Property

"Solitary"
Oil on Panel
16x20"
2007

Well, Nate and I officially made an offer on the lot we've been looking at up in Granby. The owners are in Spain, so we're waiting on their signature, but it's all been agreed on verbally and we should close near the end of February. The lot is currently under three feet of snow, so there will be a long time waiting for the snow to melt and the ground to dry before we can even break ground on a house. The plan is to rent something in Grand County for the summer while Nate builds the house. If we decide at the end of the summer that we don't like living in a small mountain town, we'll sell the house. If we love it, which we probably will, we'll move on in!

I've always wanted to live up in the mountains, and we've already passed up a few chances to buy property when it was affordable and have been kicking ourselves ever since. Now is a good time to try it out, and the lot is in a good location. Our house would be right over the hill from Sol Vista Ski Resort, which is a small family friendly kind of ski mountain. It backs up to open space with some ponds and wetlands, so the view should always be nice from the back porch. And best of all, we'd build a house with a nice roomy studio for me - yay!

This painting is a rainy day scene from an area a few miles from where we'd be living (and this photo is blurry and bad for some reason, so imagine it looking a bit better!). I did a plein air painting at this location, then turned around a shot a few photos of the view in the other direction. This was probably my favorite painting in my solo show, because when I look at it I remember being there, hunkered down in the rain on a foggy day when you couldn't see the high mountain peaks. Of course, I'd bet that the majority of people who came to the show didn't even notice it. Sometimes that happens with the more quiet pieces, and that's okay - I'm happy having just painted them.