Badlands Residency Day 5


March 26, 2012

It was a low key day today. Spent the morning working on updating this blog, doing laundry, and organizing my stuff in the apartment. Real exciting. Spent some time talking to Steven, the photographer who is also here for a residency. We kicked around some ideas of places and weather to photograph, me for painting, him for working with to create a final piece. Worked some more on a painting I started a few nights ago. Sticking fairly close to my typical studio painting style. A little quicker, a little looser, but nothing like plein air. Will post it here when it's done. Around dinner time I headed out for a hike, see previous post. Came back and fixed dinner while watching Gary and Francesco (Calhoun teachers) frolic in the high winds on one of the formations close to the housing area. Gary, a poet, was artist-in-residence here back in 2003 and has been wanting to come back ever since. He is so thrilled to get a storm during their stay! I managed to get internet access again so also spent time updating this with yesterday's post while I ate. I plan to paint more when done here, but Sara offered to maybe come outside again to watch the storms if they keep rolling in, so I may end up doing that instead. Either way, a pretty nice life.


Storm!

I'll still write a summary of the day later on, but right now I'm thrilled about the weather!  It's been foggy/cloudy most of the day, sun on and off, with theoretical threat of storms.  I spent the afternoon working more on a painting in my apartment, then in the evening was invited to go along for a walk.  The storm was starting to come in, so Sara, two Calhoun teachers and some students, and I set off towards Angel Butte, hunting for more fossils and watching the storm roll in.  We climbed up a ways and had a great view.  The wind really picked up and there were vast waves of dust blowing across the prairie in the distance as the sun was beginning to go down.  Then the real winds hit, and we opted to climb back down from our exposed perch.  The blowing dust hit us, along with some serious wind, as we walked back to housing area, which is off to the left of the bottom image, below.  Fantastic!  We should be getting more storms as the night goes on!



Storm approaching towards Angel Butte area.
Storm Front over Ben Reifel Visitor's Center.