Painting in the Rockies

I'm back from a wonderful week painting in the Colorado Rockies and giving my second workshop of the summer. The weather was very nice, the students were great! A big thanks to Margie and Glen Patterson in Allenspark for all they did to make this a great experience. But painting in an area with little humidity or "atmosphere" had its challenges for an East Coast painter. Still, it was hard to beat the wonderful feeling of standing outside looking at the mountains, trees, and wildflowers and trying to capture them in pastel.

Now it's back to work. My class at Montgomery College starts on Monday with an almost full class--the largest ever. So I'm going to have to really work hard to keep up with everyone. But I enjoy this type of challenge.

Doing the two workshops this summer really reinforced my feelings that teaching is what gives me the most joy. I loved both workshops and all the people in them. And I look forward to having six new people in my class at MC. I love pastel and I love sharing that joy with others.

The other thing that was reinforced was my love of painting outside. The cool, wet spring kept me inside for most of the time that I would normally do plein air. But now it is late summer and the days are warm and the light is soft. It's a lovely time to go out to paint and I've finally had the time to get back to it.

And speaking of joy--I treated myself to the complete set of 400 Schminke pastels! I've been wanting this set for a long time and now it is here, sitting on my counter. And today, I began working with them and they are really wonderful.