End of Festival and Next Days in Sedona

Saturday morning was the “Public” art sale – and final festival day. It was billed as meet the artists day and see the work that had been created all week. Though, there was a “Gala” the evening before, and possibly some paintings sold that we did not get to see. The cost for the gala was $100 to attend and we opted not to do it. We were there early on Saturday. It was fun to see so much plein air work and in so many different styles of art. They had also awarded ribbons the evening before. We said goodbye to many new artist friends and hope to keep up with them and even trade information. Each one we spoke with during the week was willing to share any knowledge they had! What great people!

Here are a few more photos of the festival and artists.

The Quick Draw Sale
and Ginny looking at some information



Michael Chesley Johnson, his set up that day
and mixing some paint to apply!


So . . . The Plein Air Festival is now over and we are on our own once again! And . . . painting is the order of the day each day! Where do we wish to paint? Some of the festival artists have told us of various places they had a good day painting. But . . . we also want to visit a few of the shops we have not seen and a revisit to “Windrush Gallery” for more inspiration. We decided to have a “goof off” day and visit shops we had not been in and galleries.

We had seen some tents on our way to the sale, so we went back to the "art" show. There were some wonderful Native Americans playing music and showing dances. I bought one of the CD's of music and it is lovely.  The CD is Estun-Bah and title is "Sounds of Beauty", Native American Flue & Acoustic Guitar. They have won awards for this CD and have already produced a second on that Wanda Crane bought. Okay, having typed that, I now realize this visit to the Native American art show happened earlier in the trip because Wanda was there! I guess that is what happens when I don't post every night!

Anyway, here are a few photos of them.

Playing their beautiful music!

We bought some family souvenirs and had a light lunch at one of the downtown “tourist” joints. So, we have that out of our systems – and hopefully finished with any spending other than food, gas and travel!

Here is a photo of the first dance we watched



Here is the second dancer



Sunday we wanted to paint – but Candy decided she needed to organize, photo paintings, clean her palette, etc. So Ginny and I went to paint close to home on a road we had not been down before, which was Red Rock Upper Loop Road, on the way to the Red Rock State Park.

We found a wonderful ravine to paint . . . so I completed three paintings and I think Ginny did the same. I think it is some of the best oil paintings I have done so far! I have not been using my painting knife much in the last few years, and after watching some of the plein air festival artists create these "darn" rocks . . . I decided to pull them out and see what I could do. What a difference! I only used the knife for the end of the painting and to highlight the rocks or to add a darker accent.

Here are a couple of the paintings from that day.



Oil, 7" x 5"
Red Rock Ravine #1



Oil, 8" x 10" - same scene
Red Rock Ravine #2



















Oil, 9" x 12"
Just looking the other way at some cactus!

 We painted all the following week and visited the galleries, Jerome again to paint a nocturne (night painting), Cottonwood and antique stores! I will post more paintings from this past week, but in the next post.

Yesterday (Friday) was probably our last day to paint. I think I did my best three paintings -- pastel of course!

Today is Saturday and we are going to Cottonwood to "junk" around and also to visit the Arizona Pastel Society member show. Michael Chesley Johnson told us about it and the reception is today from 2:30 - 4:30.

Also, Ginny is packing her stuff and getting ready to leave early on Monday morning for her ride to Phoenix to catch a plane home. Candy and I will start our drive back early on Tuesday morning -- Santa Fe, Oklahoma City, and Little Rock -- before we arrive back home on Friday late afternoon or early evening.

So . . . I will leave more words and photos for the next post.