SKIING IN UTAH

Despite the great snow and skiing at the WISP in Garrett County, Alan and Sue Arnson ventured to the Wasatch mountains in Utah to ski this past week.   We had never skied Utah and have been wanting to ski in the west for the past couple of years.  The mountains are breathtakingly beautiful and the skiing was memorable.   One day we dropped 2,100 feet when we skied from top to bottom at Alta.    We stayed at The Cliff at Snowbird, which is a lovely resort.  Take a look at these mountains.

DANIEL HELSEL

The Garrett County Arts Council presents the Old Masters Style paintings by Daniel Helsel of Pennsylvania.  The show is in the Backroom of the Gallery Shop at 206 E Alder Street, Oakland, Maryland.  The show is titled "Simple Things Remembered".   There are 25 lovely paintings in the show.  
There will be a reception for Daniel Helsel on Saturday, March 27, 1 p.m. until 3 p.m.  

The public is invited to the wine and cheese reception and to meet the artist.

Daniel Helsel's show will be up until April 16,2010

GRAY and WHITE

 It has been snow white in Garrett County these past weeks.  Now the landscape is  gray, especially along the roads.  It is amazing to see the amount of  road grit on the snow.   So in the spirit of gray, I decided to play around painting gray buildings in a snow scene.    Gray is made by mixing complementary paints.   I used three primary colors and mixed them in various combinations to either blue the gray, red the gray etc.  This painting was done using a combination of ultramarine blue,  permanent rose and hansa yellow.     

WINTER

It may be the lst of March and only 2 weeks until Daylight Savings but it is winter in Garrett County.
The previous record snowfall was in 2002-2003 when we had 233" of snow.  The record was broken last week before the Friday snow event that dumped 22" on Garrett County.   The wind and snow were intense and everything closed including Wal Mart.   THAT is a first!!!!   Over the weekend we picked up 6-8 inches more of snow so that we are now approaching 275" of snow.  However, the roads are in good shape and we can move around the county fairly easily.

I used this weekend as an opportunity to retreat to my studio and paint.   I have not been a fan of painting on canvas with watercolor but a snowy weekend and idle time have changed my opinion on the canvas issue.  I had a great time out there creating and playing with paint. Plus sailboats made me feel like it was summer.