Packing & History, 100 years ago

I received an email from a lady at the Historical Museum of Hotchkiss, Colorado, yesterday. She wrote asking about my paternal grandparents, who raised my dad and uncle there just after the turn of the last century (my dad was born in 1906.)

She was excited to know that my grandmother Bess was an avid photographer, and that I had several albums of life in Hotchkiss. We'll be working together in filling their archives with images of the life there as I digitalize many of the photos.

Here's one of my grandmother Bess Thomas, with one of the many cameras she loved to use. No Margaret Bourke-White, but my grandmother took thousands of images of her life.

And I must say that the family resemblence is strong, as is the joy in doing what she loved!

October 12 - Packing the Last Bits for Georgia

This nice little 8 x 6 acrylic could be just about anywhere in our world...anywhere we can raise our eyes to the treetops and enjoy the wonderful sky above. I painted this as "edu-tainment" for the gallery in Idyllwild, using traditional acrylics.

What I like about it is the variation of greens in the trees (who doesn't sigh and roll their eyes when we talk about the greens on our palette!). Their are mixtures of both warm and cool greens from the Color System, and they play very well against the grays of the sky clouds.

My characteristic brushwork is very much in evidence, mimicing the wind in the pines--which is the characteristic of these denizens of nature when swayed by mountain breezes. I know I've "nailed it" when I can get both my brushes and the subject to connect this way.

This painting is available, from me for $95 with free shipping. (email me!)

I hope you'll continue on with me on this journey, and perhaps forward this on to your friends and family.

Thanks for reading,
Elin

Pesto and Bats, ex-studio cats, now living room cats (where the sun shines!)