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