Saturday Plein Air - Emily Traphagen Preserve

Today, again, Mother Nature was keeping it pretty cold for Memorial Day weekend. It was 34 degrees and by the time we got to the park, it hadn't warmed up much. Luckily, there was no wind and the sun was out.

We were delayed from our normal start time, as the park rangers asked us to leave for about an hour. It seems there was a coyote that looked very ill following around visitors walking their dogs. Normally, they would stay away from humans and large dogs. So the rangers had to find it and put it down. We got started after 9am.

I had been to the park in the late winter and there are two wetlands which I had hoped were still interesting. I walked back into the park by myself to the wetlands. Both were pretty grown up but I stopped at one that had some interesting grasses. I did a quick 4x6 pastel.

Even though the ranger had taken care of the coyote, I had an uncomfortable feeling being out there by myself. I packed up and went on down to the small lake and the east overlook. I painted looking west towards the dam, where all the other painters were.

Click link for a video of the scene below:
http://youtu.be/gMd2Rb3B9aU

Both paintings are pastel done on my homemade pumice mixture on paper. That is the texture you see in the closeup.

We had a large group today. I think we had over 17.