Venturing Out

Yesterday was one of those glorious days to be a Plein Aire artist. So my friend Sherri and I took advantage of it and headed out to the beauty  of Castlewood Canyon.

 I was first introduced to Castlewood Canyon this past July. I attended a workshop given by the artist Albert Handell and this is one of the locations we ended up painting. Albert loves rocks and his shared love gave me a renewed appreciation. The other bonus was to learn about the beauty of and existence of Castlewood Canyon on the start of the eastern plains near Castle Rock Colorado. It is a National Park and really quite a wonder. My friend Sherri bought a National Park Pass and we took advantage of that wonderful day to paint.

This is a photo on top of the region before the rim of the Canyon. These pines are tucked in around and on top of the Canyon.

 This is the 18"x12" Pastel which I made of the spot where we were.  We were on top of the canyon under some pine trees. We caught a lovely gentle breeze,just enough to keep us cool while we painted.

Here is Albert giving a demo in oil . He works both in oil and pastel. I will include a link so that you can have an opportunity to see his work. I found him a very good teacher and would highly recommend him to you. He is very knowledgable and has a wealth of good info for the working artist.
http://alberthandell.com/blog

Ritual , lost and Found

I woke this morning to read a post from my friend and fellow artist Jeanne Echternach http://jeanneechternachfineart.com/blog/80391/day-1-of-30. Ah it inspired me for my own personal challenge. 

I am a pastellist, sometime blogger, always wife, mother, sister, daughter, grandmother!, gardener, reader, traveler-- you get the idea!! Now I thought I will do a painting a day this month. Great challenge, --but I won't be around my stuff every day this month. I will be thinking about and building my art practice and I thought I can take that challenge and post that.

So yesterday I finished a pastel and spent the day trying to take my best photo of it. Some say photo it in the bright shade- some say NEVER in the bright shade but always in the bright light.

 Some say with white behind it. So if you were walking by my garden yesterday , you might have seen me leaning  a 19 by 29 inch painting up against chairs, hanging it on walls, in the sun and shade and shooting the pastel with several different settings.
Finally I got one I liked.

This piece is about the Colorado Capitol Dome which has just been re gold- leafed. The gold came from the Cripple Creek mine and then was sent to Italy where it was made into gold leaf.  Most of last year or rather the past 2 years the dome has been shrouded in plastic and fabric as the gold was applied. Now it is on view in all of its glory. Rather perfect for  a state which largely came about for the gold found in its hills about 100 years ago.
Check out more of my pastels at cbuschmannart.com
Hopefully my new ritual will be reporting daily on my art practice, ideas, thoughts and adventures!!
Posting Ritual #1

The Land of Eternal Spring vs. the Land of Intermittent Spring

I live in the land of Intermittent Spring. For the 2nd Monday in the month of April we have snow!! All manner of beautiful warm days were part of our Colorado lives last week. Lots of garden preparing, neighbors visited with while working outdoors, but, we do need water. At this time of year it visits us in the form of SNOW! Tulips are up to their throats in snow standing on their tiptoes as the snow quickly melts.

Never fear I am remembering the beauty of the Land of Eternal Spring==Guatemala. I returned from that beautiful place about 3 weeks ago. This is some of the beauty I experienced.

This is an example of the orchid Thunbergia which can be found hanging draped over edges of buildings.

Guatemala especially La Antigua, where I visit during the dry season is quite temperate. It has a similar altitude to my home town of Denver but agreeably a different variety of flora, fauna and temperature. So enjoy some images I saw everyday when I walked in the interior garden of the Escuela de espanol el San Jose http://www.sanjoseelviejo.com/ or into the inner gardens of restaurants and buildings in Antigua.

Tomorrow I want to show you some examples of the Guatemalan celebration of Semana Santa.

Check out the Antigua Daily Photo blog(to the right of this blog on this page) to see some wonderful photos of the celebration of Holy Week in Antigua.

Spring in the Rockies

Spring has been playing its usual hide and seek tricks

in the Rockies. One day you look out your window and see this.The day before you had been looking in wonder and anticipation at this. 

So because I am wise to spring in the Rockies I have loaded my warm house with promises of spring.

I've even brought women who are known to look at blooming sakura(cherry tree) and placed them in my Dining Room.
So that I can look hungrily yearning for spring.
 And now comes the true harbinger of a Rocky Mountain spring-- SNOW!!! Spring is truly on its way. Daffodils are hiding and tulips are still tucked and folded in their buds. Will the  crab apple tree bear blossoms this year or will the snow nip them in their buds.?

This is the mystery and suspense of Spring in the Rockies!!

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End of the Year arty posts

Georgetown Loop Train station view.

Long ago in August I got ready to participate in the Colorado Plein Air http://gtmd.org/colorado-plein-air/ little did I know at that time that I would be placing that experience among some of the most wonderful arty experiences of 2013.

Let me start out and say the 2 ultimate life experiences happened this year.

1. I became a grandmother when Wyatt Fenton Gee was born.
2.  I became a mother-in-law for the second time when my daughter Kate married Peter Fath in a beautiful wedding here in Colorado.

But in the art world, magnificent experiences of artfulness occurred quietly and stealthfully. I am going to recount just a few and see if you will also agree.

So there I was back in August accepting a challenge I have long wanted to take on - to paint in a series of locations through out Colorado on boards, paper or canvas with a special GTMD stamp and then to submit some for jurying to be a part of a final show. This year the show expanded to allowing the participants to paint all of Colorado. During this time several locations, museums etc. hosted the participants. It was great fun to see what the fellow artist/participants were painting as you stood maybe 10 or 20 feet from them. Here are a few photos of various places we painted.

What we observed while painting at the Capitol on the first day.

 Every place I painted I felt like I always do when I paint plein aire. I want to return. Not necessarily because I want to redo what I had done, but because when you sit someplace for 3 hours or more looking , reacting and putting down what you have seen you then have absorbed that place. These are all places one frequently rushes by to get somewhere else not realizing - we are there. I love plein aire painting because it puts the place I paint, inside of me. It does this in a way that does not happen in the studio. So one of my top arty experiences of the year was painting plein aire in Colorado.

View from the observation deck at the Denver Art Museum

City Park and friends

If you would like to see what the artists who were juried into the Golden Triangle Museum District Colorado Plein Air painted then follow this link. http://gtmd.org/colorado-plein-air/ . Now click on the title Colorado Plein Air Preview. Voila!!Enjoy!!

Near the edge of verticality

Today I went off with the Colorado Pastel Society to paint plein aire. We went to the Spruce Mountain Open Space which is south of Denver proper. I live in a western city on the edge of the mountains. The earth has imperceptibly moved up from the Mississippi River basin for hundreds of miles. St Louis Missouri is an elevation of 456 feet and then Kansas City is at 865 by the time you travel the 3 hours on I -70, past Abilene, Ks (1,155 ) you reach Denver the Mile HIgh City at 5280 ft( 6.5 hours from Abilene). Here we are in vast sweeping space in crisp light with skies similar to the width of what a sailor views but without any halo of humidity). So today we were at approximately 7,1227 ft. on a vast open high plain.

This is what I carried to the shade of a grove of oak scrub. I tucked myself back in among the branches knowing that the sun would be moving across the sky and finding every unshaded spot.

I looked off toward the west and saw clouds , moving grasses and a small butte.

By 11:30 the sun flattened out the shadows of the land and grasses.  I was back in the center of Denver by 12:30. I understand that just further around the trail one comes upon red rocks and wildflowers. Hopefully later this week I will head back there again looking for more wild flowers. It was invigorating to work in such wide open spaces. Lovely to be out of the studio, although I have a piece(in my studio that I am engaged in). Next Saturday the Golden Triangle Plein Aire Paint Out begins and this is a fine way to re-immerse myself in plein aire.

http://colorado-lifestyle.blogspot.com/2011/07/spruce-mountain-loop.html

Anticipation

Tomorrow heading south and west to paint just a little further out in the Colorado western landscape. It is the monthly Colorado Pastel Society Paint Out. I am getting my pastels  packed.

 I  will take photos and post them for you. I am heading to Spruce Mountain. So pictures of how I travel and my set up will follow.
A demain. Until tomorrow. Manana!