More from Rabbit Mountain

The first painting ( last blog entry)  took most of the morning and I was hungry for lunch but I thought I still had time to do a second quick picture before packing up. I turned around my easel and started painting in the opposite direction, with the valley to my back and the hillside slope in front of me. Up ahead was one of the typical gnarled pine trees on the grassy slope that are common here and a partial view of the rocky hills behind. The morning calm gave way to a gusty afternoon and made me wonder if my easel was going to blow over. I painted this relatively quickly, hanging onto my easel with one hand, and then packed up and headed home.  I think of all things, wind is worse than rain or cold weather for painting. Looking North, 9 x 12.

At Rabbit Mountain

Saturday weather was great and I was way overdue for painting outdoors. I set up at Rabbit Mountain and painted two pictures. The greens on the trees are just starting to appear. It looked very spring-like in an austere Colorado sort of way, and sort of overcast. Rabbit Mountain used to be called Rattlesnake mountain long ago and it is not uncommon to run into one along the trails. So, I was particularly watchful when setting out through the grass, since the snakes are out of their winter dens now that it has warmed up.  I saw many people out enjoying the trails, lots of birds and prairie dogs, but no snakes. Two days later a woman was bitten by a rattlesnake while hiking this same trail just up the road a little farther. She had to be airlifted out.  I'm glad I didn't run into any. This first picture I faced south looking down the valley. Looking South, 9 x 12.

Spring Snow

The weather changed and we had one of our spring snowstorms come in late yesterday dropping almost two inches of snow,  most of which melted right away leaving an inch or so on the grass and trees this morning. It looked beautiful and I went out to paint at a nearby pond with a view of the mountains. The sun was out so I knew it wouldn't last long so it was a race against the sun in getting my picture done before it would all change color from white to brown again. By the time I got there things were already starting to melt off.  By 10:30 or so almost all of it was gone except for the shaded areas. My hands got really cold, around 40 degrees.  Spring Snow, 9 x 12