Diary of a Residency, Day 23, March 10, 2009

It was blessedly warm today. The wind, cold in the AM, was from the north, which meant the south Barn doors could be open to the sun. And then everything, including the wind, warmed up enough that I could take off my coat. I came home early and went downtown to paint the  Exchange Club again. The corner of Main and Second, where route 95 meets the Death Valley road (Rt 374) is highly traveled, but a pleasant enough place to spend a couple of hours. Huge trucks maneuver and groan as they make the turn south. The traffic drives very slowly; the speed limit seems to be strictly and carefully enforced. It makes for easy walking, hauling the cart-containing-painting-equipment along behind.

So I have a small plein air of the corner, with Exchange Club holding up one end and Free Parking (ostensibly from the Silver Slipper in Las Vegas) holding up the other.

This last photo is where I was painting from. We’ll see if I add a Sam’s Club truck at the corner. No decisions made as of yet, although I have a photo…..

I also took a photo of the wonderful Joshua Tree and Rock (and stop sign) on the outskirts of town to the west (toward Death Valley). They are quite beautiful; I’m thinking another plein air there is in order.

As I worked on Shorty’s Rebellion and June’s Map of Beatty, March 2009, I contemplated again the difficulty of getting decent photos of landscapes that seem clear and marvelous to the eye. On the way to the Red Barn, on the Rhyolite road, is a spot where Ladd’s Mountain to the east and the Bonanza Mountains (north and west) cuddle Rhyolite and its various pieces, giving the scene a marvelous focal point while showing the scattered and higgledy-piggledy nature of what is there. But in the camera’s eye, either the pieces are  totally lost and the mountains seem tame and short, or the pieces show up but the mountains don’t make it into the frame. The eye (and brain) are marvelous instruments for painters; the camera is a limited tool — useful for getting the words right, but hopeless with magnificent and poignant landscapes.

This is a close-up — there are two very large mountains on either side of the central pieces that hold the whole thing together. But not in the camera’s version.

Ah well, that’s why there are painters, right? I’m going to have to haul one of my big boards out there — about a mile and a half from the barn, to do the scene justice. I think I’ll have Jer haul me and the cart out; I can haul me and the cart back. The big boards take a long time just to get paint down on the surface — perhaps I can do a bit in the Barn before going out to save some trouble. But then the paint might get on Jer’s car….. hmmmmm, depends entirely on the weather, the mood of the participants, and fate.

Reported from the gem of the desert, the host of the Underwoods, the site of the Goldwell Open Air Art sculptures, Beatty, Nevada and environs, March 10, 2009

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