Aspen Plein Air Invitational 2011

Aspen is a unique little ski town in the Central Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Technically the Western-Slope, the Roaring Fork River makes its way out of Independence Pass and through the town of Aspen and eventually confluences with the Crystal River, the Frying Pan River, and countless other less substantial tributaries until it meets the mighty Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, CO. I mainly focused on the upper part of the Roaring Fork on Indy Pass, the town of Aspen itself, and the Maroon Bells area this year. The weather was a challenging thing to deal with this year in Aspen, I think it rained every day and some of the showers were more like torrential downpours, but it made for some interesting lighting conditions and some dramatic sunsets. You’ll see in the body of work that there are a lot of “partly cloudy” scenes which I really love painting.

The sales at the event were a little bruised by the impending doom feel of the days we hung our paintings. It’s an outdoor sale, so naturally strong winds and thunderstorms can have collectors, and artists running for their lives. Still though, the sales weren’t bad, just effected.

I did take the “Artist’s Choice” award for my body of work this year which is always a great honor especially among such great peers.

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