No bug bites, no 40mph wind, no rain or animal intrusion, just beautiful weather and scenery in Michigan. It is funny how the landscape is different when you are on a bicycle. For 3 days I was inspired by scenes along a bike path near Saugatuck, Michigan. I headed first to a field divided by a row of trees and wildflowers in the foreground.

The next morning I headed for a nursery. The owner, Steve, came by to see what I was doing across the street. Of course, the painting was in the ugly under painting stage but he was very kind. He told me I was looking at about one million sprouts that will one day be Christmas trees.

On the third morning I set up across the street from a field with a farm building on it. This was very close to the Christmas Tree farm. This was also a spot close to a coffee house that sells Michigan Cherry coffee and yes, it is delicious if you like flavored coffee.

All of these are 9 x 12 in. pastel paintings on U Art paper. I will properly take photos and post these on my web site in the Plein Air category under Works: sueflanagan.fineartstudioonline.com. I hope your are enjoying your summer as much as I am!

On Sunday I went to mass and then in the afternoon I drove to Gillette, Wyoming. I stayed in Gillette that evening.  I dropped off the rental car and picked up my car from the repair shop Monday morning. Other than a stone putting a dent in my windshield, the trip home was uneventful and took two days.

It is time for a different vehicle that is more road worthy. So, as we looked for a car, our washing machine needed to be replaced and a plumber was called for a water leak. The leak was not from the washer but from a trim nail that punctured a pipe. 

I still have holes in my walls, but no leaks. The washer has been replaced. However, the most important thing is that my new Art Comber cart is packed with plein air art supplies and ready to go in a more dependable car. Jerry's Artarama replaced my defective plein air cart.

Time to hit the road! So many landscapes to paint!

Now my Art Comber Cart is falling apart.

I decided to organize my at materials and load up the car for the return trip to go home. I noticed the seam on my art cart is coming apart. I bought this only 4 months ago and have found it very useful. How to fix this? I am one who had a tailor put boy scout badges on uniforms. Maybe I should use duct tape? Oh well I'll deal with it when I get home.

Here are some pictures of Livingston and of the Murray Hotel lobby where I stayed this week. It was like a trip back in time.

It certainly has character. My friend of 40 years came to Livingston with her daughter and we went to Bozeman. We went to the Legacy Gallery in Bozeman and saw some fabulous art including some of Aaron Schuerr. After lunch we went to the Rocky Mountain museum which was very interesting about the geology of the area and dinosaurs. It was blazing hot so we went back to the hotel for a beer and for a very nice dinner. Thanks Michelle for the treat. Tomorrow, I hit the road to pick up my car in Gillette, Wyoming.

Last night the group decided we would like to try a city scape. So, we met in an alley across from Aaron’s studio. He demonstrated a charcoal drawing of the alley with an old truck and a bright blue building.This was a great lesson in linear perspective. I love the gridded viewfinder that he had. You could draw directly on it as you viewed your scene.

 Aaron took us to some other locations within a short distance and let us go to sketch or paint for a couple of hours.

I decided an ice coffee was in order. So Connie and I went to a local bakery and then found a table in the shade. We sketched the buildings on that street corner. Others met us for lunch and then we went back to Aaron’s studio for critiques. We each showed one painting and he made some changes to improve the painting. It is amazing what a few strokes can accomplish. We ended about 4 p.m. and said our good byes. Some of us will meet for an Art Walk that Livingston is having tonight. This is a great end to a great week. The weather was perfect, the company pleasant and the instruction was excellent. Tomorrow my friend, Michelle, and her daughter will meet me. They are coming in from Missoula.

We returned to the new place on the ranch that we visited yesterday afternoon. This was a busy day. Aaron demonstrated a pastel while standing on a small bridge. He painted a river scene. After the initial sketch, I decided to start painting and just check in on his progress once in a while. He has painted this area before but he changed his approach to the composition.

I painted a river scene close by. This is the final painting but Aaron did adjust some values during the critique. I left the fishermen out.

Aaron took us for a walk to really look at cast shadows and reflected light.

After lunch, we returned to the same area but I needed shade, so I painted a tree portrait. Aaron got me to focus on the trunk so he helped with the scale of the drawing. The color is all my fault. I only had an hour and a half for this one. The wind really picked up so the umbrella came down.

That evening we were back to Aaron’s studio. He cooked some delicious spaghetti sauce with deer meatballs, a salad and dessert. We had wine, some interesting conversation and met most of his family. We ended with a plan for our last day.

On the third day, the class met at 8:00 a.m. along the Yellowstone River. I decided to paint the same scene I painted last evening. This would be interesting because the morning light was totally different but it was changing quickly. This time it was more about the mountains for me. They looked very different. It was mostly sunny but gradually became overcast in the afternoon. I was also challenging myself by using Pastelmat. This pastel surface is very different than other sanded papers. This is an 11 x 14 in. pastel.

Later in the morning, Aaron did an oil value sketch showing us how to paint reflections.

After a lunch break (McDonalds) we went back to the ranch but in a totally different place. We were sharing this area with fishermen. Aaron walked around explaining how to compose a painting. Just walking a little in one direction or another can really change the composition.

After that, I only had time to walk around and take some pictures and almost finish a 5 x 7 in. pastel of a shack. The bugs were vicious.

The good news  is that half a block away from the Murray hotel, there is an optometrist. The optician fixed my glasses for $5 in 5 minutes. This is good since I tried to lose those cheater glasses twice.

This is the second day of the workshop and we returned to the same spot. The ranch dog that took a siesta on my hat, walked over Aaron’s wet oil painting that he did last night. I hope he can fix it the paw prints-the challenges of plein air painting.

We started the day early at the ranch and Aaron gave a pastel demonstration on blocking in big shapes.

Our assignment was an exercise. In 45 minutes we were to paint the basic shapes in the correct value with the overall local color in that shape. It was to get us to see the big shapes in the composition. We were not to get into detail and create a finished painting. When finished we were to do some more. I worked on 5 x 7 in. paper.

Peggy Prugh was kind to drive us to the ranch so after our first exercise we took a break. She had to attend to a tire problem with her car. When we got back to the ranch we found out that we were heading to Aaron’s studio because the heat was getting to the students. He covered a lot about composition, perspective and painting water.

That evening half a dozen of us headed out to the Yellowstone River and painted a beautiful river and mountain scene. This is a time of the day that is unusual for me and the light changed quickly. It was frustrating but I learned a lot. These are the Absaroka Mountains but for me, this painting was about the reflection in the pool of water. This is an 8 x 10 in. pastel.

This was a very pleasant end to a great day.

Finally, this is the first day of the workshop! I couldn’t sleep and had an early breakfast.

I found Aaron’s studio without difficulty and was the first to arrive. His studio is in an old schoolhouse.

Aaron is very personable and he started the day in a relaxed way describing the overall week. After some delicious coffee cake baked by his wife, we headed out to a ranch. Aaron demonstrated a charcoal drawing and we practiced only with charcoal to understand value.

I was sitting under a tree to eat lunch and work on my own charcoal drawing when  I had a canine visitor. Poor guy, I nearly bored him to death. He took a siesta on my hat. The scenery is breathtaking here. 

We went back to the hotel to freshen up and have some dinner. While I was eating and enjoying the food and conversation, the lens in my glasses just fell out and into my lap. The frame came apart as well. Am I jinxed? So, I had to go and buy cheaters at the pharmacy because I cannot read without glasses. Oh well…..

Then we headed back out to the ranch. Aaron demonstrated an oil painting of a sunset that was extraordinary because of the clouds. It was very misty and we saw a double rainbow! When it started to rain and thunder, some of us decided to leave but Aaron pressed on in the rain and finished a beautiful sunset. It just seems to be raining on my parade.

Day 4 was pleasantly uneventful. I walked to church for a beautiful mass and then back to the hotel. In the afternoon I was on the road to Livingston with a rental car from Enterprise. It was about a 5 hour drive. The weather looked very threatening with a lot of wind as I was approaching Livingston, MT, but nothing came of it. So I checked into the Murray hotel and went for the most awesome BLT I have ever eaten and a beer. I felt not only like I had come 1,400 miles but I also stepped back in time because this is an old and quaint town. The Murray hotel is 110 years old. The mood is old time, casual, western.

The good news is that I did get to see Mount Rushmore and Devil’s Tower. The bad news is that I had to have the car towed 60 miles to Gillette, Wyoming because it overheated. I was really looking forward to painting Devil’s tower on site but it will hopefully happen in the studio.

I saw Mount Rushmore about hmmm....., OK, 50 years ago. The facility has changed a lot with a very interesting historical visitor’s center and viewing amphitheater. As a kid I did not appreciate what an incredible work of art this is and a truly monumental feat. Every president is as tall as one of the pyramids. After Rushmore I stopped for gas and a car wash since I had an inch of dead bugs on the car. The car wash did not work. Since I got to Rushmore early, I was going to spend the afternoon painting Devil's Tower. This is a fascinating rock formation that rock climbers and artists love.

I drove to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming becoming suspicious about fluctuating car temperature but nothing in the dangerous area. Then as I was waiting in line at Devil’s Tower, the gauge rose to the maximum temperature. Thank God, for cell phones and AAA. After some confusion and a couple of hours of waiting, the tow truck arrived. I was riding in a cramped, filthy, noisy truck with of course no a/c for 1/1/2 hours to Gillette, Wyoming. Fortunately, Robert, the driver was so interesting and nice, the trip to the hotel seemed to go by quickly.

So, the plan is to leave the car in Gillette and take a rental car to Livingston Montana tomorrow. I should be in Linvingston for the workshop on Monday, God willing.

There was a very threatening sky over South Dakota on my way to the Badlands. There was also a lot of road construction on I 90 that really slows things down. I had to wait twice for 15 minutes in the Badlands because of road construction. The sky gradually cleared up and it became hot during my trip through the Badlands. It was like visiting another planet. I live in such an amazing country! The sun was too intense and hot for me to paint after a long drive. There was no shade to be found. So I just enjoyed it and took a lot of photos for a studio painting that I hope to do later when we have those long winters in Chicago.

I'm spending the night in Rapid City, South Dakota. Tomorrow, I'm going to Mt. Rushmore and then to paint at Devil's Tower, Wyoming.

Remarkably, I left on time at 5:30 a.m. in order to avoid rush hour traffic. There was dense fog that at times became torrential rain even into Wisconsin. I soon found out that my lumbar support had a hole in it. The good thing about traveling by yourself is that you can stop as often as you want. An audio book kept me company and entertained. I arrived in Fairmont, MN, the city of five lakes, about 1 p.m. I got an  ice cream cone for lunch and a local man recommended Sylvania Park for a good painting spot. The weather in MN is in the high 70s partly cloudy and with a slight breeze. It made for a great afternoon of painting.

Time to check into the hotel and think about dinner.

It is only a couple of days away but I have been looking forward to this pastel plein air workshop for 6 months. There is so much to think about when you go on a two week road trip that includes a lot of plein air painting.

I decided to clean a reorganize my pastels. I finally decided to cut up my Unisons so that I have a greater variety of greens.

Well, the pastel box is looking good but I am not so sure about my car. I have taken it in for all the required maintenance and I am told by Honda that it is road worthy. However, what is that burning smell that only I can perceive? Perhaps I have been breathing in too much pastel dust, but I have water, coolant and duct tape in the back seat just in case. Thank goodness for AAA.

Yes, my luggage did zip up and I didn't have to sit on it to do it. I have extra art supplies.

The Art Comber is packed and ready for plein air painting. I'm bringing the back pack just in case the terrain is too much for the cart. Of course, in that case, it will be too much for my body, so what am I thinking?

I have the old fashion kind of map as well as the updated GPS and cell phone. I have plenty of audio books for entertainment.

I have plenty of food for my lunches trying to be frugal and kind to my wallet and kind to the waistline.

Well, I am sure I am forgetting something but I will only know when I need it. Follow along on the journey day by day.