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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Plein Air Southwest Week, Part 2

Yesterday, I caught up with the Plein Air Southwest group in Jerome for a morning of painting.  It was absolutely beautiful with a little snow still in the shadows and good sunshine.  Usually when I'm up in Jerome, I paint some of the scenes on the lower tier of streets, but this time I decided to go to the top.  I found a little perch at the edge of the road with an overlook into the Verde Valley.

Here's the painting I did, a 9x12.  I like it, but I'm curious to know if you think the shadowed buildings are too warm - or just perfect.  Other comments are also welcome, of course.  (By the way, Blogger seems to do something to my images - makes them a little duller and darker.  Go to my Facebook page if you want to see it with better color.)


In addition to the folks I mentioned yesterday, Anita Mosher and Richard Prather also came to town to paint.

After a morning painting session, a few of us - Rusty Jones, Linda Dellandre, Cindy Carrillo and myself - went to Grapes for lunch.  The place was packed, but we found room on the outside porch.  We all thought that would be the best place, since we'd been outside the whole morning and had been pretty comfortable in the fresh air.  Wouldn't you know it, but the restaurant had the outdoor heat blasting to keep customers toasty!  So, it was a little hot.

After lunch, I had errands to run, so I headed down the hill to home for the rest of the day.

By the way, if you've not been to Jerome, below are some pictures.  Jerome is a resurrected ghost town and quite lively in the evenings.  Back when it was built in 1876, mining was in its heyday, and the miners thought little about building hotels, bars and brothels on a 30-degree slope.  Today, tourists brave the hairpin curves and lose-your-stomach views to shop and stroll.