Revisiting Escalante & Mi-Tientes in the studio

Despite the radio silence, I've been busy.  Some painting, but I've also been preoccupied with transforming our spare bedroom into a dedicated studio - my "girl cave", as it were.  Photos of that in a later post.

Anyway, with the Escalante Canyons Plein Air Festival starting this Friday, I've been wanting to do some paintings of the area as practice.  I put in an order for some Mt. Vision pastels as an accompaniment for my Utah canyon plein air set, and those arrived last week - exciting!

From Wed, at fellow 4C member Jane Mercer's studio, when rain canceled our plans to paint at Baker's Bridge:

Wash Wall Shadows - 10x20"
pastel on Mi-Tientes
© S.Johnson

As much as I love my smooth, black papers, they have their limitations, so I'm trying to expand my repertoire with surfaces.   I previously haven't had much luck using Mi-Tientes, but had this piece, in a medium value tan, and decided it would be good to practice on.   Also, some of the most masterful pastels I've seen have been done on this lowly, old-school paper.  Specifically, I wanted to see how the Unisons in my sky set handled on this paper; on the black paper, they just sheet off.  

They worked like a dream on the Canson.   Perhaps it's because my painting and pastel handling skills have improved, but I am thinking I need to give this paper another shot.  I learned many-a things with this painting, about what works (layering), what doesn't (dark over light - I can do that on my black paper).  This is possibly the first painting I've done on Mi-Tientes that I didn't want to immediately toss in the trash, so that's a plus.

I also ordered some 800# UArt, which may turn out to be my sanded paper of choice.  I do know that Wallis and 400# UArt are just too aggressive for my current painting technique, so we'll see how the finer grits of the UArt go.  Unfortunately, Blick sent me the #600 instead (but are shipping out replacement sheets), so I may try that on my next plein air painting, slated for Horse Gulch, tomorrow afternoon.  

Oh yeah - here's a small study I did last week with Connie, who paints with the Friday group:

Smelter Rapid Study - 6x8", plein air
pastel on black cardstock

Connie said she has struggled painting water and rocks (and thus, doesn't paint them), and wanted to watch me paint.  So, we went down to Santa Rita Park and I gave an informal lesson, which, odd as it sounds, was more about "seeing" than painting.  

More plein air along the Florida River - pastel

Morning Shoreline - 12x12"
pastel on black cardstock
 © S.Johnson

Today, I finally was able to meet up with the informal Friday plein air group to paint.  The location was some private property along the Florida River along Florida Rd/CR 250, about half way to Lemon Lake.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find anything I wanted to paint; that was my issue yesterday - I went out in the afternoon, and ended up walking up and down the A.R.T., and then driving out Florida Rd.  Nothing.  Thankfully, I found this shaded spot by the river with the boulders and shoreline and minimal green.

Bummer thing:  I apparently lost my dark blue Senn - the one I used for the ripple shadows above.  Surprisingly, that's the first time I've ever lost a pastel while painting; I guess I should count myself lucky in the 1 1/2 years I've been painting outdoors this is the only loss.  I have 200+ pastels in my plein air boxes, and they are like children:  I know immediately when one is missing.   Part of me wants to drive back out there tomorrow and try to find it...

Painting along the Florida River - 4CPAP

Hidden River Garden - 12x16", plein air
pastel on Strathmore black paper
© S.Johnson 

From today's paint-out with the 4C group at Lemon Lake and the Florida River.

I painted there last year a couple of times, but this time, I wanted to go to a specific location we'd been to two years ago, at the far end of the Transfer Park campground.  In fact, I'd actually taken a photo of this location; the little group of Black-eyed Susans growing in this tiny wedge of earth amazed me, and I wanted to paint them.  I must have deleted the photo, and I obviously never got around to using it as a reference for a painting.

So, imagine my surprise and delight when I get down to the river and see that the flowers have, indeed, returned.

It was nice to paint something that plays to what I feel are my strong suits as a painter:  rocks and water.      And in this case, lots of rocks underwater.  Those were surprisingly easy, probably because I've been painting water all summer; the hardest part of the painting was - you guessed it:  the green foliage of the flowers.  Which probably makes no sense, but I just found it really difficult.

It was also nice to paint larger again and try a different format.  I mean, I love my squares and all, but sometimes, a 3:4 aspect is nice.   Last week, I went into our local art supply store to get some mats for photos, and saw they had my favorite Artagain in stock, so I am back in business with the 12x16"'s on location.

A new blog name and two new paintings

As the four year anniversary for this blog approaches, I realized it was time for a change to reflect the direction my work has taken since September '09.  Back when I started blogging, I wrote in my initial post that I was not sure where my work would head based on my past experience in various media, so it was easy to call it a "daily art journal".  For some reason, that just doesn't seem to fit now.

Since then, it's evolved along with my interests and art and priorities.   I identify as much as a painter as I do a photographer now, and the blog has always been about more than just posting a painting or a couple of photos and calling it a day.

Anyway,  there you go.  I've done up a new banner, which I do periodically anyway.  I'm going to keep tweaking the format to hopefully make it more appealing to readers.

On to the paintings....

Fly Fishing Waters - 9x12", plein air
pastel on black cardstock

This one is from yesterday, on another trip to Cascade creek, and was actually destined for the trashcan because I lost interest in it about 3/4 of the way though, partially because of the greens which I didn't want to deal with, and I was also having difficulty concentrating, probably from a poor night's sleep.  That happens sometimes, and I've found it's very much linked to those periods of "artist block" that I go through.  Having had the same thing happen a few days ago the last time I went out painting, I wasn't terribly surprised when I realized I'd left my game back in the locker room, so to speak.

A digression here regarding the trip:  we got off to a late start, and as is typical, the chance of rain in the mountains was pretty high.  From the parking area, it's about 1.25 miles to get to the section of the creek where I'd planned to paint, so I brought my folding table and stool, rather than my french easel.

Wayne split off to hit the creek and walk upstream, to practice with his brand new fly fishing gear.  I got to the location - one I'd scouted and photographed during our June trip - and already the sky was filling with dark clouds.  Thunder rumbled off in the distance, and it was clearly doing to start raining within a few minutes.  I wasn't enthused about the spot; the water was down, and the green was just not something I felt like dealing with.

So, I gathered up everything and decided to head back down the trail to find Wayne, who told me he'd meet me walking upstream as he fished.  Right before I got back to the junction to the main trail, the wind kicked up suddenly and it started to rain.  I dropped my gear and was putting on my rain jacket when I heard a loud crack - a sound unlike anything I'd ever heard before.  I looked up to see a rather large tree blow down not 15 feet from where I was standing.   Had it fallen towards me, I'm not sure I would have had time to get out of the way.

Worse still was hearing another tree fall about 30 seconds later on the other side of the trail.  I started worrying about a blowdown (a large number of trees blown down in a localized area from a windstorm), because those are a frequent occurrence in Colorado forests, and I've seen plenty of them after the fact on hikes across trails.  It was, needless to say, a disconcerting experience.

At that point, I started running down the trail in the rain, and ran into Wayne coming up to meet me.  We decided to go to the historic cabin near the trailhead and wait out the storm.  Within minutes, it was over, the wind and cloudburst heading south to torment some other hikers.

We went back to the creek, and I settled on this new location to paint.  Wayne, who has been talking of  learning to fly fish during the entire 7 years I have known him, finally purchased all the gear, and this was literally only his second outing using it.  He started right where I was painting and worked upstream.

The title of the painting comes from the fact he caught his first fish with a fly right in front of me.  It was an exciting moment for him, and fun for me to witness.  For those that don't know, the nice thing about fly fishing is that the fish can be released, unharmed.

Oh yes - here's the other painting:

Afternoon Cloud Study - 12x12", plein air
pastel on reclaimed cardstock

Not to be deterred by two back-to-back "failed" paintings, later that afternoon, I decided to wipe down the earlier one and stand on the sidewalk and paint the clouds outside.  Really, when all else fails:  go paint a cloud - it's good for you.  Bonus:  painting 10 feet from the front door.

Then today, as I pulled out my pastel boxes from my backpack, I looked at yesterday's creek painting, and thought:  "what do I have to lose?  Why not sit and finish it with no regard to the outcome?"  I had planned to toss it anyway.  So, I worked through it, with a different frame of mind, and made it happen.  Maybe there's something in this readers can take away for themselves?  I hope so!

Along the Animas River, and another cloud study - plein air, pastel

Both from yesterday.

Riverside Stata and Cottonwood - 12x12", plein air
pastel on black cardstock

In the morning, local 4CPAP friend Lori and I painted together along the river, right along the A.R.T.  I've been wanting to paint this particular view since last fall when I took the photo below during a walk.  So, I probably will come back in the fall and revisit it.

Hard to believe it's the same location.  Both Lori and I took the same artistic license and left out that distal mountain.

Later in the afternoon, as a large monsoon storm was building to the northwest over the mountains, I set up the easel in our front sidewalk area for a fast cloud study, with the eastern slope of Smelter Mtn:

Sky South of Smelter - 12x12", plein air
pastel on yellow cardstock

Hermosa Creek - plein air, pastel

Hermosa Creek - 12x12", plein air
pastel on brown cardstock
© S.Johnson

Today was one of those days I was in a bit of a quandary as to what to paint, and didn't think I'd end up going out at all - nothing local sounded really appealing to paint.

But, today was an absolutely beautiful day, weather-wise, so at least a hike was in order.  Wayne suggested Hermosa Park, which is a river valley that is due west of the ski area, Purgatory, also known as Durango Mtn. Resort.  

I remembered this very location from earlier visits, and even a photo taken in '09 before we lived here, of the red creek bank, so it was an easy choice to paint.

Beautiful cumulus clouds filled the sky, but I chose to leave them out for this painting to simplify things.

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:

Capturing whitewater - plein air and photos, plus DIY ND filter

Today's painting was apropos to my plan, as promised, photos of moving water taken with an inexpensive, homemade ND filter.

Low Water Riffles - 12x12"
pastel on black cardstock
© S.Johnson

Titled for the fact that our river is at record lows for this time of the year, thanks to a lower than average snowpack.  The result is more river rocks exposed and lots more whitewater.  Made for a somewhat complex and busy painting, but as always, the process was valuable.  New location for this painting - near Rotary Park and north of the downtown area.

Now, on to the photography part of the post.  As much as I enjoyed doing the paintings along Cascade, I was almost more excited to indulge in a photography bender using this ND filter I mentioned, so I carried my tripod, both camera lenses and the streamlined plein air get-up on our Friday hike, specifically so I could take photos of the falls we'd seen the week before.

For those who aren't familiar with this particular piece of equipment, this Wikipedia entry explains it better than I can.  When photographing moving water in normal sunlight conditions, you need an ND filter in order to obtain the soft water effect:

Limestone Steps
1/50 sec @ f/22 - no filter

Limestone Steps, Cascade Creek
0.5 sec @ f/22 + filter

Maybe not everyone likes the soft water effect in photos, but I love it.  Always have.

As you can see, even stopped down to the smallest aperture (like other gauges, the larger the f-stop #, the smaller the aperture; for my 18-70mm lens, f/22 is as small as it gets), the shutter speed is still to fast to produce that effect.

Enter the ND filter.  Why make your own?  Because they can be pricy - most run $50+.  On the outdoor forum I read, someone posted about making one that cost less than $10, and I was all about that.

Here's all you need:

L to R:  cement, step-up ring for your camera lens ($3.47 - amazon.com),
duct tape, piece of welding mask glass, Shade 5 (~$6.00, from local welding supply shop)
It's shown on this log because I bought the tape and cement on my way out of town, and assembled it in the RV at the campsite.

Here's what the filter looks like before I added the tape.  You can't tell from this photo, but the glass is actually green - it's like looking through a dark pair of Ray Ban wayfarer sunglasses :).  It screws right on to the end of my lens:

Do-it-yourself Neutral Density filter

I used it to shoot Engine Falls on our hike up the trail, but after I'd finished, I discovered a better compositional location, and taking advantage of a cloud covering the sun on the way back, I slipped back up the spur trail and shot this photo without the filter - I won't use it if I don't have to!

Engine Falls
f/22 @ 0.625 sec

Here are some other favorites, all shot on Saturday when it was too cloudy to paint, at various locations along the trail and right where Hwy 550 crosses the creek, and all with the filter, at a variety of shutter speeds (all chosen by the camera's internal meter - I always shoot Aperture Priority for these types of shots):

f/22 @ 0.4 sec

f/22 @ 0.5 sec

f/20 @ 3.6 sec.

f/20 @ 6 seconds

Here's a shot from our campsite late in the afternoon, also without the filter:

Orange lichen and the green pool
f/22 @ 0.4 sec

As someone who appreciates others sharing their "how-to" and "DIY" tips and techniques, I wanted to do the same for anyone reading who might be interested, or knows anyone else that is.  Another thing important to note:  as this is not technically a "neutral" density filter, but a green one, the images will have a strong green tint to them.  Shoot in RAW format, and use any editing software to adjust the hue and temperature as needed, and it's not an issue.

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 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