Grand Canyon Morning

Grand Canyon Morning

Oil on canvas, 18x18

I wanted to try the Grand Canyon again, so I went back, on my way south from Monument Valley. 

The morning I set out to paint, it was 16 degrees when I woke up. It had climbed to 24 when I started this painting - and by the time I finished, I was hot. 

Yes, I did end up becoming a spectacle of sorts. Visitors came to this site in droves, and many of them sauntered over to watch me paint. 

I was struggling with perspective and distance and values, and I was getting lost in the layers and plateaus, and I don't really like struggling in public - but so it goes. 

And it was OK. Some people loved this painting, and others just turned away. 

One thing that has surprised me throughout this entire trip is how many of the visitors to the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley are not Americans. Foreigners come in droves to these places! So I implore you again to get out there and see them. 

Here's my painting in the vast landscape: 

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A GAS STATION outside of the Grand Canyon had a few really interesting displays, designed, I'm sure, to make drivers stop and look - and then buy something. And guess what? It worked! 

Here's a collection of beautiful older cars. My favorite is the police car.

And here are some statues outside the very same gas station: 

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 Some of the beautiful land just outside of the Grand Canyon. Love that twisted tree!

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On the road from the Grand Canyon to Monument Valley, you'll see lots of these Native American outdoor stores. They are mostly just shade frames with some tables, and many look like they haven't been used for years. This one, selling jewelry and jerky - buffalo jerky was all over their advertising boards - was pretty busy. 

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 My friend Heather was in California when this photo was taken. She's from Maine, and was totally flummoxed by February on the West Coast. No snow? What should she do????

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Randy Clough, who is Navajo, works at Goulding's, where I stayed in Monument Valley. He told me he really wants a dog - a husky - but Navajo tradition says he can't pay for one. He is keeping his eye out for the right dog to wander into his life. I suggested he visit Best Friends animal sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, and see if he could barter money for a rescue dog. 

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Dog of the Day

Here's Heather's husband Joe, with  Francis. Heather and Joe met him in San Clemente, Calif. Francis's owner thought he and Joe looked very much alike....

Near Rio Rico - and It's Time to Paint!

Near Rio Rico

Oil on canvas, 10x10

The Tubac Arts Festival went on for five days, and I have to say, I am glad it's over. That's just tooooo looooong, at least for me. Someone said that it's a good two-day show that takes five days, and I'd have to agree. 

I sold three paintings during those five days, and I was happy to sell them. Also, I am now represented by a gallery in Tubac, Art Gallery H,  and this is very, very exciting. 

One thing I'm learning about my paintings and art shows is that I don't do well in places where there are lots of retirees. My stuff doesn't appeal to them, perhaps, or maybe it's that they just have enough art already. 

I do believe that if you fall in love with a piece, you'll make room for it no matter what - but first, you have to fall in love. My loud, heavily surfaced, bright pieces are not for everyone, and I know this - and perhaps retired folks are a large part of "everyone." 

A great thing about this show was that Cynthia Battista, my friend from New Milford, CT, had gotten in, and our tents were side by side. We shared a lot of laughs, a lot of gripes, a lot of too bads, too. Being next to a good friend truly does halve the pain and double the happiness. 

This week, I am painting around here. I've been invited to a show near Phoenix this weekend, and am considering it. This morning, I feel that if I never do another art show, that will be well and good. But by this afternoon, who knows. 

My little painting in the big Arizona landscape

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Sonoita Hills

Oil on canvas, 30x30

A number of you who have sponsored me for paintings larger than 10x10, and here's one of the ones I've done so far. It is 30x30, and I painted it standing on the side of the road in Sonoita. I love the yellow grass there, and the ragged mountains, and the feeling of the huge, arching sky. 

While I was painting, a local came along and told me I was painting The Biscuit - that rounded peak over on the right-hand side. 

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This lovely couple bought "Through the River," the lower painting on the wall behind them. 

They're going to repaint the room where it will hang, to make it stand out more. 

They were so nice, and so excited. I was, too.

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This is Charles, who belongs to a friend of my dad's and Paula's. The friend adopted Charles a few years ago at the Tubac Arts Festival. The local Humane Society brings adoptable dogs to the fair! I am not 100 percent convinced that this is a great idea, but it does seem to find homes for some of the dogs. I met a woman at the fair over the weekend who had just adopted a great dog. And Charles and his human are as happy as they could be. 

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Al Topping took my parking money every morning of the show, and made me laugh with his wry humor and dry good will. He was a cameraman for ABC news for 40 years, and told me that he was parking cars because his wife, who runs the Arts Center that received the parking money, was "a tall, mean brunette," and he didn't want  to cross her. 

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Here's my friend Cynthia Battista, a great jeweler, in her tent during the Tubac show. It was wonderful to have a good friend in the adjoining booth! 

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These horses were dragging a wagon that served as a free trolley during the show. I felt kind of sorry for them, but they seemed OK.

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Dog of the Day

I was about to pull into the driveway of my dad's house on the first night of the show when I saw a big, goofy-looking red dog walking up the road. I stopped the van and got out to see, and the dog came right up. 

A tag on his collar read "Barkley," and gave a phone number, so I called, got voice mail and left a message. Meantime, we were making friends. He was happy to see me, and wagged and leaned against me the way dogs do. I put him in the back of the van and started knocking on doors. Eventually, someone directed me to his home. By this time, Barkley had galumphed into the front seat. 

I couldn't rouse anyone at the house, so I left him in a gated front porch area. A voice mail when I got back to the car said that indeed, that was his right home. The family had adopted him a couple weeks earlier, and he was a runner. A young child in the home had left the entryway gate open. 

  

On the High Road to Patagonia - and in the Town, Too

On the High Road to Patagonia

Oil on canvas, 10x10

What a great day I had on Monday! I was set to go to Tucson to get my Arizona tax ID number (somehow my application got lost... ) - and then I remembered it was Martin Luther King Day, and all the government offices were closed. 

So instead, I painted. I headed to the Patagonia/Sonoita area, a hilly region with mountains in the background, and in the foreground, the amazing yellow grass that I love so very much. 

Also, my dad and Paula and their hiking group were out in the Sonoita hills, so we made plans to meet at a restaurant in the cool little town of Patagonia. 

If Peter and I lived out here, Patagonia is where we'd live. There are about 900 people there - a metropolis by Wachapreague standards!  There are two galleries - one is a community-centered gallery with tons of programs. There are a number of shops, two grocery stores (looks like one is an organic/coop kind of place), at least two restaurants and a hotel. There's a post office, a police station, a radio station, a yoga place, a bakery and what looks like a building being renovated, with room for studios and shops and the like. There's a school, a bird sanctuary, and heaven knows what else. 

As I waited for my dad and Paula and the group, a feisty Chihuaha - an unneutered male - pranced up the sidewalk. People were calling to him, and reaching out for him, but he eluded all of them. And eluded me and my camera. A couple of kids came by and said his name was JoJo, and that he gets out all the time. Eventually, the dog catcher came by, asking if anyone had seen JoJo. 

A while later, a guy drove by on a four-wheeler, holding a white dog in his lap. They both looked pretty happy. 

I had a great time painting, taking photos and meeting the friends of my dad and Paula. Today, I head to Tucson, and tomorrow, California! 

Here's my painting in the landscape

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THANK YOU, EVERYONE, for weighing in on the Instant Claim idea. Some of you liked it, but more of you wanted to see all the paintings before choosing. So we will stick with the original plan! Next time, maybe, we'll try the instant claiming. 

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 Best Gas Station Ever! It's in Patagonia. 

 Here's the walkway in front of the Gathering Ground in Patagonia, where I met 

Dad and Paula's hiking friends. 

More Patagonia

Beautiful cliffs and gnarly trees on the way to Patagonia

Here's some of that gorgeous yellow grass. Look for this one to become a painting some day.

A house in Sonoita 

More of the mountains and grasslands near Patagonia

He's waiting for someone inside...

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Dogs of the Day

 

He's Bandito, though his owners call him "Bandit" when the Border Patrol is around! He's about 4, and was born and raised right in Patagonia. And he was a great dog! 

St. James Church - and the Last Leg of the First Leg

 St. James Church, oil on canvas, 10x10

Here's my painting in the landscape

After getting the oil changed and tires rotated on the big van, I had planned to leave Las Cruces Saturday in time to reach Tubac before dark. But I got on the wrong street, and when I turned the van around, I saw a church that called out to me. So I stopped and set up my easel and did the first painting of the trip. 

It felt great to paint! It felt like the beginning of restoring my self to myself, after all those days of driving. 

So I finished the painting and got back in the van and headed west. In an hour or so, the land opened in front of me in a cascade of blue mountains, under a blue sky with long thin clouds. I was mesmerized watching it, and thinking how beautiful it was. Then it occurred to me that - DUH! - I'm a painter, and I should stop and paint!  And so I did. 

Blue New Mexico Mountains
Oil on canvas, 10x20

                                          

                                                          Balloons in the sky over Las Cruces Saturday!

I pulled off the highway, and turned right. The pavement ended in 20 yards, and the road turned to dirt, and went off into the distance, disappearing into the prairie. I set up near some sort of utility building surrounded by chainlink fence topped with barbed wire. I'd just started painting when a guy in a car came along, wanting to know what I was doing. He said he lived down the road, in a house I couldn't see. 

It was fine that I was where I was, he said, but if I was there near dark, I should think about leaving. 

"Strange stuff happens here," he said. "Bad stuff like drug deals and stuff." 

I painted quickly. 

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The sun, the sky, the rich colors of the landscape in New Mexico took my breath away. 

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Good to know that I can get STUFF at the Continental Divide. It would hardly be 

America if I couldn't! 

Really? Mom and Pop's Pyro Shop? Think this is a good idea? 

I saw this very close to the Continental Divide. If I go back the same way, I'm stopping in. 

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The dust storms along the highway in New Mexico are pretty monumental. Last year, I had to get off the road, the visibility was so low. My father tells me that every year, there's usually at least one enormous multi-car pileup because of blowing dust. 

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I think I was in Arizona when I took these last two photos. The grass in the high meadows is a marvelous shade of soft, buttery yellow. This photo comes close to showing it, but doesn't quite capture it. There's a lot of it in Sonoita, and I believe I am going there today to paint. 

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Sunset in Arizona was especially beautiful, as I knew that the longest leg of driving 

would be done by day's end.

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Dog of the Day (Night)

At a rest area in Arizona, I met Angie, who was a real sweetie. She and her human were from Fairfax, VA! Amazing! They were moving to California - well, they were moving for a month, to try it out, see if they liked it. It's a small world, indeed.