Tree Hugging Cowgirl, Part 11

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  “This Ain’t No Ranch Road”, oil, 6″ x 8″

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  “New Cut Road”, oil, 8″ x 10″

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  North Fork at Black Bridge, plein air oil, 9″ x 12″

I’ve been working on my series, Tree Hugging Cowgirl, and have been doing a few paintings of these green gates that keep popping up in the areas of forest and grazing lands near where I live. The gates are always these big green ones and there are welded pipe fence on either side of the gates. Some of the pipe fences go for a long ways, others go for 20 feet or so. Either way, these are expensive. Ranchers might put up a gate but it would be a stretched barbed wire gate over a cattle guard. With a little side gate where a truck, ATV or people on horses could get through. They just don’t fool around with fancy expensive gates like that. Who belongs to these gates? And why do they seem big enough to let a semi trailer carrying extraction materials through? A lot of them have new wire fences with a really wide road cut running along it and disappearing into the forest or over a ridge.  These and other questions are needing answers.

My plein air and studio paintings were scheduled to be show in Paonia and Crested Butte during December (yes, that is less than 3 weeks away). However the owner of the space, The Cirque, where I was supposed to hang about 25 paintings and have an opening on November 30th called me earlier this week to say she had made a terrible mistake and double booked the date and space. We had agreed about a show early this summer and I’d kept going in there, measuring wall space, asking questions, etc. She had already signed a contract with the other artist just recently and didn’t know what to do. I suggested that the other artist (who makes willow stick frames with a piece of flat rock with a petroglyph painted on it inserted in the center of these stick frames) collaborate with me. We could hang half our works, each taking 1 of the 2 wall spaces. We could do that in December and in January switch wall spaces and bring in the other half of our work. The other artist refused to collaborate. And the owner of the Cirque told me I could have January or a month during the summer instead. I had already started marketing for the show and was glad I didn’t give the go-ahead on any printing or ads. I have been working with the Western Slope Conservation Center, they helped with maps, suggestions where to go, and were excited to be a part of the opening and exhibit. I was also going to donate a percentage of the profits to them from the sale of the paintings during the run of the exhibit. I was pretty upset but figured when live gives me lemons, I just make a Kamikaze.

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  Fire Along the Columbia, plein air Oil, 9″ x 12″

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  Tucked In The Trees, oil, 6″ x 8″

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  No Public Access, oil, 16″ x 20″

My new showing will be one night only at WSCC’s offices in Paonia.  Here is the press release with the details. It was great that the staff and the Board of Directors from the Western Slope Conservation Center jumped into help. And my friends were very encouraging as well.

Cedar Keshet’s “Tree Hugging Cowgirl” series explores the impact of fracking and other events on the environment. Her plein air and studio oil paintings follow her journey this past year (2018) going to sites that are up for oil and gas exploration in the North Fork of the Gunnison area in Western Colorado. This series also includes her journey from Colorado to British Columbia & Alberta and back and the fires she experienced while on this journey. Cedar collaborated with the Western Slope Conservation Center in this series.

Join Cedar on Friday November 30, 2018 from 5-8 p.m. at the Western Slope Conservation Center’s offices, 206 Poplar in Paonia. Artist’s Talk will start at 6 with WSCC information and Q&A to follow. Light refreshments will be served. 50% of the profits from this one night’s exhibit will be donated by Keshet to the Western Slope Conservation Center.

I hope to see a lot of you on Nov. 30. That is also our town’s Final Friday, so other galleries will be open. Including the Cirque where I was supposed to be exhibiting. Not like I’m bitter, but just saying its been a challenge. Glad I am a positive person and have found a way to share my art adventures with the community.

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Tree Hugging Cowgirl, part 10

I’ve been busy getting ready for my exhibits coming up in December in Paoina and Crested Butte. I’ve put in the press release I’ve sent out below. Also here are some of the images of the paintings that will be in the shows.

No Public Access, oil, 16″ x 20″

Tucked In The Trees, oil, 6″ x 8″

Tree Hugging Cowgirl

Heidi “Cedar” Keshet was raised in El Paso, Texas/Sunland Park, New Mexico. She spent many hours in the desert of southern New Mexico, near her family home, on her horse, with a sketchbook in the saddle bag. The light, colors in nature and huge expanse of sky was being infused into her artistic psyche as a young person. Keshet feels a deep connection with the land. She received her BFA in 1999. She has been creating art since she was five years old.

“I paint as a way of distilling the feelings of completeness and joy I experience from the landscapes of the Western United States. When a viewer of my work feels a connection to place, then I have succeeded in my work. I believe that painting the beauty of the West documents and supports these lands. I hope this will move others to recognize these amazing places and advocate for them as well.”

Keshet live in western Colorado where she creates art, rides horses, hugs trees and dabbles in Biodynamic farming.

Keshet is collaborating with the Western Slope Conservation Center in Paonia on this series of paintings to raise awareness about the parcels of land that are up for a lease sale by the BLM in December that are in the area where she and her family live, the North Fork of the Gunnison River in Western Colorado. The WSCC has helped her with technical details and information about where and what the BLM has planned for these parcels of land up for oil and gas production lease sales.

Keshet has gone to many of the places that are up for lease sale by the BLM in December. These leases are for gas and oil drilling a.k.a. Fracking. They are very near to her home and studio in Paonia. There are already many roads and fences installed even before the permission has been given to purchase the oil and gas leases. She speculates that the oil companies follow the adage that its easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.

Cedar wants to document what the areas are like before they are forever altered by fracking. She has referred to a map from the BLM which shows the areas up for lease sale, much of the area is already under production. She relates that makes her extremely sad and keeps her from sleeping at night when she thinks about the environmental damage done to many of these beautiful areas. She plans to raise people’s awareness through this series of paintings and her posts on Facebook and Instagram at Plein Air Cedar. She is also blogging about her experiences while painting this series.

Keshet is using many of the plein air studies as references for larger paintings to be created in her studio. Both plein air and studio pieces will be in at the December 2018 exhibits in Paonia at the Cirque Cyclery and in Crested Butte at the Piper gallery in the Crested Butte Center for the Arts. The Western Slope Conservation Center will be joining Keshet at the Cirque. The exhibit at the Cirque in Paonia opens on November 30 and runs through the month of December. The Piper gallery exhibition opens with a reception on December 7^th from 5-7pm and closes on December 30^th.

I hope I get to see a lot of you at one or both of the exhibits in December.

Tree Hugging Cowgirl, 7

I went with to another location, parcel 8140. But it was on private land in the middle of the National Forest land. That type of land ownership is not that unusual and its called Checker Board. But I was able to set up really close to that parcel and do a painting. Iwas near the road that goes from McClure Pass to Overland Reservoir. It was very busy with lots of big white trucks loaded with all sorts of equipment driving by us. I noticed the existing drilling sites that had storage tanks painted green. There were also gas and water pipelines buried along the roads and trailing up hill and dale.

This is only part of the tanks that I saw.

I got a good view of the Ragged Range with Chair Mountain being prominent. I also saw all the way over to Capitol and Snowmass peaks. I knew we were up high but despite the altitude, it was pretty hot outside.

Me, painting away

Some of the big trucks stopped to ask me what I was doing. When I said “I’m an artist, I’m painting” the drivers smiled and drove off. I think I did not seem threatening to anyone. Probably because a short old lady painting isn’t the archetypal villain. But there were threats to the environment up there. There was a shop for oil and gas activities with lots of trucks and equipment.

Here is the fracking shop.

There were lots of tanks, big dark green affairs with posted signs with threats on them regarding trespassing. Every time I spotted a set of tanks and then it went out of view, another set came into view almost . It was depressing.

And people are not the only thing that are threatened up in that area. Some one or several ones have been shooting cattle.

What kind of idiot shoots random cattle?

And not just cattle are being shot according to the warning on the sign. I was glad to finish up my little painting and leave that area.

Here is the quick little color study I did.

Keep up with the latest on Tree Hugging Cowgirl on my Instagram page at Plein Air Cedar

Tree Hugging Cowgirl, 2

This is a map of the BLM land up for lease sale December 2018. I live very near here. In fact my home is just off the bottom left of the map.

I want to document what the areas are like before they are forever altered by fracking. As the map shows, much of the area is already under production or will be. It really makes me sad and keeps me from sleeping at night when I think about the environmental damage done to many of these beautiful areas. I am doing what I can to raise people’s awareness through this series of paintings and my posts on Instagram. Follow me at Plein Air Cedar to see the latest place I have been plein air painting.

I am also going to go into the studio with the plein air studies and create larger pieces. Both plein air and studio pieces will be in my December 2018 exhibits in Paonia at the Cirque and in Crested Butte at the Piper gallery in the Crested Butte Center for the Arts. I also plan to include the Western Slope Conservation Center at the Cirque. I am still waiting for some one from Crested Butte to get back to me regarding the ranchland conservation plein air paintings I want to do there.

Do what you can to make our world a cleaner, safer and kinder place. Take some form of positive action, how ever you can. I paint and then blog and post on Instagram. I am hoping you will do what you can.

Tree Hugging Cowgirl

I have started a new series of paintings in a group called “Tree Hugging Cowgirl”. I collaborating with the Western Slope Conservation Center in Paonia.

I am planning on going to places that are up for a lease sale by the BLM in December. These leases are for gas and oil drilling a.k.a. Fracking. They are very near where I live in Paonia. I am also going to go over to Crested Butte and paint the ranchlands areas that are in need of conservation as well as the ones that are already protected.

Not all of these areas are welcoming.

This is up Steven’s Gulch

Obviously no one is welcome here

At least there is a trailhead at Hubbard Creek.

Not everyone is respectful of our outdoors

I haven’t been thrown out of anywhere yet. As a matter of fact, I haven’t even seen anyone at these areas. I am going to post when I go out on Instagram, hopefully I’ll remember to blog, too. But I do get busy and overwhelmed at times.

My neighborhood

Study for Cow Hay 2, oil, 8″ x 10″

Recently I’ve been going out in my neighborhood and plein air painting. I love my neighbor’s hay fields. A special favorite of mine is his old moldy hay that no one wants to feed to their animals. Its very picturesque.

The other morning I went out early to paint. It was the start of a very hot day and with the irrigation water coming into the field, the humidity and bug population started to rise. Up went my umbrella and on went the bug stuff (I use skin so soft) and I was absorbed by the light and subject matter until I realized I had lost the light and it was time to head back home for lunch.

Wild areas help me recharge my battery.

I just returned from a long weekend of camping in Utah with dogs and friends. My mountain rescue team I belong to held a training in the slot canyons of the San Rafael Swell. I opted to paint and hike rather than rappel and squeeze.

The break was great, I enjoyed the relaxed pace. The plein air sketches and exercises I did are going to provide ideas and inspiration for studio paintings for a long time.  Little road trips like this to wild areas are a balm for my spirit. My internal battery needed the recharge.

Looking north from the campsite.

It was a fun drive (translation = rough) on 4WD roads to our meeting point, but the Tacoma was a champ. Our training leader provided us with a highway map pdf, some directions off a website and GPS coordinates. The destination was about 5 hours from home.

The road into our campsite. The left side road is behind and the right side road is in front.

We had a view of an area called Sinbad country from out campsite.

The view from the campsite.

It was very remote but that was fine with us! We are a hardy group.

I hiked with my friend and our dogs before she set out on an explore of the canyons, with all the required gear and knowledge. I painted all day. She returned mid afternoon and joined the plein air fun with her watercolors.

Shade is at a premium in the San Rafael Swell, McKay Flat, UT.

The wind was pretty strong and even with extra tent stakes and lots of big rocks, the umbrella was not an option, so standing in the meager shade of a juniper was my plan. Seems like the dogs had the same idea. The rest of the team returned early evening after 18 miles or so of canyoneering and hiking.

Just a small portion of the pictoglyphs in San Rafael Swell, UT

The next day we drove around in the swell, which is an ancient reef and uplifted seabed, and caught some glyphs and hiked around Goblin Valley State park. We then traveled to Erby canyon and started a hike up it but the weather with rain clouds threatening a flash flood changed our minds for us. We drove out of the very sketchy road just in time for the downpour.

Me & my climbing dog at Goblin Valley State Park, UT

We ended our weekend at a whitewater rafters’ hang out in Green River UT for burgers and fries and headed back to cooler Colorado.