Yosemite!

My final plein air workshop this week was a great one. I finally hit
my stride and produced a really nice painting. My students took me to
lunch at the Ahwahnee hotel. What an awesome experience this event has
been!

Half Dome

Today's demo

My group today was ready to paint. I had some die-hard folks that seem to revel in the adverse conditions and produced some awesome work. It's not tough to be inspired to paint here!

My Yosemite studio

Frozen watercolor

We set out to paint along the Merced river this morning at 9:00. It
was so cold my paint formed ice crystals on the palette! This made
painting rather difficult, but eventually the sun came out and warmed
us up a bit.

Frozen falls

It was so cold last night the waterfall froze! Painting today was tough!

Yosemite Chapel

Painting Yosemite chapel

My workshop painted the chapel at Yosemite today. We still had
problems with getting the paint to dry and froze our tails off until
almost 1:00. Some of the high rock formations keep the valley in
shadow for most of the day. This is a tough group of plein air
painters. The worse the conditions, the happier they are!

Waterfall demo

Today's workshop was a challenge. My paper buckled from the humidity before I even started painting on it. The cold made weilding a paintbrush more difficult and my fingers kept wanting to retract into my fingerless gloves. I chose a close-up view of Yosemite Falls, as did most of my group. It was all wet-in-wet painting today. Nice for atmospheric effects, but not so good for layering.

Painting waterfalls

The falls at Yosemite don't run unless it rains. My painters were
treated with spectacular views in a 52 degree, damp studio. We had a
tough time getting the paint to dry. A few sprinkles added that "plein
air" authenticity. We toughed it out as long as we could without a
Starbucks.

How'd he do dat?

Levitating bear

Spring loaded

Beware flying bears

The bears at Yosemite seem to defy gravity. Their agility and
resourcefulness are astounding.

Bear picking apples

I was told to be on the lookout for hungry bears, and wasn't disappointed to see this tree-climbing teddy picking apples. He must have eaten a few of the fermented ones on the ground first as he appeared to be drunk climbing the tree. His descent was rather comical and his arrival at the ground rather sudden.

Yosemite National Park

I am so lucky to be in Yosemite this time of year! The waterfalls are gushing from the clouds. The trees are Naples yellow against a dark green backdrop. The meadows are burnt sienna and filled with deer. For the next week I'll be painting and teaching workshops here. Could be worse!