The Cantabrian Landscape

                            Friday, 9/10/21, Usil or Mogro Beach

During the fall of 2021, we spent several weeks exploring the coast of Cantabria

and the beaches of Santander.  Each cove had it's own unique character and offered many 

different views, plant life and rock formations to paint. 

The body of water is the Bay of Biscay,  where the Cantabrian Sea is located and is an arm of the 

Atlantic Ocean on the northern coast of Spain. 

The three scenes above are painted from Sardinero Beach in Santander.

 You can see  Mouro Island with it's lighthouse, the only thing on the island.

 I really like this rock formation.

I think it's a metamorphic rock called Schist.  

                            Tuesday, 9/14/21, Usgo Beach with limestone or rudist cliffs. 

                            These cliffs, and reefs, were built by mollusks called rudist clams. 

                     Monday, 10/4/21, view from the coastline below the Cabo Mayor Lighthouse

Thursday, 9/14/21, Usgo Beach

Sunday, 8/29/21, first day's impression of Sardinero from our window

I didn't have my easel with me so these are all small 4" x 8" studies.

Painting these watercolors is my way of learning about a new landscape

and becoming comfortable with my new surroundings. 

THE TREES IN MY CHILDHOOD YARD, or maybe why I've been drawn to paint trees.

I grew up in a house owned by gardeners who were not my parents.

We inherited all the trees in the small front yard, the side yards and the larger backyard.

They needed a lot of care, especially the fruit trees. 

The house was a small Cape Cod cottage. On the right side of the front walk was a large magnolia tree, on the left a dogwood. The house was surrounded by rhododendrons, azaleas and hydrangeas of varying bright colors. 

Around the house to the right were the fruit trees; pears and plums and in the middle of the backyard an impressively large Bing cherry tree. At least that is the way it exists in my childhood memory. This is the tree that I remember most because it bloomed every spring right outside my upstairs bedroom window and when it was warm enough to keep the windows open the smell of the blossoms filled the room. 

There were lilacs against the garage wall. A grape vine clung to an arbor over the walkway that led up to the side door into the kitchen. Lilies of the Valley were a ground cover on both sides of the walkway. 

Growing around the entire property was a tall privet hedge. Every other weekend my father would take out the electric trimmer and prune the hedge. My brother and I would rake up the clipping.s Whenever I see a hedge today I can hear the sound of that trimmer and smell 

the scent of the small leaves of the newly shorn hedge. 

"These trees are magnificent, but even more magnificent is the sublime and moving space between 

  them, as thought with their growth it too increased." R. M. Rilke

I moved and grew up in the space between these trees and I feel their presence and carry them with me. 

                                                   

PIPLANTRI

Over the past 20 years I have been making drawings and paintings

among hundreds of aspen trees in the forests near my home in SW Colorado. 

Last year I was invited to be the featured artist at the Ah Haa School for the Arts

New Year's Eve Fundraiser Gala. I had the entire gallery to fill with my paintings 

and with the poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer an opportunity to collaborate

on an installation created specifically for the event. 

Six years ago the residents of Piplantri in Rajasthan, India, started planting

111 trees for each girl child born. Shyam Sundar Paliwal, former village head,

started this initiative in memory of his daughter Kiran. 

To ensure the financial security of the child, parents and members of the community 

are responsible for the care of the trees and are required to contribute money

to an account for the girls' education. She is not allowed to marry until the age of 18.

I told Rosemerry about Piplantri, that I wanted to make 111 small drawings of the aspen trees 

and she immediately said, "Of course, I'll write 111 poems!" 

 A section of Piplantri, 111 mixed media works on paper and poems on recycled vintage papers

Snow on Aspens, India ink and gouache drawing

Piplantri works in progress in the studio

Me and Rosemerry on New Year's Eve 2019 at the Ah Haa School for the Arts in Telluride, CO!

Thank you Ah Haa School for this opportunity and a special Thank You to
Kris Kwasniewski for designing the installation and hanging each poem and painting! 

PAINTING THE MED

Twelve artists spent a week together last month at La Serranía in the foothills of the Tramuntana Mountains in Pollensa on the island of Mallorca. One afternoon was spent painting 

at Cala San Vinçens, a dramatic cove on the Mediterranean Sea. 

Here is a selection of the paintings we did, some close-ups of the waves on a slightly breezy day,

others include the rock formations that line the shore. The weather was just a bit cool due to the ocean breeze, but it was a beautiful day spent painting outside!

SPRINGTIME IN PORTUGAL

 The Town of Arraiolos in the Alentejo

 Painting an olive tree at the Pousada, a hotel in an old convent outside of Arraiolos

 On-site watercolor, Oliveira

 The Cork Oaks 

 Cromelques de Almendres, prehistoric stone circle

 The 15th C. Bishop's Palace on Ba's family estate

Cork Trees, harvested this year, 2018

on-site watercolor at the lake

This past spring we spent a few weeks as artist in residence at Cortex Frontal in Arraiolos, Portugal.

I spent the time focusing on painting the trees of the Alentejo region, especially the cork trees.

We were also searching out the prehistoric megalithic stone structures that are found all over the Alentejo region. The fields were covered in wildflowers and the birds migrating through the area

filled the air everywhere we went! (www.cortexfrontal.org) (www.pousada.pt)

AUTUMN IN THE SOUTHWEST: Painting along the road, in the backyard and other locations in Colorado and Utah

 view of Ridgway Hill, from my backyard, October 2017

 south from Liza's horse barn, Ouray, October 2017

 Maynard Dixon House, Mt. Carmel, UT, October 2017

 Temple of Sinawava, Zion National Park, UT, October 2017

 along County Road 5 in Ridgway, CO

 pond on the Box Canyon Trail, Ghost Ranch, NM

 Mt. Wilson, Telluride, CO

view of Lone Cone from Horsefly Mesa, CO

Every year we say it's early, it's late, it's not going to be as good, it's been too dry,

that late frost in May killed it, it's been too wet! 

But each year if we wait and watch autumn takes our breath away, each and every time. 

Perhaps it's the contrast with the summer. 

In spring we experience the visual excitement of the trees as they, seemingly effortlessly, 

produce millions and millions of leaves that change our world from silence to abundance. 

We walk around in the green summer air feeling as if 

we are wrapped in a blanket filled with fresh leaves instead of downy feathers. 

Then in late August we notice a subtle shift in the light as the green fields start to turn golden. 

An easing out of summer until sometime in October we are stunned by the brilliant

color as once again the trees dye their leaves all the warm colors on my palette. 

Goodbye to all those greens.

It is wonderful to walk around in such exuberance, 

a gift from nature to us as we transition into the gray and white of winter.

Here is a group of recent paintings along with some of my favorites from years past. 

The fall is hanging on a bit longer, so I'm going out to paint.

PAINTING TREES AT THE BLACK CANYON OF THE GUNNISON NATIONAL PARK

    This fall I will be going to Zion National Park for the first time to paint.

   I was invited to join a group of artists to paint in the Milford Zornes Paint Out. This event

   is generously supported by The Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts. They are the group

   responsible for restoring the Maynard Dixon Home & Studio in Mt. Carmel, Utah. I look

   forward to painting together in October.

   In November I will be painting in the Zion National Park Plein Air Art Invitational. I am 

   pleased that the proceeds from the event will benefit the Zion National Park Foundation

   and will support the educational programs that take place in the park.

   The focus of my work is the tree in the landscape. I went looking for Utah Juniper Trees.

   With the help of Park Ranger Paul Zaenger I found Everyone's Favorite Tree at 
   Dragon Point in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. I keep returning 
   to this spot to paint because it has a great variety of very old Juniper trees 

Everyone's Favorite Tree

Utah Juniper

This tree in Colorado is native to the Intermountain West but the Utah juniper is often confused with the Rocky Mountain Juniper because they appear to be very similar. These two conifer trees differ in the following ways: 1) The needles on the Utah juniper are yellow-green and the Rocky Mountain has gray-green foliage; 2) On the Utah juniper the bark is gray and on Rocky Mountain the bark is reddish-brown: 3) Utah juniper usually has male and female flowers on the same tree, whereas on Rocky Mountain juniper the male and female flowers are found on different trees.

The Old Utah Juniper

Dragon Point

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

www.nps.gov.blca

www.thunderbirdfoundation.org
www.zionpark.org