Plein Air Pastel, Gila Cliff Dwellings, 8/22/06

As you see, I didn't have time to post while Sue was here. We went to the Gila Cliff dwellings on Wednesday, so beautiful and a great day. I took over 100 photos, hmmmm.

We did the plein air of the stream and rocks. Both of us worked in pastels. Sue sketches more, so she starts with a sketch. I usually just block in the lights and darks and go from there. I didn't think to take some photos as I painted, shucks. We probably spent about 1 1/2 hours on the paintings. The paper is Daler-Rowney and has much more of a grid to it than I like. It doesn't grab onto the pastels well. I had a pad of their black and bright colors and just loved the paper. At least it doesn't detract from the effect I was going for. I used Nupastels (these are some of the hardest pastels, usually used for the beginning layer, similar to pastel pencils in hardness). On the way back we came through Mimbres to make a circle trip and it rained ahead of us. We crossed about 5 low places where the water was running over the road. One was not clear and pretty deep .. 10 inches or so. We were debating when a big truck with a bull dozer on it came along. He crossed and told us to go ahead, he would wait while we crossed. Made it fine, but not a great idea if you don't know the road. A small white car followed us. Sue waded across the last water to take a photo and I took the one of her. Not too deep but you can see a hole in the middle. We had coffee in Mimbres at a place that seems nice, maybe Gene and I can go back for dinner some time, it is about 40 minutes from here.

The sketch of the houses is by Sue. It was the first sketch she did on Tuesday, she wouldn't let me post any of the others. It is a house across the street .. prettier than the house actually is. It is purple.