Antelope on the Lander Cutoff
Convention Visitor
Another View of Oil Workshop
Lynn Newman Pastel Workshop Teacher
Painting Cherry Trees in Japan
Our Group's Studies
Lynn Working in Pastel- "Vincent Van Goat"
Cottonwoods on the HobackWon Best of Show and Peoples Choice!!
Jody Photographing Flowers in the Wyoming Wind
South Pass
Red Canyon - South PassFriday we started over to the annual Wyoming Artists Association Convention to be held in Riverton. Charm and I met at our mailbox. We each drove our own vehicles because she went on to South Dakota after the convention to visit her folks. We went down the dirt road to South Pass called The Lander Cutoff (of the Oregon Trail). We had an uneventful trip over, except at the South Pass Rest Stop we saw a couple with two bum lambs they had put in the fenced "Pet Area" to let them walk there. They were very cute, and very tiny. They had them in their small SUV in a big plastic tub to travel to Vernal where they were going to give them to their granddaughter. South Pass had a lot of quite large snowdrifts scattered on the hills from the storm we had last weekend - the pass had been closed during that heavy snow. It was about 89 degrees this afternoon. We ate lunch at a new restaurant in Lander. We stopped at the Sprout's Greenhouse to get a gift certificate from Mixed Media for a member friend for a tree to plant in memory of her husband who passed away a few months ago. On to Riverton and registration, hauling in our painting entries for the art show. Checked into the motel. Driving around town was fun and interesting and the lilac bushes were blooming in profusion - very beautiful. I got some interesting photos of an old barn with an orange cat up in the high window that might make a good painting. Then later that evening we had the quick draw. I did a painting in an hour of Joe and Buster feeding 5 horses in a snowstorm. Kay A. bought it. Our oil teacher was Kathy Wipfler and I was lucky enough to outbid Sandy to get her quick draw painting. I love it and feel very fortunate to have it. I told Sandy I would share it with her. There was a bountiful hor d'ourve table at the quick draw so we didn't need to go to dinner, which was nice.
On Saturday it was up early and to the workshops. It's always so much fun to see all the artists and acquaintances again and get to catch up and visit. We also missed the ones who weren't there. It was a smaller group this year. I had decided to try the pastel workshop, hoping to find something that will shake me up into being more creative and out of my present "artist's block". Our teacher was Lynn Newman from Cheyenne. He worked loosely and quite abstract. Hard as I tried to begin the way he was teaching, I could barely force myself to get out of my rut more than momentarily. But did work quicker and had a lot of fun painting from one of his reference photos of a herd of goats. Then I learned I had won Best of Show with my pastel painting Cottonwoods on the Hoback. We had a buffet lunch and the business meeting at noon, and back to the intensity of the workshops. That evening we had a banquet with other celebrations. Charm, Sandy and I left early, and later when the others got back to the motel, a bunch of us sat out in the parking lot in lawn chairs and reminisced about all the past conventions. I laughed until I cried. One noticeable thing was how pleasant it was to sit outside in short sleeves in the evening. Something that only happens for a few months in Wyoming.
Sunday we repeated the morning agenda. Today in the workshop I began a colorful fall aspen scene with a road. We had some critiques of the paintings in the art show which are always very interesting to listen too. Then I was speechless when they told me I had also won People's Choice for the Cottonwoods, and got two more honorable mentions and a painting chosen to hang in the Wyoming Congressional offices in Washington DC for the next year. And at noon the convention was over. We packed up our paintings, a group of us had lunch together and then started on our different ways home. Jody rode with me to the Sweetwater, then got back in with Ruth and Sharon. We had a nice visit. There was a quite dramatic change in the two days we'd been gone. The hillsides on South Pass were covered with Yellow Mules Ears wildflowers instead of snow drifts. At the top of the bluff above the Sweetwater River I turned north and the others went on toward Big Piney. I had a beautiful drive home through the back country. Got home in time to fix Joe's dinner, but fortunately there were leftovers so it wasn't too big a deal. Unloaded the vehicle and found I had left my workshop paintings in Riverton somehow. I hope they haven't disappeared, because I was sure enjoying the two that I did. In the brown paper wrapped package was also a bunch of mat boards I use to do pastels on, and they aren't cheap. After feeding the cats I had enough time to download all my photos and got them sorted and labeled, and many of them "fixed" a little.
This morning - Monday - Joe mowed the front "lawn". He had done the back while I was gone. Its greener here than when I left a few days ago, but our country could sure use some rain. I have a lot of housecleaning to catch up on and some phone calls to make. Especially I need to track down my lost paintings and see if I can arrange to get them back.
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