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. 

I just returned from the experience of a lifetime!  I spent a week in Colorado Springs, CO, learning from the greatest living painting Masters of our time, and it is hard to put into words the impact such an event will have on me and perhaps the world.  I doubt there has ever been a gathering of this scope and magnitude before... and for those of us from this country as well as around the world, blessed to be there, it was an opportunity to share and interact in a community of like-minded artists all on the same journey, although all in different places along the way. 

The vast talent we were exposed to, all together at one place and time, I'm imagining, was unpresidented.  Richard Schmid, whom I consider to be the "Grandfather" of all of us oil painters living today, was received by the audience with the love and respect of a cherished family member.  He received a standing ovation before he even began to speak... and then went on with a sweet, gentle talk that left us all a little more in love with this humble genius.
 
As I went about my agenda, attending workshops with Masters I never in my lifetime thought I would meet, I was thankful to connect with fellow artists from around the country who spoke the same language as I and shared the same passion.  Because of this event, the world became much smaller as I now will be in contact with artists I never would have met before.

And so, there I was, sitting directly behind David Leffel as we and others watched Dan Gerhartz paint a portrait of  "Lisa" that glowed with radiance.  I was especially moved by Dan's spirituality as he spoke of his calling as an artist to "observe and reveal the nuances of what he sees."  He said he stands in awe of the designs God has created...that each design was made with dignity and a purpose...and what comes out of his brush is his opportunity to honor this and reveal it's beauty.  Dan has such a reverance for what he paints and it radiates out of his work.  Truly one of the hightlights of my week.

I was surprised at what a funny (and gentle and sweet and soft spoken) man David Leffel was.  So many of us have him on such a high pedestal, because of the immensity of his talent...and I'm imagining that many of us were intimidated at the idea of even being in his presence...and yet there he was, calmly yet with poetic authority, sharing with us the intellectual reasoning behind the painterly decisions he makes. It was lovely.

Scott Burdick was a delight to listen to and watch.  Besides painting with a thick juiciness that is just plain yummy, it was awesome to hear his stories.  He spoke of his travels around the world and particularily Africa with his wife Susan Lyons.  This is an amazing young couple who has already gone to places few others have, to draw and paint and make friends with the nomads of Africa, the kind of people most of us only experience through National Geographic magazines.  The drawings these people recieved (to be carefully folded and folded into a tiny square to be tucked inside of their loincloth!) was perhaps the only look at themselves they ever had!  He also spoke of perserverance, the never-ending quest to grow as an artist, saying success depends more on hard work than anything.

And so those are some of the artists I had the pleasure of seeing in action, in addition to Jeremy Lipking. Tomorrow I will share my workshop experiences in which I painted on location with other Masters!  See you!