It is the first cold day here in Evergreen since last winter. Sad to see summer and this beautiful fall weather go but the cold weather pushes me into my studio to paint. This is a Colorado pastel landscape of a high mountain meadow where we camped in Steamboat last year. I attended a wonderful Elizabeth Mowry pastel painting workshop in August and started this landscape painting there. One of many I would like to finalize.

I just did my first pastel painting on Kitty Wallis paper and cannot believe I have had it sitting in my studio unused for so long. I love it. I have been trying all different kinds of supports for pastel and this is by far the easiest to work on.  First I applied a watercolor underpainting and the paper took it beautifully without buckling. Then it took as much soft pastel as I wanted to give it without filling up the tooth. I also enjoy how vibrant the colors are. Needless to say, I look forward to starting another painting on this support. This is a colorful little aspen scene I came upon while on a walk in Vail, Colorado, last fall.

It is my favorite time of year again. The aspen are changing; the Colorado landscape is incredibly vivid. I am taking lots and lots of photographs. I plan on painting lots of paintings.