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| Hippy Bus in Winter, 9x12, oil |
Throughout the winter, I am offering some special plein air painting workshops as part of my
Paint Sedona program. This past week, it was "Exploring the Verde Valley." The idea was to move out of Sedona - even though everyone loves the beautiful red rocks - to explore some of the Verde Valley's other treasures. We still painted in Sedona, but we also painted along Spring Creek and up in Jerome, and we also took some reference photos in places like Tuzigoot National Monument and along the Verde River.
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| Winter Trees, 12x9, oil |
We had cold starts to the morning each day. At our house, the temperature was routinely hitting 15° F (more or less), every day. But because of the incredibly clear air, temperatures rebounded quickly into the high 40s. That may not sound warm to some, but in the sunshine and with no wind, it was quite pleasant. We all agreed it was pretty perfect for outdoor painting. Plus, in some of the shady spots, there were still some scraps of snow hanging on from the previous week's storm. A little bit of snow can be just the thing to liven up a painting.
Probably the richest painting spot was the
Gold King Mine Ghost Town just up the Perkinsville road from Jerome. Imagine over six acres of antique cars, ambulances, fire engines and buses, plus a variety of work trucks from the mining days! It's really a "little boy's playground." Don Robertson, the owner - he hit is 70th birthday the day we were there - gave us a tour of the grounds and showed us his pride and joy, a souped-up, 1928 Studebaker "Indy" car. I personally took over a hundred photos as I strolled the grounds. For painting, I finally settled on a modified travel bus. I don't know what aficionados of antique vehicles call it, but I'm calling it a hippy bus.
You can check my schedule at
www.PaintSedona.com to see when the other special workshops are scheduled. One I should mention especially is my "pastel-only" workshop March 12-15. There are only two spots left in that, so hurry!
Below are a few photos for the week, including an early stage of my "Hippy Bus in Winter" sketch.
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| Hippy Bus in Winter - mid-stage |
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| Le déjeuner sur l'herbe |
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| Painting along Spring Creek |
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| Painting in Jerome |
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| Why I love Jerome (and see the pics below!) |
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| Don Robertson's 1928 Studebaker |
