“Coming Rain” - 6x12”
A couple of weeks after my husband and I got married, he got called to a work trip up near Leadville, CO, and for the first time, I was able to go with. While the hotel accommodations were less than ideal, having a “trip” like this with him is one of my favorite memories during early marriage (I say this, writing in September, and still very much a “newlywed”).
I finished my day job every day around 4:00PM and typically had a couple of prime hours of painting time before he got off work. I was astounded by the entire area up near Frisco/Leadville, shocked by the state of Dillon Reservoir after this drought… but my eye kept going to this pretty little ridge behind our hotel with visible aspen groves, lovely atmospheric perspective in the pine trees, and a fun, diagonal sort of structure to its layout. Though overwhelmed by choices and extremely limited on actual paint time, I decided to pursue this one. It helped, too, that the view was accessible by a neighboring hotel’s parking lot, as the storms that day were rather severe and unpredictable.
I’ve been chasing storm painting in my plein air work, and that was one of the other predicting factors for this painting. I worked to capture the view as it was when I first pulled out my box - the clouds were just beginning to come over the hills, shading the mountains and bringing an undeniable edge of drama to the entire scene. I am constantly amazed by the sky here in Colorado (perhaps it is the same everywhere else, but as a native, I’ll claim it is our sky, and ours alone), and how the horizon appears an entirely different shade of blue than anything nestled right above cloud line. I do realize this is atmospheric perspective as well, but storms have a unique way of breaking this up and highlighting the stark differences in color that so often get missed from the naked observer.
One of the craziest storms I’ve been in went overhead as I painted this, and I quickly moved my entire kit inside my truck to paint from my front seat. I angled my car like a crazy person in the empty parking lot and did have an employee come out to see who the heck was parked in their area. Apparently, this was VIP parking, but upon seeing that I was painting and not performing any sketchy behavior, the employee was very kind and told me to take as long as I needed, as nobody was needing the lot until the weekend. I played my audio book and enjoyed a couple of very blissful hours of leisurely car painting - in very much Carl Judson/”Guerrilla Painter” style.
I ended up laying in the bottom half without much digital record, as my husband let me know I should be headed down the mountain before too long to miss the bulk storm that was headed their way. Driving I-70 in normal conditions is rough, and neither of us wanted me to be driving in a downpour. The storm kept creeping up behind me, and half an hour would go by before I’d remember to check on the status, only to turn around and see the thunderhead built incredibly nearer. This painting was also done after the first round of storms had passed through, so it felt green and lush with the best clear, mountain air.
The finished painting is actually one of the favorites I’ve ever done, and I’m getting this digitized for prints soon. Having the scanned version of the painting is so much better than trying to take one with a phone camera - especially for oil paints. The sheen of the medium, which looks so lovely in real life, proves harsh and unforgiving under a lens in my opinion.
On the way home, I had to stop at the Buffalo Overlook to get some panoramic shots of the coming storm over the valley and mountains, and these are some of my favorite shots. The lightning was almost constant, so I was able to snap a couple of really fun shots of both it and the bison underneath.
