Two new spring works for the Glenwood Springs Art Guild Show, inspired by my favorite landscapes. The first piece is titled “Convergence” and the second is called “Drawn to Glenwood”. (Media: watercolor and pencil)
Spring Works ’24
Category Archives: Other
A Walk in the Holy Cross Wilderness
The 123,000-acre Holy Cross Wilderness is named for the craggy (and at times considered spiritual) “fourteener”, Mount of the Holy Cross. Glacial action that occured tens of thousands of years ago has carved steep cirques and dramatic cliff faces. This high-elevation landscape is also characterized by softer rolling terrain.
The Frying Pan valley provided me great hiking access to this area where fall foliage glowed
Amongst the folds and textures of ancient schists, granites and gneiss.
My feeling of being immersed in a wonderful ever-changing painting deepened as sunset colors caressed this watery landscape.
And after a starry half-moon night, I woke early to see the fleeting silvers and golds of sunrise.
The half-moon reminded me of the orange-gold of the previous night’s Alpenglow.
As the glaciers have melted, the amount of frozen water has diminished. Now, this area is repleat with lakes and tarns. It provides headwaters to many creeks and streams.
However, sadly, in places such as the Homestake Reservoir, this water has been impounded and diverted for use by Front Range cities. Further potential impoundments are possible and I urge readers to join in efforts to halt such proposals.
Always changing and growing, let’s be custodians of our wondrous, deeply-textured, life-giving, high-atitude landscapes!
Telluride Landscape
I enjoyed a visit to the dramatic location of this Telluride Residence, the season after my landscape design was installed. The photo above shows the entry walk to the home.
The intent of the design was to create a naturalized setting for the modern residence. The home feels further naturalized by reflections of immediate and distant landscapes in the glazing.
Left: While I was there, a sudden rainstorm created “waterfalls” from the major roof gutters. Right: This image shows the interplay of a sculptural site boulder with the upper patio and roof of the residence.
The elegant entry walk is framed with greenery and color. Alliums have been successful in the landscape that is proximate to a variety of wildlife. Fortunately, marmots and squirrels don’t care for the oniony scent of Alliums.
This view shows the entry drive to the residence. Although the home is large, as seen from above, it nestles low in the landscape.
Whimsical Flower Art
A Cottage Garden in Glenwood.
Pinks and Blues.
Sweet Saxifrage.
Cactus Flowers with Bees.
On Cedar Mesa
Many surprises shelter below the rims of Cedar Mesa canyons. Water sources are especially magical for their life-giving qualities.
On Cedar Mesa, natural rock walls, floors and ceilings, provide shelter, and are an integral part of canyon living. Images pecked in stone tell stories, address spirits, map routes, and mark people passing. Painted pictographs abound; many are of hands pressed to stone. Indentations in the rock might be painstakingly tooled moki steps, sharpening marks, or hollows for grinding corn.
The alcoves reveal many scales of construction, from remnants of crumbling granaries, to fortified structures that are almost palatial.
Flowers of the desert provide alluring colors and tantalizing textures. They might be the beginnings of edible fruit like prickly pears, or provide medicinal qualities.
Stone-walled structures in seemingly inaccessible places blend lizard-like into the towering cliffs. Where do man-made impressions end, and natural surfaces resume? In some places, the two sing together as one.
The sun sets, the land darkens, and we wonder how many more mysteries are embraced by the canyons below.
Birdle Art – Part One
