This photo captures the excitement of being able to recieve a critique, on my very own canvas, by a Master!  This is Scott Christensen, what a nice guy.  I'm definately saving this canvas!

My first whole day in Colorado Springs was spent on location at the Glen Eyrie Castle, an amazingly beautiful area surrounded by mountains and weird red rock structures both near and faraway, and also lots of amazingly exotic-looking animals that I've never seen before.  It was invaluable to see how Scott Christensen lays in his paintings, making it look far easier than it should. 

However, if there is one nugget I got out of this whole weekend it is this: simplify, simplify, simplify!  Capture the light and as soon as you have said what needs to be said, be done!  That is where so many of us go wrong, overdoing it and not giving the viewer an opportunity to engage their own mind in our paintings.

I ended up back at Glen Eyrie on two other days to paint with Skip Whitcomb and also Frank Serrano.  What an amazing opportunity...if only it hadn't been so rainy, cold, and windy that I could hardly stand it!  I thought coming from Minnesota this would be a breeze, but I definately did not come prepared for that!  Still, the out of character weather we endured showed the true resiliance of a plein air painter!  And often it is that sort of weather that offers the most intriguing atmosphere to try and capture on canvas.

The day I was to fly home I wrapped up this unexplainable experience exploring the Garden of the Gods.  It seemed appropriate that I would be sharing this with new artists friends I had made from both Brazil and Canada, a reflection of the awesomeness of this conference.  And the cherry on top of it all is that I also saw my first Rattle Snake, up close and personal, about 5 feet away!...It made my heart beat fast.  But it was very cool...and noisy as it rattled!

Another thing that made my heart beat fast was stopping at the Hayden Hays Gallery at the Broodmoor Hotel on my taxi ride back to the airport.  I brought the driver right in with me because no one should miss seeing these paintings up close and personal!  I pondered the majesty of a single vase glowing out of the darkness in a David Leffel painting that was priced at $70,000.  But perhaps my favorite was a tiny 8X10 winter scene by Frank Serrano that just radiated reflection off the snow.  Ahhh...how sad to leave.

And so as I enter back into "real life" I know I will forever be richer because of this opportunity.  I feel truly inspired to jump in even deeper on my never-ending quest to honor the beauty God has shared with us.