ESCALANTE CANYON ART FESTIVAL

For the past several years I have attended the Escalante Canyons Arts Festival.  I discovered the festival as I was studying the fascinating story of Everett Ruess.  He was a wanderer and adventurer, exploring the western states alone with only a dog and burro.  He was also a very talented artist and poet who documented his travels through art, letters written to family, and haunting poetry.  Escalante is a small town located in Southern Utah on the edge of the Grand Staircase Escalante-National Monument.  Everett, only age 20 (1914-1934) was last seen in this beautiful little town before he disappeared into the vast wilderness of the area. 

It has been such a pleasure to attend the Escalante Canyons Plein Air Festival, the breath-taking scenery, support of the community, and the amazing people who plan and host this event are what makes the Festival one of the best in the country!  I am so honored this year to have been asked to present a demonstration on Continuous Line Drawing.  

My presentation will be held Sept. 18th

1:00 - 3:00. Location TBA

I can't wait to see everyone and have the 

honor to associate with so many 

talented people.

  This festival encourages everyone of all 

ages to be an artist and has workshops, 

demos, and hands on art projects to help 

you become the artist you desire to be.

  I have included a link below.

ESCALANTE CANYON ARTS FESTIVAL

Thanks to all the committee members

 that work so tirelessly every year

 to make this festival 

SO MUCH FUN!!!!

My camp site near Bryce Canyon.

For those of you who know me, 

I have included a few posts from 

my adventures

 in farming and life that you 

might enjoy reading.

MY 1965 VINTAGE TRAILER REMODEL 

FROM START TO FINISH

BATTERY EXHAUSTED

BLUE MOON

SQUASH CURRENCY

WHO OR WHAT, A DESCRIPTION OF MYSELF

MOLTING

A VISIT WITH DOC

Garden Journal

Every year I record my gardening adventures in a journal.  I have used many different types of journals over the years.  This year I made a stack of journals to use,

 each one serving a specific purpose.  

A calendar, several art journals, a gratitude journal, the yellow flowered journal below will be my Garden Journal for this season.

Bright and cheery colored papers were chosen to reflect a garden, flower, and herb theme.

Click here to see more of the PEACOCK Journal.

Extra pieces of papers can be added for making notes or plans.

Several little pockets glued in can hold seed packets or other miscellaneous items.

I added this little "notebook" by stapling along one edge, attaching it onto a page. I used about 10 sheets of lined paper, and punched holes and threaded cotton thread through the holes,  The little flowers are actually buttons.

View an additional journal here:

2015 GARDEN JOURNAL

It's Never To Late

"IT IS NEVER TO LATE TO BE WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN' .....george eliot

I always wanted to be an artist.  I spent hours and hours as a kid drawing and sketching.  I attended a small rural high school, but it did not offer any any art classes. I tried going to college, but the confinement of indoors and being told what to read and conforming to the opinions of professors just wasn't for me. 

Busy raising a beautiful family, working the soil on my organic vegetable farm, milking 20 goats by hand twice a day, has taken up most of my time, but with the last of the kids off to college, I have picked up my art again.  I am struggling, but I have decided it is like anything else, the more you practice, practice, practice, practice, the better you get.

This past winter I watched birds in my yard eating the seeds from the many flower heads I left uncut for them.  I tried to sketch the ever present sparrows, but my efforts weren't very good. 

 I made a goal.

  I would make 10 drawings or paintings of a sparrow and hopefully

 by the tenth one I will have made some progress.

Sketch number one.  AUGGGHHHHH!

Well, it can only get better from here!

Sketch number 3 & 4

hopefully I have made a little progress

I am finding this difficult! 

 Why do I have an easier time painting or sketching people?

Number 5. 

 This is totally wrong.  It looks more like a hawk, or a duck, than a sparrow.  

I told my husband of my goal to paint 10 paintings of sparrows,

 hoping as each painting is completed, it will help me capture them in a more realistic way.

I should just give up, but I made a goal and I am going to persevere!

This is number seven.  Well, I think  I am finally making a little progress.

One day a flock of 20 robins spent the day in the yard.  I grabbed my acrylics (I have never painted with acrylics before, I just recently purchased a beginners set with a 40% off coupon) and tried to capture them fluttering around in the snow.  I have spring fever so I painted the background green.

Not great, but I can see I am making a little progress painting birds.

                         When my husband came home I showed him this painting and he said,

"I can tell exactly what that is............. it's a SPARROW!"

"GOOD GRIEF!"

Well, back to the drawing board

I will need another 20, or 50, or 100 drawings to get it right.

If at first you don't succeed,

try, try, again, and again, and again..................

and again.

I will keep trying.

If I can't GROW them, I PAINT them

During the long winter days when it's too cold to be out working in the gardens, I spend much of my time in the studio painting flowers.

ideas are sketched on large drawing paper

I sit on my old, soft and comfy, vintage foot stool to paint

getting the basic shapes and shadows blocked in before I begin painting the details

sometimes I paint people

once I even painted a "self portrait"

I like to paint cows

This large painting "THE LEAD COW" framed in old red barn wood is available for sale.

It can be purchased at "Gypsy Mama's" in Fort Duchesne.

this 11x14 painting is available for $65.00

8x10 on canvas board $45.00

My original art work and signed prints can be purchased at the store, or 

contact me.   

On our Way to the ART FESTIVAL

We loaded up all my art supplies and enough provisions for a couple of weeks. Got up early (as usual) and left at 4:00 a.m. the following morning.

Arrived at the camp grounds late in the afternoon.

Made a lot of stops taking pictures of the beautiful scenery (prior post).

Thankfully there was a camping spot available and my husband

skillfully back "Rosie"into the tiny spot.

Camped by the beautiful Wide Hollow Reservoir

just west of Escalante in the Petrified Forest State Park.
Hundreds of Canadian Geese, spending a few days resting on the pond, serenaded us every night.

Early every morning as I headed out to paint, I had to wait for the wild Turkeys

 to decide which side of the road they wanted to eat from. 

 It reminded me of one of my favorite childhood story books,

"Make way for Ducklings"

A quaint little rock shop along side the road

One day as I was out painting, I discovered a Bear near the campsite

and if one bear isn't enough, I found this one just a short distance from the first,

ironically they are in the same group of rocks!

(look closely, can you find them?)

Painting from morning til dark in the beautiful outdoors, surrounded by some of the most breathtaking scenery on earth.  Conversations with like minded, artistic, eccentric, people and making great friends  (Linda, Lois, Penny, Peggy, Marsha, and Blaine) made for a wonderful week.

The forest service provided many informative discussions and presentations.

I observed demonstrations by renowned Plein Air painters; Brad Holt, Doug Braithwaite,

 and Valerie Orelman.

I bought a book by Edward Abbey

"Desert Solitude" 

at the gift store in the Visitors Center (my dog-eared copy is currently sitting boxed away in a storage unit).  I first read this book years ago as a young girl just out of high school.  I related with the wandering spirit, living in the wild outdoors, and desire of solitude. 

 Kept this book close at hand along with my

 John James Audubon writings and bird books, and the works of  Thoreau.

 I learned so much over the week, generally I have been a studio painter and painting in the great outdoors is different.  The play of light on surfaces is so fleeting, the colors changing right before your eyes, the sun intensifying every hue, and the silence, the silence is full of life, color, beauty and wonder. 

 This experience has opened the door, to the great outdoors, and a new adventure in painting.

  I have a lot of practicing to do, and new techniques to learn, apply, and hopefully master. 

I can hardly wait for next years Festival!

Escalante Arts Festival

Hi Ya'll,

Our whole married life, we have never done anything special, or gone anywhere exciting for our anniversary (hubby always worked 6:40 a.m. til 11:00 p.m. and Saturdays, but with his job change, he has evenings off ( home by 6;00 p.m.) and doesn't work on Saturday, so we decided to do something this year,  THIRTY years is definitely something to celebrate.

my rendition of a "just married"  sign

Met the kids in Cedar City for breakfast at the park .  My daughter found this and gave it to me!
Thanks Dodie, I have hunted for one all my life!  

 Took off camping in the Southern Utah wilderness and visited several National and State parks.  Stayed in little  Rosie at the Petrified Forest State Park.

  I picked a whole bunch of tomatoes before we left thinking it will probably freeze before I get back. Been eating tomato sandwiches until I don't think I want one for another year.  Had so many tomatoes  we shared them with everyone at the campgrounds.   Hubby of thirty years left Sunday to go back to work and I have stayed for the annual Escalante Arts Festival in celebration of Everett Ruess, a young artist and poet who disappeared in the wilderness of the Grand Escalante Staircase area in 1934.  He is a fascinating person, look him up on the net.  Many books are also written about him.    I will spend a week of Plein Air painting, entering several competitions (which is rather ridiculous, I can't compete with these great painters) and just enjoying the company of other artists.
 Sorry I missed market last week and will not be there again this week.  I'll let you know all about my trip when I get back.  Have a great week!

A Front Porch

My front porch,

a gathering place......

a brass and crystal chandelier dangling from the eves,
  catching the suns rays

casting rainbow prisms on the wall

 an old hand crafted bench seat  placed along the edge
 filled with potted geraniums
bees and butterflies softly landing on their delicate petals
an antique overstuffed love seat

to sit in and read the works of Emily Dickinson, Tennyson,

or Culpepper's Complete Herbal.

An outdoor room
 to set up my easel and paint the flowers

and herbs blooming along the rock pathway
 wind chimes made from oddities, bits and pieces of broken glass,
old hand forged nails, shards of broken plates, and other treasures found
in the yard of our 100 year old solid rock home
 are hanging from the posts
their sound of days long gone drift on the breeze.
Long talks, or comfortable silence
fill the twilight hours
as we watch the night quietly creep in
 the dark shadows
hide the toads
as they search for bugs
and make their way to the small pond I have built for them
I sit still on my porch and enjoy the
cycle of a summer's day.

Spring Fever

I've got a bad case of it!  Every year about this time I catch the bug.  I need to be out digging in the dirt, not shoveling snow.  I really shouldn't complain, it has been a mild winter.  Soon our neighbor will begin the calving season.  I can look out my back window and watch the mama cows caring for their young.  Cow's make the best mothers.  Watching the baby calves running and frolicking with their tails held high in the air always makes me smile.

 It won't be long before I can move the geraniums from the sunny south window out
into the yard........well, I guess it will be a while yet.

In the meantime, I will sit by the fire and spin, work on some oil painting commissions that I should have finished long ago,  enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and pour over the beautiful seed catalogs that have been filling my mailbox.  Yes, the best medicine for the dreaded spring fever is an empty seed order form (just waiting to be filled) and a bit of chocolate!

                                                   read an earlier post about the dreaded

SPRING FEVER