Well today is Tuesday - laundry day and TINY UNIT cleaning day. I went down into the Bowels of the TINY UNIT early this morning 730 - and got the laundry started then came up and started cleaning the TINY UNIT. It is so TINY that the cleaning process does not take very long. The timer went off so I went back down into the Bowels of the TINY UNIT and moved the two loads of clothes from the washing machines into the dryers. Came back upstairs - set the timer for 45 minutes and proceeded to clean the house. The timer went off and I went once again down into the Bowels of the TINY UNIT and got the dried clothes - well - the bath towels were not quite dry - damp in places so I'll hang them in the bathroom to finish drying. WHEW -- my chores for the day are over!!!!!
I started this painting yesterday - it is 18 x 24 on heavy Linen paper done wet into wet with a big brush and my fan brush. As always it was done very quickly with lots of spontaneity and gusto in color and strokes.
The road into Taos provides some very nice areas one can pull off and see some beautiful sights. The high desert provides a lot of desert scrub brush which leads up to the base of the many mountains that surround Taos. I used a photo that I took this past autumn for my model. The high desert takes on many different colors depending on the time of the year and certain scrub bushes do go through a change in color during autumn.
First thing I did was find a blank piece of 18 x 24 heavy Linen paper and then I saturated the sky area with nice clean cold water. I then started to apply color to the sky with very deliberate strokes of my big brush loaded with globs & blobs of thick juicy paint. Four different colors of blue were used for the sky as well as an off white and a pure white for the clouds.
During most of the seasons with winter perhaps being an exception, storms build up behind and over the mountains and the upward surge of air found in the mountain areas tend to generate massive storm clouds and sometimes even rain, thunder and lightening.
Next I put in some color for the desert ground
The scrub brush was put in very quickly with a medium size flat brush and my trusty fan brushes. BUDDA BING - BUDDA BOOM
WE HAVE DESERT SCRUB!!!! WOO - HOO
WE ALSO HAVE A VISION OF A MESA AND MOUNTAIN IN THE DISTANCE.
Some close-ups for my "ATTENTIVE" blog buddies
When we lived on the East coast at the ocean, the weather could cause the ocean to become almost violent and any person in their right mind would build up a very sincere RESPECT for the fury and strength of the ocean.
Out in the Southwest, the weather can change quickly, the sky over the mountains can change from blue to a fury of dark grey, dark blue, and black. It s not uncommon for many squalls to develop over the mountains and work their way down in elevation.
Not long ago, during this past autumn my DW Melissa and I went up into the Sangre d' Christo mountains to an elevation of about 9,500 feet above sea level. I was a nice day - mostly blue sunny sky with a few clouds and a comfortable temperature. We packed a picnic lunch and brought our lounge chairs and reading materials. Within 1 hour the blue sky and sun were gone! The temperature dropped about 20 - 25 degrees, the sky became an ugly light and dark grey and the wind started blowing with gusto!
Well - long story short during the next 1 1/2 hours we sat in our car the rain coming down so hard we could not see out the windshield - shortly the rain change to very large size hail stones - shortly the hail stones changed into SNOW!!! It snowed in a blizzard fashion for about 1/2 hour. Then if by magic everything became very still and the sun started to come out! VERY SCARY!!!!
We left the mountain and on our drive down there had been an accumulation of snow and the storm had moved down in elevation so as we descended the mountain we were once again in the middle of this fast moving storm.
Until next time - take care my friends and Melissa & I wish you all a very healthy - happy and prosperous 2012.
JR :>)
