Walter Taylor

Some watercolor paintings 2010.

Here's one more year of my plog (painter's log). I continue my mad quest to find out what rivers (etc) look like.

For earlier paintings, click on these years: 2003 2004 2005-6 2007 2008. 2009.

Click on each small image to bring up a larger version.

Leadville, Colorado, March, 2010

We stayed in this building on the weekend of the skijoring championships -- the apartment with blue reflected from the windows. Our friends Kathy and Jim live here on weekends (and he was involved in restoring this former hospital from the mining era). This painting was taken from a real-estate brochure. I don't usually put so much red into a painting, and I don't usually do architectural subjects. (To make it work, I actually sketched out a two-point perspective in pencil before painting anything.)

Lake Margaret, near Kerrick, Minnesota, April, 2010

I stayed here at the home of good friends. They own about two-thirds of Lake Margaret. The lake has a boggy shore, which rules out beaches and which would make it difficult to build lakeside cottages. Therefore it has remained unspoiled, with no visible construction. It is sometimes home to loons and other wildlife. Two paintings from one photograph; first one quarter-sheet, second one half-sheet.

Reflecting back on 2009

One photograph from last year still needed to be painted. See here for a 2009 plein-air painting of Long Lake with a rough surface. After I finished that one, the surface suddenly cleared and there was an interesting reflection, which I recorded with my camera. Didn't get around to painting it until Spring, 2010.

Buena Vista, Colorado, June, 2010

For earlier paintings of the river in this area, see 2005-6, 2008. and 2009..

The first full day of my visit had low clouds with intermittent rain. Here are two shots of the foothills of the Collegiate Peaks, from somewhere out on the vast alluvial fan below those peaks. The peaks themselves are obscured by low clouds. The first was done on site in the morning, while dodging rain and wind. The second was done indoors in the afternoon, based on the first and other lessons learned on site.

Four paintings of rapids along the Arkansas River. (Some of the rapids were artificially constructed for the benefit of kayakers. BV seems to have become kayak central.) In all cases I painted down in the gorge, a few feet above water level. The first was done that first afternoon, after the sky cleared a bit, a bit of a gesture painting to warm up. It is the same as this rapid that I painted in 2009.

Then two shots of one rapid (which I think is the same as this rapid that I sketched in 2009), plus a single shot of yet another rapid.

Then three rim shots -- observing the surface of the river from the west rim of the gorge, in different lighting conditions. (First not completed.)

All the Arkansas-river scenes were painted on site, except for detail on the opposite shore, which was mostly added later.

Then, going back to my usual place up Cottonwood Creek, I discovered that my favorite beaver dam had collapsed, leaving the reflecting pond high and dry. So I decided to study rocks in the stream. I spent two mornings and one afternoon on this painting of water and rocks with flowing water. It exaggerates the sharp identity of each individual rock, but it conveys something of a clear rocky stream.

Here are three paintings of the bottom of Cottonwood Creek, made from photos in the studio after I returned from BV -- two small (sixth-sheet) and one large (half-sheet).

South Boulder Creek, July, 2010

After BV, I got interested in rocky stream beds. Where the Mesa Trail has a footbridge over South Boulder Creek, near Eldorado Springs, we see the rocky bottom with reflected sky, at 4:54 PM on July 12. These subjects are time-consuming.

Marble, Gunnison County, Colorado, August 2010

The marble pictures were done later, from photos.

The beaver pond that is next to the airstrip in Marble. I think -- but don't know for sure -- that it's a wide spot in the Crystal River. The beaver lodge is just out of view to the left.

And here is another rocky stream bed, this time from the lovely Crystal River. I photographed this at the end of a fantastic five-hour jeep ride. (Thx, J and K.) More stream shots to come, I hope.

Red Rock Lake, Boulder County, August 2010

Once again, Red Rock Lake, an hour's drive from my house, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet. My Golden Age Passport gets me in free. Earlier paintings of this lake may be seen in 2003, 2004, 2005-6, 2007, 2008 , 2008 and 2009. This is my eighth year of painting this lake. Here are two half-day plein-air paintings, on a Saturday and then a Sunday. I was visited at 4:45 on Saturday by (I think) a yellow warbler. Then lo and behold he/she was there again at 4:45 on Sunday.