Two Leos' Wanderings: 2016

Spring at Mogote Meadow

After a beautiful winter season on the banks of the Guadalupe River in the Hill Country of Texas, the Leos are back in the mountains of southern Colorado. Our base camp is Mogote Meadow RV Park on Colorado State Highway 17, which runs between Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico. Antonito is the eastern terminus of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. Mogote Meadow is one of the closest RV parks to Antonito, which makes it a popular base of Friends of the Railroad. At this time of the year the park is nearly full of Friends as the railroad prepares for its opening for the summer on Memorial Day weekend. The Friends are all volunteers from all over the United States. As a group, the Friends donate over 10,000 hours annually to the preservation of the C&TS railroad's historic assets.

Snow on Blanca Peak as seen from Mogote, May 22, 2016

We were fortunate to get out of Texas before the summer temperatures really heated up. The past winter was one of the best we have had in years on the Guadalupe. I think we only had two nights when the temperature dropped below freezing and most days were sunny with highs in the 70s. But I still prefer spring in the Rockies. Since we arrived, I have cranked the nighttime thermostat down to 55 degrees, piled on the blankets and slept like a log.

Since it has been some time since I've added a post to the Wanderings, here is an update on my progress in painting class. It was an eventful season which included participating in my first art show, having a print made of one of my paintings and completing my first commissioned project.

December Dunes #2 11X14 acrylic on canvas

I painted December Dunes #2 for my 10 year old granddaughter, Ava Rose Waters. (Ava Rose...isn't that a perfect Texas name?). She said see wanted me to paint a beach scene for her and selected a photo from my photo library as the basis for the painting. It is from Port Aransas, on the Texas Gulf Coast.

"Blanca Peak" 16x20 acrylic on canvas

Blanca Peak is a dominant landscape feature in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. It is also known as the Sacred Mountain of the East of the Navajo Nation. The traditional homeland of the Navajo Tribe is known to the Navajo as the Dinetah. The original area encompassed a large part of northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, southeastern Utah, and northeastern Arizona. Today it is confined to a much smaller area that is the Navajo Nation, the largest Indian Reservation in the United States. It is found mostly in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

The traditional boundaries of the Dinetah are marked by four sacred peaks. They are Blanca Peak to the east, Mount Taylor to the south, the San Francisco Peaks to the west, and Hesperus Peak to the north.

Blanca Peak or Tsisnaasjini' - Dawn or White Shell Mountain, is the Sacred Mountain of the East. It is east of Alamosa, Colorado in the Blanca Massif.

I have spent so much time in the San Luis Valley over the last few years, I felt obligated to try my hand at painting Blanca Peak. It is a 16X20 of the mountain as I saw it late last summer.

"Monarch of the Plains" 11X14 acrylic on canvas

Framed Print

By the time I finished Blanca Peak, we were back in Texas and in painting class in San Antonio. So, I decided that I should break away for doing only landscapes. I like to try new things while under the guidance of my instructor, Juanita Garza. I found a photo of a bison in Yellowstone and used it as the basis for my first wildlife painting. My interpretation of the Monarch of the Plains is 11X14. It turned out well enough that I decided to a high quality print made from it. The original is now at my daughter Maggie's house and the print is framed and hanging in my trailer.

The one that got away

After the bison, I told Juanita that I wanted to try my hand at painting a portrait. I didn't want to paint someone I know, incase it didn't turn out. Juanita suggested I find a photo of someone in profile. I did an internet search for Native American photos and found a collection of old photographs of American Indians by Edward S Curtis. I picked a photo of Aki-tanni ("Two Guns"). I spent three class sessions working on the painting before Two Guns escaped. As I was returning home after class, I realized that I had placed the nearly finished painting on the bed cover of my truck while loading up after class and I didn't remember to move it into the truck. Two guns was gone.

"Two Guns" 11X14 acrylic on canvas

I spent the next week starting the portrait over so that by the time of my next class it was almost to the same stage of completion as the escapee. After a couple more classes, Two Guns was finished.

Following Two Guns, I took on a painting based on a photo taken by my daughter Kim. It was of a well known landmark in New Mexico known as the Pecos River

"Pecos River Flume" aka "Goliath" 16X20 acrylic on canvas

Flume. Kim's husband, James, is from Carlsbad and on a visit there with her family she took a the photo of the Flume covered with ice and snow. Kim said that they seldom see snow on the Flume and asked me to paint it.

The Pecos River Flume is an aqueduct over the Pecos River in Carlsbad, New Mexico. It was originally constructed of wood in 1890 as part of the Southern Main Canal to carry irrigation water to dry areas from Lake Avalon. Pecos River-originated water flows through the flume, which once led "Ripley's Believe It or Not'' to feature it as "the world's only river that crosses itself.''
In 1902, a flood destroyed the original structure, which was 475 feet long by 25 feet wide and carried up to eight feet of water. It was replaced in 1903 with a four-span, closed-spandrel concrete arch. Upon its completion, the new aqueduct ranked briefly as the largest concrete structure in the world.

Since we have been traveling in the Rocky Mountains for the last few years, I have become very aware of the ongoing threat of wildfires. In 2012, we spent a couple of weeks on alert for evacuation during the Waldo Canyon fire that swept into Colorado Springs on June 26th, destroying 346 homes. During the same period, the High Park fire was raging west of Fort Collins, Colorado. I found a photo from that fire and thought it would make a good representation of these events

High Park Fire 2012

The photo, by Brian Emory, captured the spectacular effect of sunset through clouds, smoke and flames. I thought this would make an interesting painting, but found it to be one of my most challenging projects. I found myself repainting the smoke and flames over and over trying to achieve an effect that looked more like fire and smoke instead of a thunderstorm. In order to avoid any confusion, I named the finished project "Fire on the Mountain!".

"Fire on the Mountain" 16X20 acrylic on canvas

As the travel season approached, I had time for one more painting in class. My neighbor, Jane Golden, asked me to do a painting of their dog, Bandit as a surprise for her husband, Bud. At the time of this writing, I don't know if she has presented it to Bud yet, so don't tell him about it. Bandit is a mixed bread dog slightly smaller than a German Shepard. The photo Jane provided for me to work from was taken of Bandit in Jane's daughter's garden, which hides his legs. So, despite his makings, Bandit is not a Welch Corgi. He's just in the weeds.

"Bandit" 11X14 acrylic on canvas

So, now that my paint brush and I are back in the mountains, I'm looking for projects to work on over the summer. I've got a Oregon beach scene started for Kim and Maggie has requested bluebonnets. No matter what the project turns out to be, there's no place like the Rockies for inspiration.