Memorial Day Weekend is upon us and in less than a month the days will begin to get shorter (bite my tongue). It seems contrary to logic that here at 10,000 feet in the mountains of Southern Colorado Spring has barely sprung and that when summer finally arrives, it will stay for 8 or 10 glorious weeks. Up here, a person forgets how alive the forest becomes in the summer. The sound of the breeze pushing it’s way through the aspen leaves, the singing and the humming of the birds, the sound of rushing water, the scent of the grass and the flowers, the shape and texture of the clouds and the warmth of the sun are all things forgotten that must be remembered as if they are being discovered for the first time.
For an oil painter, the contrast of the seasons here is a double-edged sword. So lucky am I to have a new inspiration for subject matter every few months but to paint with the seasons means to change the colors in the palette almost constantly. For the last few months Titanium White, Payne’s Grey and Coeruleum Blue have been the staples of my work and I have so thoroughly enjoyed painting the tones of full moon winter night scenes. I may paint a few more of them in the next week or two but I know that I will not be able to resist expressing the feeling of summer any longer than that.
