Painted Late and Slept in

I actually tried to got to sleep when the cat jumped on the bed as if to tell me "lights out" at like 10!  Much later than my usual bed call.  Of course that did not last long.  BUT somehow, the day was just gray enough and I got to cut zzzz's until 7! (after locking him in...)
I had to get the PDI out of my system, so I worked way to long on this 5x7" mini, to show for my stay.  I finished it this morning... this is not the FINAL piece but good enough.

I am posting a bit prematurely today, as I did another hour long 20 minute drive to the south end of the park.  With excellent wifi, I just could not pass up a chance.

I have it in my head I MAY actually do a real live landscape.  The badlands call me but they are like a movie, that is not a single still shot.  You cannot do it justice without the addition of the taime and motion that being here adds!

I will update it when I decide whether or not to stop by tonight and check in up north.

I actually feel like I own it.  The Park is becoming my personal domain.  I am trying to memorize every mile of the 28 and a couple of loops.  When people keep telling me to go walk, I have managed over two weeks and am not NEARLY full of what I see pulling over at the designated stops!  Nothing but wonder.

I had another set of visitors last night.  Their conversation from the casita next door actually was what woke me.  I saw them load suitcases and talk on the phone. I swear, they did not look happy.  How could anyone not be so sad to leave a place like this!  Either tears of sadness or joy, but not just the usual pack and move on.... I have no idea how I will leave....

I could not resist, however, and got my first seriously tourist purchase.
It is a bit too big, but I got a PEFO long sleeved shirt.


Thingy was unimpressed...

Time and Place

A little less bright and although the cat still believes in 5:30, by working later last night, he was a little more cooperative when bed rolled around so we slept the whole night!

The clouds were billowing and today promised real weather.  At different times it was bright and sunny, then gray again. The weather over the PD was long black and blue or soft white right from the edge!  And real rain.


I headed to the compound for the blog posting and had a very hard time resisting the smell of the Navajo tacos.  I started in the cafe, but there was no consistent service.  My friend Suzy, the girl who is everywhere, suggested the conference room in the offices.  Such a joy!  Just sitting at a table in a chair... I mean it was no McDonalds but much faster and no falling on my face or bouncing from signal to signal.  A definite possibility leaving longer time to myself!
From there I had a weird idea that the birds might be hanging out where more people drop food.  So I aimlessly wandered and found this sign... how could I resist!






Then this...



And this.

Behind the walk way is a row of offices with great big windows for eavesdropping on hard work.
I had a really nice chat with Cathy from the Paleo labs. She was one of the women who was carrying the plastered fossils yesterday and showed me the breaker box. I told her she could not miss my demo in Holbrook on Friday and should find me on Saturday and Sunday in the PDI.  We discussed the dangers of carting in my Flagstone blanks!  I mean it is precisely like the rocks just flaking off my wall outside!  No pilfering allowed! So when I do my demos, I might just put an ink disclaimer on the side so I can explain how these were from scraps and construction left overs in Denver and Phoenix and no IN SITU rocks were harmed in their construction.

I headed home and snapped this shot standing by my car and over the top.  Such an amazing gift to be here!!!

Went in, and promptly curled up for a sleepy, napping mid-day. And the Thing and I did some epic napping! In and out until almost 3.  The head was just low enough to need a cover to curl up under and the dark sky trickled down... not poured.  Over the canyon edge the Desert was cloudy white.  Tourists poured in, as it was one of the great view points without wet, but we caught up on the nights without sleep.  I have a piece of a little bird sketched and ready so I didn't feel guilty.  Just warm and cozy.

About closing time, the weather broke and the land was visible again. I could not resist a pre-sunset drive into the teepees.
This sight made me beam!

 Every car is stopped in its tracks gasping at the amazing scenes revealed by wet earth and migrating clouds!  I pulled over in the main teepee pullout, behind three or four cars and we would point back and forth across the road pointing how beautiful the changes were while watching the other.

I stood in ONE SPOT for about 10 minutes.  Just snapped as things changed.  I know I took over 13 shots but these groups explain what I cannot show, or actually paint.

The land is less for 2 dimensional art than dance or theater.  This is scenery that needs the element of time to understand how the eroding piles of basically colored mud, change from viewpoint and clouds and moisture.  To stop at a single scene does not do it justice.  I have found myself stopping dead on a turn I have gone over maybe 10 times already, too narrow to pull over, and seeing if I can snap a shot only to get home to see... well a scene.  It is the wonder of a mound of white and read suddenly exploding behind a wall of purple.

I have three weeks to load these moments of wonder into my head.


I raced home and worked on my bird picture.

This is something that I CAN do.
My art is about capturing a moment in time.
Small moments, these I can do, but the scenery is to monumental for me.!

Productive Doesn't Look Productive

Last night, sitting with my computer on my lap, updating posts jumped on the PD wifi I was so excited - did so much!
But when I looked through my photos... I was working, not snapping.  No photos today of the Petrified Forest Museum, or gift shop.  I felt very much at home down south.  Aside from the hour round trip, and high gas prices in here, the drive would be the main order of business every day!

So, morning....
NOW he is my hairdresser!  Last night I took a nice bath (the heater only warms exactly half of that seductively big tub...waaa) and I guess the cat belives that clawing my hair will get me up faster.  Grrrrr.  Again, as dawn turns the sky red, he is letting me know it is time to rise and shine.  Like Tom, in Glass Menagerie, I am not thrilled.  But it was fine.
I did see a jack, but the photo was horrible and he left.... so here is one of our morning bunnies instead:



Officially the sun rose at 5:30 and my great plans of getting to the RFM early and setting up for 8 when they opened WOULD have been OK, but Steve, the guy on duty, got their plenty early and left the doors open.  So in came the tourists.  And if you know me, I don't shut up...
First exciting meet was the Lees...two Korean women, one of whom was an artist.  I LOVE MEETING PEOPLE!  I had just set up and they were great to talk to.  I am going to have to have that clip board tied around my neck! I keep forgetting to take the pictures!
I next met a wonderful woman from Utah that took my PET card and seriously wanted my contact info... (fingers crossed).

Challenging myself is one thing, and I sort of proved I could DO art (I have horrible blank canvas terrors if I am not backed up with pieces getting ready or finished on the easel for other people.  I have NO idea which of the millions of ideas in my head will capture the fancy of others and keep a roof over my head.)
Were the cholla not so mind numbing, I had a great day.  Painting is so automatic and Steve was a good guy who was really lonesome having lost his 3 pound chihuahua only 6 months ago.  He had great tales to tell about his brother and the agate magnate!  How ingenuity and seeing the bigger picture parlayed him into definitely one of the richest men in Holbrook if not THE.  I loved the story of how he watched a guy gutting some old buildings and after the workers left found pounds of old Wells Fargo stored ledgers and checks!  After a few donations for history, old cancelled checks were going for at least $20 a shot and he had a DUMPSTER full.  I would loved to have a few ledger pages for toned backgrounds.
One mans trash...(again, no photo, but HE will be a colorful character in the series...)

The wind picked up good at about noon. I really wanted everything in the car, so I didn't risk it blowing away... but I totally forgot about the wifi.... what wifi!  It was on and it worked.  Stayed after loading the car, as I didn't want artwork sailing down the road, to catch up... not much I really needed to know.
Came home and made lunch from the bran flakes left by a previous AiR (thank you)  and my milk from the store and set to work trying to get  finished of this painting. Listened to NPR, until my eyes got blurry, then drove over with camera about 5 to see the cloud shadows.  MIGHT HAVE TO MAKE A PLEDGE NO MORE PD PIX.  I am daunted and it is not helping.

But I took the computer and drove over to sit in the parking lot for a little while to post the sunset in the blog.
Came home and, having taken out the contact lens and going sans correction, worked some more on it.  Pretty much grass and grass and grass...much like fur I guess
DID see a really fleeting rainbow!  Pale but spectacular.

With tomorrow's wake up call, I tried an early to bed.  ha.
I learned that the cat is obsessed with the moon or changes in the clouds.  He has tried to climb into the window overhead a few times, so I closed the curtains.  Now he is chasing moths.
BUT before we turned the lights out, I will say I have something that can be put away for a while with some satisfaction: