Southern Colorado

Southern Colorado I, 2018, oil on linen mounted on panel, 12 x 12 inches

It has been a strange year when it comes to painting.  I know that I spent a lot of time in the studio, but I don't have much work to show for it.  I have been doing a lot of drawing since last year and 2018 was the year of the sketchbook, mainly because I saw that my sketches were becoming extremely popular on Instagram.  Trying to give people what they want I lost focus for a bit, but since the end of summer I picked up my brushes again and began a series of three paintings.

Southern Colorado II, 2018, oil on linen mounted on panel, 12 x 12 inches

I worked on these landscapes simultaneously as I raced my own clock to finish x amount of paintings by the end of the year.  I think I'm on track so far, I guess we'll see once Dec. 31 arrives.  I have been wanting to do some Colorado paintings, the place where my husband grew up, a Colorado that is far from the picturesque ideal of what people think when you say the name.

Southern Colorado III, 2018, oil on linen mounted on panel, 12 x 12 inches

Over the years we have visited a number of times, and it always hits me every time we land; Southern Colorado is a very harsh, dry, expansive place.  I hear that it used to be more green perhaps fifteen to twenty years ago, climate change has bestowed upon this area of the country drought.  This has caused the land to be very arid, as if this desert place could get any more dry.  To a person who grew up in the North East, where lush tall tress grow and the landscape tends to be very green in Spring, Summer, and part of the Fall, Southern Colorado can feel like Mars.  There is always a deep sense of loneliness when I look at this landscape, the vastness of it all can feel suffocating yet free.  From time to time this area is awarded some moisture, and green can begin to creep in on the pale grey brown of the ground.  It's almost like a little glimmer of hope that one day things will get back to the way they used to be in a not so distant past.  These three paintings are my first takes exploring this landscape, and what it means to me as a painter with no emotional attachment to it and experiencing its expansive dry geography.  As I visit more in the years to come and become intimate with the place it will be interesting to see how my views change about Southern Colorado through my paintings.