Celebrating Life! 2014

50 or Better

I am entering a piece I just finished to a show called Celebrating Life! sponsored by the Las Vegas City Council. I will deliver tomorrow but the thing that called my attention to the show was the call for entries where it states "Artists 50 or better are eligible to participate" Do you LOVE that?!
I just had to enter. Hopefully I make it into the show.

After the Fire

Last year we had a horrible fire up at our mountain island, a near 12 thousand foot peak called Mount Charleston. The fire started down in the canyon of the Spring Mountains and lapped up a huge amount of land. The scars are very evident, where it crossed roads, where it jumped fire breaks, where it scorched 50 year old Joshua trees and everything around them. Mountain residents were evacuated and the fire came within a few hundred yards of one of the tiny residential areas.

This year I was driving up the mountain and I decided to take photos of the interesting burned landscape. Then I could come back every year to see nature's progress in reclaiming the mountain. I was surprised by the growing carpet of blue, purple and orange that had already begun to sprout! Between the blackened yucca, new growth afoot and yucca blooms sprouting in some of the trunks. Sprinkles of purple sage and globe mallow everywhere, daisies here and there...new life on the mountain springing up everywhere!

Here is my piece with some details, After the Fire, A New Spring a hand colored woodcut 34 x 26 inches, edition of 25, half on Arches tan and half on BFK light. Both papers color very nicely with watercolor with the Arches being a little richer overall and the BFK light a bit more subtle and delicate. Just got done framing it today.