Exploring Between the Cowbells

Every day or so, I have to take a break from cowbells and painting to stretch my legs and get some fresh air.  Well, I might have to reclassify the air quality, as we found each trip north of Ely that we took to be increasingly smokey.  There is a wild fire burning at Goshute Cave that has of last report consumed 6500 acres of forest and is only 10% contained.  That is just a couple mountains over from where we spent our days exploring. 

We found a wonderful little mountain pass near the ghost town of Cherry Creek called Egan Creek.  A very interesting drive littered with remnants of long past mining activity and whose only current residents are a number of open range cows.  I had to of course stop and take pictures of the cows.  They were so curious and all still had their horns.  There was a particular roan colored cow and her calf that I really loved to see.   I may just have to paint her.




As we drove around, we came across a giant pile of slate.  You could see where they were mining it from both sides of the road and had pushed all the little pieces into huge piles to get them out of their way.





I picked up a number of pieces and brought them back to the camper to try painting on them.  Here are 2 pieces I have finished so far. I think I will attach a hook to the back and put a varnish coat on them and see if they will sell as small wall art.  What do you think?  I love creating art on this sort of surface.  It is always a challenge to incorporate the natural beauty of the stone into the art.  Really, I think I’m just a rockhound at heart.


I will leave you with just couple more interesting photos I was able to take with my phone.  We were treated by a group of wild horses as we drove up Telegraph Pole Canyon Road, antelope and deer and the Fort Pierce Cemetery.  All of this is also part of the historic Pony Express Route of 1860.  I LOVE Nevada history!

Who Gives a Hoot?

Still wet on my easel

I have been working on this particular 18 x 24 piece for a good part of a week now.  This summer I had the sheer pleasure to see a great horned owl up close and personal as one fine specimen choose the tree next to our camper to spend a hour or two just checking things out.  For some time he and I, (well I assume he was male but I'm not positive of the gender) just stared into each others eyes.  I think this may actually be my first owl encounter and it left me completely inspired!

Those eyes were amazing.  I guess I never stopped to consider just how "YELLOW" they really are.  Well, I have been hooked ever since.  

I painted this as an acrylic under painting and then glazed it with a coat of oil paint.  This is the first time I have painted with oils in close to 3 years and I really enjoyed the process.  I have just a few more touches and highlights to add and then of course there is the time it takes for the oil paint to dry completely so I can add a final coat of varnish.  Maybe I am premature to blog about a painting that admittedly isn't completely finished, but I get so excited that I just can't help myself.  I LOVE BEING AN ARTIST!

SOLD

This piece is my 2nd full scale painting that features this beautiful animal.  The first one was painted with acrylic on a 10 x 20 canvas and I was thrilled when it sold shortly after I hung it for viewing at the Boulder City Art Gallery.

Reference photo taken by Allison Henderson of Beatty, Nevada

Isn't he just gorgeous? This is the reference photo I used to paint this magnificent creature was taken by a Nevada photographer, Allison Henderson who lives in Beatty, Nevada.  Allison and I belong to the same Nevada Photographers Facebook page and had never met until the above mentioned "owl sighting".  She posted this picture on Facebook and I immediately commented that I had seen an owl the same day near Ely, Nevada.  To my shock I discovered that Allison was also in Ely when she took her photo.  A few exchanges back and forth and we discovered that we both were actually vacationing in the exact same RV park. ( I want to give a shout out to the Valley View RV Park.  It is a great place to vacation while in Ely.) Allison snapped this picture while driving near the golf course in Ely but because that is only across the highway from the RV park I have a strong feeling that this was the very same owl that I had seen that same morning.  

On It's Way to Washington DC

This week I was given the pleasure of designing and creating a unique Christmas ornament that represents the State of Nevada and that will be hung on the National Christmas Tree in Washington DC.  What a great time I had doing this project.  I did feel a bit funny not painting a white snow scene, but I am recently returned from a weekend trip to enjoy the fall colors on the 33 mile drive called Success Loop near Ely, Nevada.  Part of the drive is covered in a mature aspen grove.  The sounds, the colors and the beauty still fill my memories and it was that image of Nevada I wanted to portray on this plastic globe.  As you can see from this picture the ornament is actually pretty good sized and began as 2 halves of a clear plastic ball.  

I put a gray primer coat on the ball initially and tried to apply acylic paint directly on top of the primer.  I didn't like how this was working so changed gears and painted the whole ball a blue color.  I think created all the artwork on paper using my Prismacolor pencils and pen and ink.  I think cut them all out and glued them to the surface of the ball.  I then came in with acrylic painted and added the leaves and the grasses.  I also painted a number of small pebbles in silver paint and glued them to the top of the ornament.  This represents silver nuggets and of course the state of Nevada is know as the Silver State.  To finish off the project I sprayed the whole thing with fix-it spray and then a couple coats of spray on clear varnish to add shine and to make sure everything stayed in place.  

I decided to add a detailed Mountain Bluebird because they are not only a beautiful bird, but they are after all, the state bird.  Our first trip driving the Success Loop we saw a number of deer so I wanted to include a young buck.  Of course on my ornament I tried to duplicate that shimmering and sparkle that only quacking aspen trees can produce.  I don't think I even came close, but I guess I probably gave a modest representation and you are at least able to guess what I'm trying to convey here.

Since it is difficult to get all views of a circular globe with just one photo, I created a collage of all 4 sides so that you could get a better feel of what the ornament looks like.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it.  

Check out all my artwork on the gallery link above or on my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com

Who, Who, Who Goes There....?

It was bound to happen sooner or later.  We enjoyed the cooler temperatures and beautiful scenery that the small mountain community of Ely, Nevada had to offer.  The folks at the Valley View RV
Park were the greatest.  I hated to pull out of there but we just had to return to the blazing Las Vegas Valley.  As we drove those 240 miles the closer we got to our destination the higher the temperature rose.  It is amazing just how much difference that 20 degrees makes.

It taken a couple days to get everything hauled in, cleaned up and put away.  My studio and the bedroom still have work to do.  I have turned my attention to my artwork as I have to get ready to deliver some pieces to hang at the Boulder City Art Gallery.  I also had several pending sales that I needed to attend to.  While I was away, I managed to do quite a bit of sketching but only completed one real painting.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I still have lots to learn when it comes to painting realistic feathers, but I didn't do too badly.  What an impressive bird of prey these creatures are.  The one we saw near our camper wasn't as big as this one and he stayed covered enough in the branches that we didn't get the best picture of him as I had hoped.  His presence impressed me and those eyes are amazing.  I hope I captured his beauty on this 10 x 20 canvas.

We just got a good high resolution photo of the piece and now I'm going to apply a coat of varnish so it can dry and we can finish off the back and install the hanging wire.  He is available for sale and will be soon on my website.  If you would like to see him in person, then take a drive out to Boulder City and take an hour or so to walk through that amazing art gallery out there.

We are planning to return to Ely in a few weeks.  I really want to see the Elk but they were high up in the mountains and so we no sightings.  We did see antelope, deer, wild horses, this owl and lots of magpies and robins so I was pretty happy about that.  The Success Loop must be breath taking during the fall color changes.  I'm hoping we can catch that before they get that first snow.

All Good Things Must Eventually Come to an End

We are now heading into the last week and a half of our vacation and I have to say, "When can we do this again?"  There has just been something about not having constant demands on your time that just free one to be more creative.  Also having only about 160 sq feet of space to keep clean means I'm not really  overwhelmed with housework like I am at home in my 2000 sq foot house.

I love this Ely, Nevada area.  I might not have that same opinion during their very cold winter months but the summer temperatures have been amazing.  We have also experienced a lot of inspiring scenery and wildlife during our 2.5 weeks here and that does wonders for your creativity.  The one animal that I haven't gotten to view up close yet is an elk. This area is home to many elk and I'm told by the locals that during the summer they are high up in the mountains but come the cooler weather of fall they will again be seen more frequently.  

Sketch of an Elk

I had to rely on reference photos to draw this colored pencil sketch of an elk. I'm sorry that I have to post cell phone pictures of my artwork but my scanner and home computer just wouldn't fit in the camper and I forgot to pack the chip reader for the good camera so that I could have access to the photo on my laptop.  

The one thing that is different about this sketch is that I usually don't include all the background, but only focus on the main elements of the composition. Probably because I'm a tad bit lazy but this time I tried my hand at penciling the whole scene.  I think it turned out pretty well and I am pleased with it.  This process of creating a rendering helps me for the time when I'm ready to actually create a painting.  I feel that I am much better prepared and have a better understanding of what it is that I'm going to paint.

We got to walk around the downtown area Saturday, August 6th and take in the annual "Art in the Park" event that I have been looking forward to since we first visited in June.  As I suspected, the area was full of vendors but I saw a lot booths that had more crafts than fine art.  As a matter of fact, I only saw one traditional artist tent there.  His name was Randy Morris of Salt Lake City and he had beautiful work and told us that he has come for several years.  I hope he did well because outdoor art festivals are in my experience a whole lot of work with very little reward.  It was still fun and we showed our self-discipline by walking right past all those funnel cake and Indian taco vendors to come home to a healthy lunch prepared by yours truly.

Great Horned Owl- 10 x 20 Acrylic

In previous posts this week,  I have shown some sketches and a progress picture of the great horned owl painting I have been working on.  This piece is getting very close to being complete.  I have several minor details to work out and a few more highlights and then I will be adding my signature and calling my feathered friend here finished.  He is going to look really great when I add that coat of varnish to him. That always brings out the colors and adds a nice shine to the piece.

I'm also very excited about a new opportunity that may be coming my way as an artist.  It seems very likely that I will be teaching an after school art club at a local private school that I have associations with.  I'm both excited and a bit nervous.  I'm sure once I get a few weeks under my belt I will be just fine.

In planning for this club I want the first 8 week  session to be focused with drawing.  Shapes, shading and creating depth will be a good starting point for the club that will range from 3rd - 12th grade.  I have been adding some sketch ideas in my own sketchbook and going crazy with my newest social media love, PINTEREST!  What a wealth of ideas there are there.  I just can't stop adding pens to my boards.  

Here is one of the fun little sketchs I did this week and it may be the example for my first art club project.  There is just something about drawing lines that I find relaxing and therapeutic.   I just love taking a simple line and by adding a curve here or  a shadow there, you can create such amazing and complex composition. I decided I had to add an element of mystery to the design so I added some little eyes peering out from a black void in the wrappings.  Elsewhere you can see ripples and creases that I think give the drawing more interest and spark imagination.  Now will the kids enjoy drawing something like this as much as I do?

 For more information about this art club that I'm calling "A-Club" you can go to my website.  I was pretty excited that being the non-technical person that I am, that I was able to set up a registration and payment tab on my Weebly website so parents can register easily. Check it out at: A-Club information.  I was pretty proud of myself for figuring this all out.

 

The Adventure Continues

It's been a couple of days since I last gave an account of my artistic vacation adventure.  We have been pretty busy exploring the hills around the Ely, Nevada area.  When I'm not being bounced around in the front seat of our F250, I'm making meals or thinking about my art.  Let me catch you up on both our exploring and the drawing and painting I have been working on the past few days.

Our trusty Ford truck.  You've carried us to lots of amazing places!

Sunday, after church, we took the drive that had been suggested to us called "Success Loop".   This drive was amazing.  It is 33 miles long and starts a few miles past the small town of McGill and ends about 15 miles outside of Ely.  You literally are making a giant loop through the mountain range east of Ely.    The road is paved for a short distance on both ends, but then turns into a typical gravel road.  When we traveled it there would be no issue with a car driving the loop but I had read that at times when it rains the road can become flooded and high clearance vehicles are recommended.  Since we own three 4WD vehicles most roads are never a concern to us.

Success Loop Road

Nevada is open range country so we did have to stop several time for some "Slow Elk" in the road and were privileged to also have 3 deer sightings.  Several miles up the road, as you gain altitude, you find yourself in a large grove of mature aspen trees.  The sound that the slightest breeze makes passing through those leaves is so amplified and serene.   The light of the sun reflecting down through their filtered branches just dances and twinkles and you know exactly why these trees are called "quakies".  We have already started making plans to return to this area in October just to see these trees dressed in their fall colors.  If you are anywhere near this area, you must take a couple of hours out to drive this loop!

Awesomeness along the way!

I think we drove out to Garnet Hill on Monday and then again on Wednesday.  We found a number of really nice sized garnets down the hill just by walking around.  I think we figured out that there are plenty of garnets for those that have the patients to walk around looking for them.  The professional garnet hunters bring all the tools and toil in the dirt, breaking open piles of rocks while breaking a sweat and their back in the process.  I just want to fill up a little vile or jar to sit on my shelf.  I'm happy with the little ones.  I'm sure in the next two weeks we will go up there several more times to add to our collection.

Cave Lake

Today we drove out to Cave Lake to just scout out the location.  Some of our kids are coming up for a visit and I wanted to see if this might be a place for us all to enjoy an afternoon.  We didn't pay the fee to enter the park but the scenery just from the 15 min parking zone at the entrance was breathtaking.  I'm sure it is well worth the $5 for a Nevada resident to pay to drive on around the lake.

My little creative corner, complete with a large cup of McDonald's coffee of course.

Because I fancy myself to be somewhat of an artist and because this is predominately an art blog, I thought I might share a picture of my little art corner I have set up in our camper.  Small but efficient, I have all my pens, markers and colored pencils close at hand.  There isn't much room for my acrylic paints so they are store outside in a tub.

Artistic Journal entry detailing my owl encounter

This week I was privileged to have a for real sighting of a great horned owl.  This magnificent creature was perched on a branch a few space down from our camper and his giant yellow eyes were focused on me.  For sometime we just stood there staring at each other.  It was amazing.  I have since  been obsessed with those eyes.  I did a journal page in my artistic journal about it and now 

Sorry for the cell phone picture

I have started a 10 x 20 inch acrylic painting of a full bodied owl. I'm loving how he is turning out so far.  The funny thing is that inside our small camper trailer he seems to be staring at me with those huge yellow eyes no matter where I move.  Of course in 23' you can't move very far.  

 He will be sitting in a pinyon pine tree among pine needles and a perhaps a green pine cone or two. Similar to the ones I included in my artistic journal a week ago.   You can see he looks to be patiently waiting for me to pick up my paint brushes and get on to finishing up the details.  Maybe he will be finished for my next blog post.  You will have to come back and visit me to see for yourself.

I've Got a Fever- GARNET FEVER

Yesterday's Artistic Journal Entry- My Husband Digging For Garnets

I have often heard of the term "Gold Fever" referring to those men who sold everything, abandoned their families and their way of life back east to cross the rugged deserts, mountains and prairies just with the dream to strike it rich.  Very few did but that didn't seem to sway them from coming.  Nevada's very beginnings are steeped deep in the lure of riches that lie just below the surface.

Well, yesterday we were those driven individuals, picking and shoveling at the rocky hillside in search of the treasure that was surely there just below the surface.  Withstanding the blazing sun and temperatures reaching close to 95 degrees and yet there we were seeking a specific treasure.  We were hunting garnets at Garnet Hill Recreation Area just outside Ely, Nevada.  I can honestly say to you that I have wanted to come here for years and do just that.  

There was nothing else on my mind, eyes focused on the ground under my feet, looking for that unmistakable sparkle that was the tail tell sign of the gemstone that was there within my reach.  My husband digging and chipping away at the rocks with his shovel, pick and classifier.  It took us a short time to get our strategy in line and figure out just where the best place was to look.  And of course you would know that the best place for him was a steep climb up the hill, on loose limestone and for me, who is a person that you could call coordination challenged, the walking around was stressful.  Not to mention the sun beating down on me and that darn oppressive Nevada heat.  When I suggested that I had had about enough and that we head back to town and that amazing invention of air conditioning that awaited us in our travel camper, I was greeted with his unwelcomed reply, "Just a little longer."  I stared at this stranger that had the appearance of my husband of 37 years but It was as if he had been possessed by some strange garnet demon that required he keep looking for that "REALLY BIG ONE" that was surely in the next shovel full.  For a moment I was sure I saw his head spin around and his eyes flash purple but that was probably more the result of my overheated, dehydrated state.

We Cheated and Purchased This One

Of course I'm exaggerating this a bit.  We both had a great time and can't wait to return soon and continue our search.  We found about a dozen small specimens that we have floating in an old water bottle.  The largest garnet was the one I found, not at Garnet Hill, but rather at the Garnet Mercantile in the old downtown of Ely, Nevada.  I hope we find one this beautiful, but $10 seemed a small price to pay to have such a beautiful little treasure.

Looking back on the day as I was recording our experience in my artistic journal,  I was blessed with the realization that the real treasure was being together and enjoying the beauty that surrounded us.

The view from our digging spot.  That is the large cooper mine in the distance

My Artistic Sabbatical Just Got A Bit Nutty

Today's sketching efforts turned out to be a little bit nutty.  Or should I say that my focus subject today was a couple of nut loving rodents.  As I mentioned in my previous blog post,  we have spent the past week camping high on a mountain in the Humboldt National Forest camping just about 5 miles outside of Ely, Nevada to escape the hecticness of Las Vegas and more importantly the extreme heat.  While it was warm, 90+ for a few hours in the afternoon each day it is nothing compared to the 115 degrees that is often the norm back home.  It is hard to be stay inspired when you're sweating buckets of bullets.  

It has been a glorious week of peace and solitude.  I'm calling it my artistic sabbatical.  My list of creative goals is pretty hefty, and even if I don't get them all accomplished, I feel that this time is going to be well spent.  

Practicing Feathers

Today I decided to practice drawing fur.  I have for my inspiration a very cute book I purchased a year or so ago by Jane Seabrook called "Furry Logic".  It's the cutest little book and her illustrations are amazing.  I love her treatment of fur and feathers.  So I'm trying to improve my own drawing techniques while looking at her lovely pictures.  I worked on feathers the other day so today it was fur.

I especially wanted to draw a grey squirrel because I was treated to a visit yesterday by a particularly large guy that decided to run through our camp.  One thing missing from this past week has been wildlife.  Oh there have been plenty of bugs in the week.  I have had my fill of that type of wildlife.  There was one little hummingbird that would whiz by occasionally but not much else.  I had really hoped to see an elk or at least a deer but that wasn't to be.  Yesterday morning, while drinking my coffee I was treated to a sighting of a grey squirrel.  I was thrilled because it has been actually several years since I have seen a squirrel. 

So here are my two sketches. I'm pretty happy at how they turned out.  I of course need a lot more practice before I'm in the league with Ms. Seabrook.   One sketch done in honor of our camp visitor is treated in a realistic style and the other is closer to the style in the "Furry Logic" and is more animated and fun.  Both started out to be just little studies but I feel that when I get home they may wind up being matted and make an appearance on my Etsy store. Of course I will use my scanner and not these blurry cell phone photos.

You can checkout more of my work on my Website or my Etsy Store.

Road Maps

I have always loved to take a desert road that heads off to some unknown destination just to see what interesting things are just over the next hill.  Nevada has thousands of miles of just such dirt roads.  Some are no more than a wash but they are still reflected as little blue dashes heading somewhere.  I love looking at the topographical map of Nevada.  You know the huge map book that has Nevada divided up into 71 or 72 separate squares.  The map that 1" equals 4 miles. This weekend was just such a Nevada adventure.

Page 65 on my map book followed state highway 375 that runs through Rachel, also know as the extraterrestrial highway and the closest public highway to the infamous area 51.  I wanted to see the site on the map called Tempiute, which I presumed was a ghost town or some past mining effort. The road that headed up into the mountains was a solid line road rather than blue dashes.  The key stated this was a MAJOR ROAD.  The only problem is that in Nevada there are very few road signs, so when I saw the mileage marker that said that the town of Rachel was 20 miles I knew I must be close to my turn off.  I use a real exact and precise measuring tool when exploring... the size of my index finger and middle finger together looks pretty close to one inch to me, so when I measured 5 of these finger lengths from the Rachel back down the line that represents highway 375, I knew that this must be the right road.  So because we are true Nevada explorers...we took it. 

It was a great road heading into the mountains.  We found great places to bring the trailer in the future and go camping.  Just shortly after we got on the road, we passed by a truck that appeared to be driven by a local rancher, complete with a cow pony tied up in the bed of his truck.  We waved as we passed by. We had a wonderful picnic lunch and so about 3:00 in the afternoon we decided to pack it up and continue on.  We headed up further into the mountains, all the time I'm following along our trail on my trusted map.  Completely isolated from anyone we are surprised to find that we are being followed by the same rancher we had passed hours earlier. 

Brad prefers technology so he always brings along some sort of electronic contraption to fight and be frustrated over. No matter what the item is, it never fits properly in the dashboard holder and is always flying out and falling on the floor at the worst moments. This time he brought his hand held Garmin GPS thing that has the 3 x 3 inch screen that I can never figure out.  As we are driving, Brad keeps mentioning that the road we are on is called the Cold Springs Road and that there is a road up a head called the Mail Summit Road..all the valley and mountain names that he keeps blurting out are no where to be found on my map.  As it gets closer to 5:00 I'm getting pretty frustrated because I'm not exactly sure where we are or where to go to get back to the highway.  True explorers would never want to turn around and travel a road they had just been over.  Where is the thrill of discovery in that?

At about 5:30 I decide to flip the page over to page 66 in my map book.  Boy was I shocked to find Cold Springs Road.  I'm so lost that I'm not even on the right page and now I can see we are heading off into the vast emptiness of the Nevada core.  Well at least now that I know what page I'm on I can develop a plan to get us back to some pavement.  We chose to take the Mail Summit Road to Highway 318 just North of Hiko.  We travel 15-20 miles when low and behold we meet a truck on a especially curvy portion of the road.  Would you believe that it is the same rancher that we had seen twice before is now traveling the opposite direction.  He has lost the horse and added a trailer.  Amazing that we would run across this man 3 times in our travels that day.

We breathed a sigh of relief when the highway came into sight.  While I don't like not knowing where I am exactly, I can't help but compare that same lost feeling to so many lives.  We had all the right tools at our disposal.  Detailed maps and electronic gadgets but we weren't using them correctly.  We have the same tool available in the Bible.  In there we have a detailed road map for our lives.  We can learn how to handle our finances, our relationships and how to live a life full of peace and joy.  It all depends on how you use the tool.  Are you guilty like I am so often of just picking it up on my way out the door to go to church or do you really depend on it and study your road map?  Is it part of your life or an object taking up room on the shelf?    I'm going to commit to reading my Father's map book on a regular basis so that I won't get lost when I have a trial or a temptation come my way.  What about you?

Desert Exploring

Awesome old windmill

Nevada is OPEN RANGE country

I wanted to show you some of my own unique Nevada artwork.  Painting scenes from this wonderful state is something very special.  You can check these out in close detail along with many of my other works at my website at julietownsendstudio.com.  Leave me a comment below to let me know what you think.

Here are just a few:

A painting  I did of a ruin at Clifford  off Highway 6 between Tonopah and Warm Springs 

This is very near one of our favorite camping spots in Nevada.  We love to exploring this area and painting the ruins and desert scenery is something I love.  Check out more information and photos of Clifford by following this link:  Clifford Ghost Town

I call this piece "Casting out the Darkeness"

 There is absolutely something special about the sunrise and sunset in the desert.  I'm not sure what it is, but they are more beautiful than almost any place I have been.  I hope I captured this sunrise with this colorful piece.

"Doorway to the Past" is a piece meant to make you consider the strength of those that tried to make Nevada home.