THE JOURNEY BEGINS

First stop on our TRANSCANADA Odyssey - sister Jo's in Genoa NV (near Carson City) where grandson Dante is visiting from SoCal. What a great 11 year old! Sweet, funny, bright and polite who has impressively memorized the entire rap play Hamilton, and sings like an angel! For Collin's birthday, we ate lunch overlooking Lake Tahoe at Jo's favorite The Riva Grill.

(That's Samuel Clemens in the middle)

Next stop, Friday, was the Ruby Mountains of NE Nevada. Just 30 miles east of Elko, this lush alpine oasis rises up from the High Desert. Formed from two glaciers, the +7000' terrain of multiple peaks rise to 11,800'.  We spent the afternoon soaking in the cold Lamoille Creek and hiking up Lions Creek carved by a side glacier. The beaver activity was the most I've ever seen - a beaver dam of chewed aspen every 40' that went on and up for over a mile!

Day 3, Saturday, we received news that Jo is in the hospital with a bad gallbladder which they are treating with antibiotics.

We headed north into Idaho-a long day of rather bleak terrain - more high desert. We stayed below Anderson Dam (NE 20mi of Mountain Home) along the South Fork of the Boise River. Awaking this morning, our boat launch campsite had multiple dories being launched. We were told this river is the prime Bull Trout run in the area! 

We're headed for Jackson Wyoming  and the Tetons today, traveling east along the base of the Sawtooth Range on the Camas Prairie - a rich, dry land farming valley of alfalfa, corn, grains and cattle. So far, both Idahoans we've spoken to are previous Californians who love it here!

In the late morning, we got word that Jo has to have an emergency operation as the gall bladder is dead. What complicates the surgery is that she recently had a heart incident (unstable angina and a stent) and is on blood thinners.  The relief was profound when we got the word, just 40 minutes after going into surgery that she came through fine!  We were prepared to turn back and still may but both her children are there or on the way so we'll see. Whew!

GETTING ACROSS THE WATER

        Bridge Over Troubled Waters  | 14x11

Our favorite pastime is hiking in the mountains, through the woods.  It's such a pleasure to come across a wooden bridge designed to transport us across the stream  Early spring and the water was roiling as it passed us by.  I was attracted to the bright rays of sunlight as they glinted off the surfaces of the water, the rocks and the trees. Just looking at this scene transports me back to the woods!

Painting Notes:  I find that the larger I paint, the more I enjoy using Ampersand's Pastel Boards. Popping them into a frame is so easy and it will never bend!  The white surface takes any type of underpainting you want to throw at it. The background trees are something I've worked on over the years, in watercolor, oil and now pastel. Just giving enough information is the key. This one depicts the density of the forest of mostly new growth trees. 

PHYLO FEELING

          Phylo Feeling   Pastel | 8"x6"

There is a magical valley on one of the routes up to Mendocino - the Anderson Valley. In its middle is the town of Boonville, Ca whose location was so remote that a unique language called Boontling was developed back in the 19th Century and is reputed to be a language that the children developed as a game that spread to adults. Today less than 100 people still speak the archaic, esoteric language. The next town north of Boonville is Phylo, home of some wonderful vineyards and wineries, including Schaffenberger sparkling wines, Navarro, Husch and many others. Driving through the Anderson Valley is a special thing - miles of vineyards creep up the steep hills of the valley walls.

Painting Notes:  After over a week of daily painting a larger work, it was pure delight to 'whip out' this little gem. I still spent close to two hours on it but the pace of composing, drawing, under painting, and finally painting to finish was blessedly compressed so that I could easily break to get a chore done and come back to another stage. Painted on Uart 600, I really enjoyed the smooth surface and how it took the pastel cleanly.

MOSSBRAE FALLS

                  Mossbrae Falls  | Pastel | 18" X 24"

If you weren't from Dunsmuir, or knew someone that was, you'd probably never have found out about what used to be a Best Kept Secret.  Known only to locals, getting there was a challenge involving over a mile walking alongside the active railroad tracks.  A train always went by on the hike in and out and the proximity the trail requires would definitely bring on some adrenaline! The way down to the falls was unmarked.  Just this year, I read that the falls have been cordoned off. Seems that the 5% that ruin it for others began throwing long parties and leaving lots of debris. The water falls across a 80' or so ledge, streaming down into the river and is a place of solitude and awe.  What an awful shame!

Painting Notes:  When going 'big', I often find myself grabbing an Ampersand Pastelboard. I especially love how it never bends or sags, as paper mounted on foam core will sometimes do. And each time I use it, I find I really enjoy it. It will take lots of layers of pastel - more when I use SpectraFix to spray an area into the substrate and go back over it. Did this multiple times on the white areas of the water and the falls.

THE CREEK RUNS THROUGH IT

                              The Creek  | Pastel | 6x8

Once again, the water beckoned. I scouted out a site to stand and paint along the creek. An hour and a half of looking, painting, talking with a few visitors and sharing the spot with one of my favorite artists made for a delightful time. The creek runs right by the freeway but seems miles apart from the urban scene except for the sound of the cars going by. Still, the creek babbled along and I noticed after a short time that I was selectively hearing the water noise rather than the traffic one.

Painting Notes: Day 3 of our 4 days to paint in the Los Gatos Plein Air and we were asked to paint around downtown to advertise for the Saturday event. Los Gatos Creek runs through the town and is heavily used by joggers, dog walkers and strollers.  I didn't finish the painting on site as a time deadline loomed; in fact, when I left there, the painting was totally dark - no whites, no highlights. That was the most fun part - those last few moments creating this by literally icing the cake.

A TUSCAN IDYLL

          The Blue Doorway  | Pastel | 12x12

Day 0 of the 2016 LOS GATOS PLEIN AIR I arrived in town by midday, ready to scout some new scenes to paint. I missed 2015's event but had written down some locations in 2014 after talking to some of the other artists. I arrived at La Rusticana - a Tuscan-like Eden whose water wheel at their entrance I had photoed years before. Ringing the intercom button, a lady appeared and after some phone calling, I was given permission to enter to scout painting sites for the next day. Just a few yards up the drive, this doorway grabbed my attention and stays with me to today! Hard to believe this house was not built back in the 1800s but the owners of this extraordinary property have lovingly recreated an authentic Tuscan idyll in Santa Clara County!  This painting was my choice for the Friday night Gala where it sold quickly and remained everyone's favorite the whole show/sale day on Saturday.

Painting Notes : On site, I didn't get the values of the shadowed doorway right but was able to work on it a night or two later and get it down. All week long, I was plagued by the brightness on site and finally reached a point on the 3rd day (7 paintings into my week) where I realized my eyes were 'snow blind' - I couldn't distinguish color shades of the same value range. I was forced to spend the last day in shade, mopping my tearing eyes, making studio adjustments and framing. Not sure why this happened as I always wore a visor and always painted under an umbrella or in the shade.

OLD SOULS

                      Old Souls  | Pastel | 12x18

We set off on a long drive to find the little burg of Cascade. Privately owner, this hamlet for years used to host a yearly weekend gathering of the E Clampus Vitus, a male-only drinking club. Women were invited, of course. Located 20 miles SW of Quincy in Plumas County, Ca, we found it pretty deserted. Fortune smiled upon us and a man came down to talk with us and took us around. Besides the old truck and the dilapidated two story farmhouse, there remains several out-buildings, including a log cabin bar.  Attendees were known for taking their folding chairs and beer and planting themselves in the trickle of a stream (featured in the painting just beyond and below the middle set of shrubs). Here in the watery heat of summer, they would tell stories that grew crazier each hour, in that way that alcohol grows the tale.

Painting Notes:  Using one of my last pieces of Wallis Warm Belgian Mist, I still did an underpainting of darks for the foreground.  I've been working on my grassy foregrounds. To prepare for doing one, I go into my photo file 'Other Artists', pulling up some Karen Margulis grassy foreground paintings and study them for several minutes. This gets me on track for starting with side swipes, then going to random strikes. Another of the challenges of this scene was getting three of the four planes to recede. There is a large field between the dark trees of the left and the sunlit ones in the right rear.