Ah, to wear shorts and bask in the sunshine in winter!  I just returned from painting in saguaro cactus country, in the warm wilds of Arizona.  I traveled with the family, so I didn’t set a grueling painting schedule.  I did come home with a dozen studies, and I can’t wait to work on some studio pieces.  Here’s a handful of images from the trip:

Like I said, the trip wasn’t all work!

Sometimes you have to just sit back and soak it all in.

I’ll post the studies soon.  Right now it’s time to clean the brushes and clean my studio!

Things that don’t happen in the studio:  Six horses hung out with me while I painted.  This one wanted to help out.

Yes, that is cadmium on his nose!

I occasionally had to  push him out of the way.

They hung out with me for a couple hours.

And they didn’t want me to leave!

Things you don’t expect to learn at a Painting Workshop:

That’s George Bumann, Sculptor, Naturalist, and Neanderthal; he is starting a fire without matches. In the first picture he’s using a bow-drill to spin a carved piece of sage into another block of sage wood fast enough to create embers. In the second picture he’s pushed the embers into dried grass and is blowing it into a flame. In the third picture he has fire!!! I have three young boys, so you can understand my desire to impress them with this skill the next time we go camping. But the best I could accomplish was a very warm stick!

Though fire making is a worthy endeavor, the real reason for hiking into the Yellowstone Back-country is to teach a backpacking/painting class. George and I taught the class together: I focused on painting fundamentals, while George taught wildlife sketching, geology, ecology, botany, and all other things to do with science. George is way smarter than I am, and he’d have a much better chance of surviving off of the land with, say, only a knife. (I wouldn’t survive long with, say, only my paintbrushes.) I was as much a student as a teacher in this workshop.

With six students we hiked five miles set up camp near Slough Creek. The location was stunning, and for three-and-a-half days we painted within the vicinity of camp. We sketched, painted, and took lazy hikes, talked Art and Science and enjoyed the ever changing light. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Three-and-a-half days painting in a very special place with a great group of people! Thanks to all involved! I hope we do it again. If you want to read more about the trip check out George’s Website.