Bitter Creek

          At long last my wife and I are here in Arizona. We came into Flagstaff by train three nights ago.

                                                  * Mike and Crystal Turner *
Miller building adjacent to creek bed  Mike and Crystal Turner  train track near our host home
   
     Our host family lives beside Bitter Creek, on the north end of Clarkdale, down by the train station on Miller Road.
   The Turners have renovated the fourth floor of the old Miller building into living quarters and studio space.    
   The couple had once lived in Carrollton, Missouri and are good friends. The area along the creek bed is wild and
   undeveloped. All kinds of sites are within walking distance.     
       
        This morning I got up at dawn, slipped into painting clothes, tiptoed into the kitchen, got my water bottle refilled,
   Trail Mix bars packed, slipped on my shoes, and shuffled quietly with my big supply pack out of the living quarters,
   past Michael's studio floor, down the stairwell, and out into the morning air.   

        path way through the brush                   bluff and creek bed           
        Wednesday I had taken some time to roam the creek. After waiting and preparing myself for this opportunity
   to paint on southwest turf, here I was. One hunch was right, this part of Arizona had scrappy plants like I have
   back home in north central Missouri. Making myself do studies at a quarry, on a gravel road, or with cows on
   a hillside had helped me to "make do"  with the site at hand. I would not be painting the popular rock formations
   around Sedona. Our stay would be short. No time to set up at the Grand Canyon either.Though those places
   were just a two hour drive from here. That would have to be another trip. No, I would settle for this sprawled out
   creek bed.
                                                                                                              
    brush and pebbles        rock and plant 1
        What I found was lots of material to work from. Clusters of rocks, brush, dainty native flowers, and distant
   blue ranges. What I would be painting would be just an introduction. Sort of like, here is a rock, surrounded by
   your pick of greens, dotted yellow flowers, generally action that revolves around the main focal point,
   say, the sunlit rock.  Well, go at it, paint paint paint, discern discern discern, practice practice practice, and
   become familiar with these expressions. Continue your journey from afar. The photos you take will bring you
   back to this spot for "Course Work Two, Three, and Four."
                                                                                                      
         
ridges in creek bed             diagonal created by rocks
         The instruction of
Matt Smith came back to me. He had talked            The information at this site helps
    about the value of diagonals and placing elements in such a way            me picture rocks in the foreground
    across the picture as to lead your eyes further in, from the                       diagonaling back in a zig zag.
    foreground to the mid-ground to the background.
He had become
    so familiar with the lay of the land and describing rocks, cactus,
    brush, ground cover that he was able to superimpose and
    rearrange these elements in his head and on his canvas. So it was
    about "doing one's homework." Being here was a start. Picking out
    problems I would like to solve, recording the arrangments with
    my camera, and rendering what I could with the time I was given
   .............................this would create a bookmark I could return to.
   The doing of studies would now be the prize for me.
       
      
rock ensemble        rock ensemble
                  Thursday I returned to this spot.                            11" x 14"      " Ensemble"     Raymar canvas panel   
                                                                                                                                                    
August 10, 2006
                                                                                                           Beginning with the purple blue background,                                                                                                                 I selected the middle rock and a choice of greenery.
                                                                                                          From 7:00 to 9:00 am the lighting was great,
                                                                                                     and then, what so often happens, I had to stop.
                                                                                                      There comes a point when the sunlight moves
                                                                                                  and changes the subject significantly, it becomes
                                                                                               entirely different.That is when it is best to stop and
                                                                                                                                       ........start something new.

  
photo of gorgeous clouds from roof top        
                                                                                                    9" x 12"   "View Over Clarkdale"  
Raymar  panel
           Tuesday, on the train ride out, I remembered taking                                                           August 10, 2006
   snapshots of the big puffy white clouds. I thought of                                 
Thursday after lunch I tried my hand
  Phil Epp's work, with big cumulus-like shapes towering          at
describing a cloud bank from Turner's roof top.
  over the desert. This was the land of the clouds.                          I worked from noon till 2:00 pm on this.  I tried
                                                                                                    purple-blue shadows on clouds in motion. It was
                                                                                                    difficult to capture the scale and depth in a small
                                                                                                    picture area.
 
  door to the roof and clouds        view from the roof.2
            One can see in all directions from the roof top.         The elevation is one thousand feet above sea level.
                                                                                               There are clouds here I do not have back in Missouri.
    
                Mingus mountain      photo on site towards Mingus mountain     hillside with house and mountain range                       
               14" x 11"                    "Mingus"       Looking towards mountain range          Photo closeup of ridge.
                                         Raymar panel      
from roof top
                                     August 10, 2006                                
                   This work held three problems, (1) choosing to depict the mountain range in blue tones,
               (2) describing houses on the ridge beneath it, and (3) nailing down the cloud movement.
               Painting clouds was, by far, the most difficult of the three. As I painted, the sky was full of moving forms.
              
By the time I finished rendering a passage, new formations had taken their place. So I settled on the
               collective view of the sky, sort of a time exposure, presenting some of what was, and some of what
               my eyeballs were looking at before I wrapped it up.  For a "first time stab," I like the way the houses
               turned out, and the suggestion of the ridge that they rest upon. I worked on this
from 2:30 to 4:00 pm.
          
                                  skitter skatter small feet rasp   

                      It's Friday morning, the air is pleasant and still, the ridge in front of me is draped
               in purple shadow, a pinkish-red boulder sets on top, yellow marigold-like blossoms dot
               the ground, Mike had reminded me to observe the snake burrows, I am here to bother
               no one, careful with my footprints, keeping the area clean............now where can I find
               a diagonal?  rocks, brush, fleeting shadows, sunlight creeps over the ridge
.

                                   working on rock scene
                     Skitter skatter small feet rasp across the rock beside my feet. The lizards dart out of sight.
               A flick of a tail is posted on the screensaver of my imagination. I consider the red rock hunkered
               down on the dirt ridge, wondering which of the mesquite clusters to include or exclude.
               The pochade palette gets a misting of fine water.
  
                     A gray body comes into view 25 feet ahead. A grey fox stands motionless. The air is warm
               and still. I stand motionless. After a moment, the fox whispers up and down the dry plateaus, among the wispy
               green veils of mesquite brush, to the far side. I continue to consider the pink rock. Immediately
               I spot a second smaller framed fox. It pauses to listen, and then breathes like a ghost through
               to the other side.
                   
                equipment
                                         Bitter Creek.painting
                    A swig from my water bottle, ahhhh.                                     12" x 9"             "Bitter Creek"
                A nibble from the granola bar.                                                                          Raymar panel
                Looking for diagonals. Pebbles and                                                              August 11, 2006
                scraggly weeds, this is not what                                                                    
                I had hoped to paint in Arizona.                                        Q:  What problems did I choose to solve?
                Shawn Cornell was right, I do like                                          What elements did I describe with paint?
                my EasyL paint box and tripod.
             
                                                                                                  The brush pattern was rearranged
                                                                                                                in my mind to make a diagonal.
                                                                                                                Worked on this from 7:00 to 10:30 am.

                
        approaching storm   
My wife yells down from the roof.
                                                                                                           "Rain is approching. Time to call it quits."
            I scrape down the palette, clean my brushes out, empty the water container, fold up and store the tripod,
        pack the paint box in my supply pack, store the water bottle, pack the brushes, gather it all, and head back
        to the steps, trudge up the stairwell to the fourth floor, and drop my gear.
                            
            I am told the banks of the creek become a torrent of action when the mountain rains over take it
        It is monsoon season. The video Crystal played for my wife and I made it clear, you don't want to be
        standing in the creek when the flash flood comes crashing down.

 
                 
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