More on That Prairie Sky

Well more photos of that sky but I am finding it hard to articulate what it meant or means to me. It was hard to focus on any thing else except the immensity. A place to breathe, a place to feel your heart swell, a place to just be.

Highway 13, Saskatchewan

Off Highway 13, Saskatchewan

Off Highway 13, Saskatchewan

 Highway 13, Saskatchewan

8,690 Kilometers Later

We are home, 8,690 kilometers later. An absolutely wonderful trip...did I mention I LOVE road trips. For anyone considering doing this trip I urge you to go. Saskatchewan and Montana were our favourites. It felt like we were sailing across the ocean only to discover at the T.rex Discovery Centre [link here] that the prairies had been an ocean eons ago. Now it's time to do laundry, deadhead the garden, enter the studio and see what happens.

Trip finished

Already Missing the Prairie Light

We are in Minnesota now, on the way home, and just one day away from the prairie light of Montana and North Dakota. This is lovely country, very reminiscent of home but we are both missing that huge prairie sky and the very beautiful light.

That prairie sky, near Havre, Montana

Getting There

We are having such a fine time, Ontario was huge, miles of spruce and pine trees with the stone of the smooth Canadian shield exposed; wonderful, and now in the prairies. Immense skies and a wonderful sweetness in the air. Love, love, love road trips!

Fields of gold

Stoughton Grain Elevator

Progress

We Are Off

After breakfast, across Canada, following that old dictate, "go West". I think it says young man but I'll just skip over that part. So here is the plan. Get in the car and drive to Calgary, the only place we have a hotel reserved. It's a tad intimidating looking at the map; that's a lot of country.

The magenta stars show where  we start and stop

We want to be in Calgary for the Art of The Book, 2013 show, which given Calgary's recent severe flooding is a miracle that it's even going ahead. Big congrats to the organization who announced Monday that the show was cancelled as the venue had been affected by the flood and yesterday announced they had found a new venue to hold the exhibition. I am thrilled and honored to have Why I Paint [link here] included in this exhibition, and Elegy to Betty [link here] and A Tiny A, B, C [link here] included in the traveling show. Please note the change in venue, it will now be held at DaDe Art & Design Lab, 1327 9 Ave SE, Calgary.

Digital works

Not wanting to waste my beautiful gray pastel paper, I decided to do studies first and work out any problems there before I used the expensive paper. I haven't been too happy with any of the studies but again using photoshop to layer has really helped the process along. Yesterday I decided to print a couple of them to see. I did a test print a 1/2 size, then the full size prints and ended up liking the smaller prints better. Not to sure why. I was thrilled with the color, even though I always proof my color for the paper I'm printing on there are always compromises to be made. [The raspberry color is a bit less stinging in the print.]

It seems strange to me that there is still such debate about digital work. Here I started out with several pastel drawings, photographed them digitally, processed them and layered them digitally, printed them digitally on Somerset paper, photographed the prints digitally, re sized them on the computer digitally so that I can upload them and you can see them. What are your thoughts about digital work...pros...cons...feelings...musings...

I just noticed, this is my 500th blog post, thanks everyone!

Raspberry top and bottom, 10 x 14.5 in, 2013

6 raspberry rectangles, 10 x 14.5 in, 2013

Hammock Therapy

We have actually had a day with out rain. Finally put the hammock up with the anticipation that I might spend some time lazing about and watching the light filter through the trees. If not me then hopefully my sister in law or brother in law who are baby sitting the house while we are on our adventure driving out west. Looks good to me; now to grab my book and doze an afternoon away.