This watercolor painting, "Rising From the Plains" just received the award "Best Western Landscape" at the Western and Wild Horse Art Show and Sale in Rock Springs.

Plein Air Painting in the Red Desert

From Honeycomb Buttes

Wyoming Wilderness Association summer activity

Honeycomb Buttes WSA Photo by Erik Molvar

5. Friday and Saturday, June 17-18
Red Desert, Honeycomb Buttes WSA painter's campout (moderate)
Join Liz Howell, WWA director & painter, and Joy Keown, Laramie Artist, at a car camp near the Honeycomb Buttes WSA. Friday morning we'll rendezvous in either Lander or Rawlins (depending on where you're coming from) to drive into the Red Desert. Hikes Friday afternoon & Saturday morning will set up for painting the gorgeous Honeycomb Buttes. Campfire critiques at night. Saturday afternoon--those who wish to attend the Red Desert Rendezvous in Rock Springs--we'll pack it up to attend the Rock Springs Red Desert Rendezvous and Conference that night where we can display our art pieces! All mediums encouraged.  Contact carolyn@wildwyo.org or call 672-2751 for more info or to sign up!

Galapagos Islands

We had no internet availability in the Galapagos, and were quite busy when we returned home, but I wanted to comment on our trip.  We toured with Ecoventura, a company that has won conservation awards.  Our ship, the Flamingo I, had room for twenty passengers and ten crew members.  The group was small enough that we enjoyed getting acquainted with everyone.  Our tour guides, Karina and Ivan, were excellent, very knowledgeable and conscientious.  We visited Genovesa, Ferdinandina, Isabela, Santiago, Bartolome, North Seymour, Santa Cruz, Espanola, and San Cristobal.  I was able to do a watercolor sketch almost every day.  We saw frigate birds, blue-footed boobies, waved albatross, flightless cormorants, Galapagos penguins and many more species of birds.  One had to be careful not to step on the marine iguanas, they were everywhere.  The land tortoises were not so common, but we did see some in the wild.  We also saw "Lonesome George", the last Pinta tortoise, at the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz island.  Did my first snorkeling and saw amazing marine life, including sharks, rays, moray eels, green sea turtles, and many different kinds of tropical fish.  The days flew quickly by, and now it all seems like a wonderful dream.

Just finished this portrait of "Mother and child in the Andes"

This miniature watercolor painting, "Teton Range" was chosen "Best Earth Landscape" at the 2011 Wyoming Wilderness Association's "Celebrating Our Wild Earth" miniature show in Sheridan.

Quito

Met our tour guide,Marcos, at 9 AM and visited the historic district of Quito, a world heritage site.  Visited several churches, Franciscan and Jesuit.  One was begun in 1533, just three years after Pizarro arrived, and took seventy years to complete. Visited a fair trade shop and purchased Ecuador chocolate that was wonderful.  After lunch we visited the museum of archeology and saw Ecuador artifacts and art from periods prior to the Incas through the Spanish occupation to the present.  The gold artifacts and other types of metal, silver, copper, etc. were beautiful and the different processes for their production was explained.  The earliest known metal work was found here.  Walked back to the hotel in the rain. Quito is at 9,000 feet and gets afternoon showers typical of the mountain regions.