Life Is An Adventure
Getting in the car is an adventure. Going to the store is an adventure. Going to a paint competition is an adventure. Yup. It’s all about attitude.
Last September Dick and I were in Utah, one of the most visually blessed states I have ever been in. I was painting in Escalante for the first time. Wow. Oh wow. Did I say wow?
Plein Air Painting in Escalante, Utah
The event we were at was so darned friendly that I forgot we were out of state. But the scenery reminded me. I never used so much Burnt Sienna in my life!
I had a blast making and meeting new friends, painting in places where divine design was in every glance. You had to hunt to find a lousy view. I never did. My only gripe was the lack of turnoffs where the painting view was astounding.
It took a bit to get used to the heat of color in those Southwest vistas, married to the cool blues of recession in the landscape. It was a true WONDERland. We were like kids in a visual candy store. It was hard to pick out what spoke to you personally to use as a paint motif.
Didn’t win anything, having been outclassed at every turn. That was fine. To each their turn. Besides, the winning pieces were deserving.
Kiva
Escalante, Utah
11x14
Kiva Cleft
Escalante, Utah
11x14
Unavailable
There is something about painting the Utah landscape en plein air that makes you really look at those colors. The red and orange rock, the desert light, and those distant cool blues are even more striking when you are standing there trying to mix them on a palette.
A Landscape With Family History
Dick took time to ride the not-often-used roads that were not paved. He searched out and found an ancestral dwelling, fallen into ruin, that had been in his family when they moved west with the Mormon Battalion. This trip had deeply personal connections for him. Ghost towns can be so evocative.
At competition’s end we left Escalante for Moab, the second of the plein air competitions for me. I had a few paintings under my belt with those vibrating red rocks.
Onward!
From Escalante to Moab
We camped at Arches View Campground and toured Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Dead Horse Point State Park. Go ahead, try to pick a favorite. The storage on my camera was almost exhausted.
We had one night and one morning there, and the adventure truly began.
Not all adventures are as expected.
Dick suffered a stroke. Ongoing symptoms required that he be airlifted to Salt Lake City.
I have NEVER seen such care! I hope to never again have to visit that hospital, but I am ever thankful that it and its wonderful personnel are there. I have never been the recipient of such kindness in helping me get ready for the midnight road trip to get myself to Salt Lake City.
I thought the wonders were in the rocks in Utah.
Not so.
It was in their people.
From the helpers at the campsite to the stroke team at the University hospital, each person was caring, supportive, thoughtful, and kind. We were both extremely thankful.
Moab would have to wait. Getting him home was the imperative.
The Adventure Continues
Dick is continuing his recovery and is following doctor’s orders, but champing at the bit to be back on that bike. I swear if it could kiss, I’d have grounds for divorce!
But he is planning to ride Utah again.
I am planning to go back to Escalante to paint, having just signed up this morning. We refuse to have that state represent difficulties. It will, in our hearts, be the place where we had an unplanned adventure that started Dick’s journey back to good health.
A place that tested our reserves but brought us back to shared values and a knowledge that all we have is today and each other. A place that taught us to accept kindness gracefully. A place that taught us that all we have is our shared adventure.
Life is an adventure.
Live it.
