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!