City of Rocks, 8/24/06

Yesterday we went to the City of Rocks State Park. The huge boulders are lava that they think came from a volcano near Albuquerque. They are just plopped down out on the side of a mesa and flat area. I wasn't impressed from the road, but when you get there it is amazing. There is quite a bit of space in between the boulders. You can hike around like a maze. They make shade and there are oak trees (I think) and many flowers, thanks to all the rain. It was great. We spent about 5 hours there. I did the two plein air sketch/paintings. The rocks with the tree was first on Art Spectrum sanded paper, 9 x 12, portrait layout. the paper was a soft blue. I used mostly my new set of Rembrandt pastels with some NuPastels and Daler-Rowney to fill in and blend. I like the feel of that scene. The landscape formatted painting is on white Art Spectrum paper. I brushed on some pastels in contrasting colors and wet them with water to cover the white of the paper. Then painted with the same pastels as the previous day. The mountains in the back appear closer than they were, I assume I made them too dark so that pulled them closer. It was a good practice study but I like the first one the best. Sue is fascinated with the rocks in New Mexico and likes the challenge of sketching and painting them. We painted in the Española area last year. I did remember to take one photo of the first before I put on the lights in the foreground. I may just add some highlights with some soft pastels and frame that one!

The hummingbird stopped by to visit. I got a photo of a squirrel and bird as well.

Gene rode his bike to the park and came back with us. He rode about 25 miles. I may not post again tomorrow as we will be on the road. He will attempt his birthday ride. His idea is to ride his age (65) and put some miles in the bank for the age when he can't ride that far! So he will try for his goal of 100 miles. He did make it last year and it is much flatter here, so I imagine he will do it. Stay tuned.

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.

Light on Dark

Scavenger hunt #7 has started, a few new rules. Here is my number 1, light on dark of something I love. I did the cactus in the yard and some rocks - I love the southwest landscape. They are on Daler-Rowney dark grey pastel paper in a pad with glassine or some sort of paper between each sheet. I did tear it out though about 9 x 12 paper, but cropped down to about 7 x 9. Used a DerWent pastel pencil in a very light orange.

My friend, Sue - from Michigan, is here and she sketched 3 while I did one. She is the friend that always buys me sketchbooks and has encouraged me to sketch. We will have a 4 day art marathon. Late start today because of the rain. Tomorrow we are off to the Gila Cliff Dwellings so you may see some of that. I will try to post one of her sketches, I will have to sneak a photo! Ha. She is very good, does it allllll the time.

We met at a Jack Hines/Jessica Zemsky workshop in Montana about 11 years ago and have been art buddies ever since. Her husband and mine got along great, so it was a good match up. She encouraged me to go to the IAPS convention in Albuquerque in 1999, I think, and I have been hooked on pastels ever since. This is a special week for art.