Painting in Thin Air...Vicariously

"Along Red Mountain Pass"

oil on canvas 3.5X5" 

art work © Bruce A. Morrison

Some weeks back I received word I had been juried into the Western Spirit Art Show at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  The show opens on March 5th and runs through April 17th.  

 

When selected as an exhibiting artist, the museum asks artists to also do a "miniature" piece for the show as well.  I decided to do a small oil painting to accompany the original piece selected for the show (a colored pencil piece "Arches Mulie"; blogged here back in October last fall).

 

I had gone through my film files of Georgie and my trips out west and decided to paint a small painting of the Red Mountain Pass along US Hwy 550.  This is between Silverton and Ouray, Colorado, in the San Juan Mountain Range.

 

We had just had breakfast in Silverton and were driving north toward Ouray; the morning was cold and mostly overcast, but occasionally  a bit of sunlight and blue sky would expose a mountain or pass.  One such break came south of Ouray along the Red Mountain Pass; we stopped and photographed east toward the Red Mountain peaks (there are 3 peaks here of "Red Mountain").  

 

It was a very memorable and surreal landscape for us "flat landers"!  Most of the time the peaks were all hidden in clouds, then suddenly they'd be revealed for seconds or a few minutes, then gone again.

 

The air is a bit thicker here, but I'm feeling about as cold, at the moment, as when we traveled through the Red Mountain Pass years ago!

 

Keep warm out there!!!