"Apache Plume and Purple Sage"
9" x 13" original watercolor

This little watercolor was done in July and I intended to have it at the show in October but I ran out of time to mat or frame most of the paintings done in late summer. It is on Fabriano Extra White 140 lb. cold press. The scene is one I keep going back to because I am inspired by the mountains in Red Rock Canyon and also by the thick desert flora. I used small dashes of miskit for the flowers on the shrubs in order to preserve their light and after finishing the majority of the landscape I went back and put in the flower details at the end. The Apache Plume (in the middle ground right with the whitish blossoms) is an interesting plant because it's flower resembles a miniature five-petaled rose. But as many as 25 seed plumes develop and they look like tufts of feathers. They give the plant a soft, fluffy appearance which is a nice change from the yuccas and spiney cactus. We've seen these profuse "feather" shows in shades of delicate lime green, cream, pink and deep pink. An artist can't resist painting scenes like this.

Great show at Boulder City

This is a picture of former Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro presenting me with my third place ribbon in the fine arts division at the Art in the Park festival in Boulder City. This was such an unexpected and much appreciated award given by the Boulder City Hospital Foundation which sponsors this show. The fine arts section of this show had over 130 artists exhibiting. There were several hundred more artists in the fine crafts and traditional crafts divisions as well. This is the first time Bill and I have done a festival of this size. We had quite a strong wind both days yet big crowds of art lovers still came out to support the artists, enjoy great food and listen to all the musicians. We are looking forward to exhibiting in the 2010 show!

A photo of our booth showing the framed paintings as well as a couple of our display cases which hold original paintings which are either mounted on foam core or matted. I had about a dozen paintings in my framing room which I didn't have in the show because I ran out of time to mat them. So I have been busy since this show getting those matted and now I have a bit of a head start for the next exhibit.