Diary of a Residency, Day 8, February 22, 2009

Day 8.  Arrived at the Barn about 9 AM. Put my rock on the circle immediately. Hiked cross country toward the Open Air Museum to suss out a painting spot.Found the first intact bottle I’ve yet come across. It even seems to have a bit of age to it, yet it’s whole! The desert floor seems filled with broken piles of glass, but none, except this one, remaining whole.

I also spotted lavander glass among the usual blue shards. The glass was not originally this color, but lying in the sun apparently causes a chemical reaction to change the shade. The blue is everywhere and sings quite beautiful, but the lavendar murmured a zen om to me.

The day was glorious, with amazing cloud formations. A couple of times it seemed like it might rain — clouds danced, covering the sun — but inevitably, they passed on without issue.

I found my spot,  west of Ladd Mountain just beyond where I had done the last painting. This view took in the Open Air Museum sculptures.

I marked the spot that I thought would be best for setting up the easel with 3 rocks (my “obo”)  and returned to the Red Barn for the painting gear.  I assumed I would see my cairn readily when I returned.  I never did find those three rocks. I think the sidewinders knocked it over.

I had to decide again what I had had firmly fixed half an hour earlier. But, of course, in due time, I came to a decision and set up the pack.

I needed a long format for the painting I had in mind, so rather than my usual 12 x 16″ boards, I packed an 18 x 36″ one. It just fit into the cart (it’s the brown board in the cart in the photo above), and I had to use the back pack to get everything to the site in one load. Since I was half a mile from the Barn, I didn’t really want to make two trips.

The photo above was taken after I finished painting;  the seven stone obo that I set up says I painted there there. And that I might need to return and find the spot again. Maybe seven stones will be too many for the knocking-over critters.

If I had painted from the photo — which I might still do — my painting would look very different. But I stood to paint, and did my usual Rackstraw Downes focusing on every spot equally, and then, of course, the painting took to making its own decisions. Shorty (the miner with the pick that stands behind the ghostly white figures — Tribute to Shorty Harris) really wanted to get away from all the gol-darned people who kept around the museum. So he and his partner, the Penguin, took off for the Bonanza Mountain. And Icara was bored with her original telephone pole so moved over closer to the Last Supper. The Ghost Rider got on her bike and moved up, also, to get in on the  gossip.

I have only got a rough draft today (Jef would say, “Now you are ready to paint”) but I think I see where I’m going. Shorty Harris and Penguin are nothing more than specks in the far distance. The mountain has taken on its late afternoon winter sun glow, but the shadows are doing their own dance. Any or all of this may change before the piece is finished.

No sense taking a full photo of the draft; the landscape behind it adds a great dimension. I think the Museum shack is too big and maybe the couch (Sit Here) needs to be moved over next to Lady Desert. We’ll see.  Lady Desert definitely needs to be more pink and yellow, but that can only happen when the paint dries a bit.

On the way home, at 5 PM,  Beatty was looking serene under its golden mountain:

Posted from the Goldwell House, Beatty, Nevada, USA, Planet Earth.

Oh, and I ordered a laptop for my own use today, so this marriage (the one I have been in for 45 years) Can Be Saved <snort>

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