 mile mark, and I had no problem finding this subject to paint.  I was drawn to both the large limestone boulder on the edge of the shore, as well as the water cascading down the sequence of rocks.   A perfect fishing hole was about ten feet behind me, and Wayne caught (and released) three Brook trout he caught in it.

The more plein air work I do of moving water, the more I realize I probably won't ever be able to paint it from photos.   Which is a shame, really, because there just isn't enough time to paint all the scenes I'd love to on location.  I did take photos of other areas, but ended up deleting all of them, because the photos fall so short of what you actually see, and I can't see myself wanting to paint from any of the photos I took.

I imagine that the idea of painting moving water is intimidating to many artists, which is understandable.  After all, it seems like a parlor trick to make dry pastel pigment look like wet water.  Really, though, the same principles apply to painting whitewater and underwater rocks as everything else:  you aren't painting "rocks under moving water", you are painting abstract bits of color, that, when placed together, look like rocks under moving water .  Release yourself from left-brained thinking, and it's actually pretty straightforward.  Not to say that it's "easy", but it's not a complex magic trick, either.

After finishing up with the painting and fishing, we decided to hike a bit further up the trail, and the views just got even better.

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Some photos from the day:

My new favorite photo of our lovely state flower:  Blue and White Columbine

Painted Lady butterfly visiting a dandelion

Aspen cluster and shadows along a forested section of the trail

Shooting Star Columbine

Photo highlight of the trip:  finding this lovely Calypso Orchid - a CO native!

Brook trout just before its release

Canadian Violet

Grizzly Peak - the view five miles into the hike

Arrowhead Blue

4CPAP at Blue Lake Ranch - pastel landscape

Didn't have time to post this yesterday as I'd originally planned.

Columbine Field and the Old Gate - 12x12"
pastel on black cardstock
plein air

This was one of those days where I wasn't sure I could pull off a finished, let alone somewhat successful [successful: something I don't have thoughts of immediately tossing] painting.  Despite those initial thoughts, and becoming bored with it on location, I managed to wrangle it into something I was satisfied with back in my studio.

The painting location - Blue Lake Ranch - is an incredibly scenic property located near Hesperus, CO, about 18 miles west of Durango.  The 4C group has painted there for years, I believe, and is where the semi-annual member meeting is held.

Anyway, having never been there before, I literally walked around for an hour before finally deciding on this location.  The options to paint were endless...and overwhelming, to an extent!  The La Plata river, small ponds, the attractive yellow B&B house, the various flower gardens, and an iris farm were all options.  The problem, for me, was that I was already on a bit of a "green burn-out", and the entire landscape was green.  I've mentioned this before, probably several times, but as much as I love summertime here in CO, it is the most challenging season for me to paint because I just don't enjoy painting all those foliage greens, at least in pastel.  So, I was a bit dismayed that I wasn't finding anything appealing to paint in such a beautiful area.

Then, someone opened the gate to the flower fields, and these rows of blue columbine were right there, in all their CO state flower glory.  There was red earth, dramatic shadows, and a really neat old wooden gate.  Painting subject issue solved.

This was one of those paintings that I was mindful of the often-heard advice to take ownership of the scene (and, subsequently, the painting), and ask what elements can be kicked to the curb.  In this case, it was a row of huge shrubby trees, similar to the one near the gate.  They crowded the view, and detracted from the composition.  Eliminating them allowed me to add those distal cottonwoods and that network of shadows in the middle ground cast from trees unseen to the right, and play up the foreground shadow detail on the grass and dirt.

The side-effect, however, was that the middle ground tree I did include ended up being...right in the center of the composition, which I happened to not notice until I looked at this photo of it.  Darn - I hate it when that happens!   As painters, we are akin to jugglers, and there are so many different balls to keep in the air at the same time that it's inevitable that one or more get dropped from time to time.

I mentioned that I wasn't sure I'd actually finish this painting, and after about 1 1/2 hrs., I'd had enough, and was distracted by all the neat things I wanted to take photos of, so I packed it up with about 10% left, and later that evening after a mental break from it, I sat down and finished it off.

Enough about the painting - here are some photos from the day:

Karl, working on his second painting of the day

Western Tiger Swallowtail on blue flag iris

Wanda working on her watercolor

Marilyn also painting the columbines

Kathy at work

Helen's almost-finished painting of the red poppies

Sharon forgot her pochade box, but she didn't let that deter her, and did her painting on the ground.
My back hurts just looking at this photo!

Rhonda painting at the pond

Utah intermission, local plein air, and show updates

Despite the several day silence here, I've actually been busy...painting!  I had intended to do the Utah trip in a continuous series of posts, but instead of putting the finishing touches on those paintings, I've just been doing new ones (and not always getting those finished on location, either).

I did finish the painting from yesterday's 4CPAP, and I'll post that tomorrow, along with pictures from the day, and hopefully sit down and finish up the pieces from the Utah trip in a timely fashion.

Here is this afternoon's quickie painting, done at Santa Rita park.  We did a 6 mile hike up Animas City Mtn. this morning, so I decided I would definitely sit to paint.   The Animas, unfortunately running about 1/4 of its normal flow for this time of year, is a beautiful green, so I will be painting it on a regular basis.  I brought my stadium chair and sat in the shade of one of the huge cottonwoods on the river bank.  Several rafting groups went by, along with many kayakers, which I always enjoy watching.  Then, on the far shore of the river, right along the edge shown in the painting, two families of Canada geese and their goslings went by.  What a great way to spend an early summer afternoon while painting a rock with water splashing around it.

River Boulder & Whitewater #1 - 8.5x11"
plein air
pastel on sapphire blue cardstock

Other news that has been accumulating that I wanted to share is that at the reception last Friday for the 4CPAP's National Parks show, held at San Juan College in Farmington, two of my paintings won awards!

The Chaco triptych  "A Window Through Time", shared the honor of winning the Artist's Choice award with Fran Mayfield.  Only 4C members could vote on this, and it was really impossible to pick a single favorite painting out of the 50+ paintings I'm guessing where there; I probably spent 15 minutes making my choice.  We left before the awards were announced, so I found out via email the next day.  This peer-based award really means a lot to me, because it does validate my efforts and dedication to my plein air work.

And, additional awards were given by NPS rangers, one for each of the three parks represented in the show.  My colorist painting "Walls and Shadows", won the Best of Show for Aztec Ruins National Monument.  It's really still hard for me to believe, particularly given the quality of work at the show.  

Finally, I got a call today that the one painting I entered in this year's annual member's juried show at DAC was accepted:  "Winter's Reflections".  It was one of my favorite studio pieces created this year, and I wanted to enter it in at least one juried show, and maybe a pastel-only show at some point.

I dropped the painting off towards the end of the day, after yesterday's paint-out, and along with another 4C member who was there at the same time, we got to take a look at submissions.  I have noticed that the overall quality of work at this show keeps increasing with each show, it seems, and there were a HUGE number of entries - probably close to 200, I'd guess.  I'm going to help hang the show tomorrow, so I will find out how many were entered vs. selected.  Regardless, it was clearly an honor to have a painting selected for the show.

Reception for the show is this Friday, which happens also to be my birthday.  My sister will be in town, and our friends Sarah and Todd from Bayfield are coming in, so a merry time is sure to be had!

Plein air painting in Zion NP - Day 3 and 4

Zion National Park is certainly one of the crown jewels of the NPS, and painting there was nothing short of sublime.  I could easily spend two weeks painting every day there and not tire of the scenery.

The Watchman - 18x12 inches
plein air
pastel on Strathmore Artagain

The spectacular scenery starts the minute you cross the NPS boundary to Zion:  towering white cliffs and sloping domes of ancient petrified sand dunes known as Navajo sandstone greet you on both sides of the highway.   Wide sandy washes at the base of the cliffs disappear into what appears to be a narrow sliver between adjacent rocks.

After about 10 miles, you come to the Zion tunnel - cut through solid rock and over a mile in length - before the final descent into the valley of the Virgin River and main canyon of the park.  As you head west through the park, you see the Watchman - a huge wedge-shaped formation of Wingate sandstone - to the south, with dramatic shadows and an interesting variety of elements leading up to it.

If you were me, you knew instantly you needed to paint it.

We happened to arrive in the middle of a 3-day heat wave, with temps in the high 90's - about 14 degrees above normal for this time of the year.  Accordingly, I decided to try and avoid painting during the hottest part of the day, so I staged the painting.  In the morning, I spent about 1 1/2 hrs. laying in the drawing and painting the foreground and trees, which wouldn't change much in the afternoon light.

I came back later in the afternoon when the east side was completely in shadow and worked until the sun was just about behind the cliffs.  Happily, I got it about 85% finished.

In the meantime, we decided to spend the hottest part of the day down by the Virgin river, which ran a mere 20 meters behind the campground, so I sat in the shade and painted an intimate view of the Zion area:

River Rock Negotiations - 12x12"
plein air
pastel on brown cardstock

I find it mesmerizing to observe water flow over and around rocks.  This river is quite unlike the Animas, which is much wider, so I got to incorporate essentially the entire width of it, along with these artfully arranged boulders, all their fun colors and the shadows.  

We opted to get an early start the next day in order to do a hike along the East Rim trail before heading northeast towards Bryce Canyon.  One thing that's really great about painting in Zion is that you can easily stage morning and afternoon paintings to take advantage of the light on the canyon walls; I will most certainly do this the next time we come here.  

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Photos from the three National Parks - enjoy!

Zion, as seen along the East Rim trail:

Jolley Gulch 

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Bryce, as seen from the Navajo and Peekaboo loop trails:

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Capitol Reef, from various locations off Hwy 24 going through the park; on this afternoon, the windstorm and cold temperatures were hitting the region - too unpleasant to hike.  The clouds, however, at least provided for great afternoon photos (or, as I like to say:  "helped spruce up the joint")

Next:  up in the high country and down to Escalante