" Evolution of Shelter- Oxcart Ranch" oil on linen panel 18x24"
This painting had been sitting in the shallows of my mind for years and years. I hesitate to call it a bucket list painting because I don't like the implications- you know doing something deemed important before you croak. OK - it's the "croak" thing. Not ready nor do I want to.
For decades I have observed this scene while approaching Poncha Pass, one of the exit routes from the San Luis Valley (SLV) of southern Colorado- my home. Like a compass of sacred directions one can leave the SLV in four directions aligned with the cardinal points, each through low to high passes crossing the alpine bulwarks that surrounds us.
Two mountain cordilleras close in at the north end of the SLV to pinch the traveler over into the Sawatch Range and the headwaters of the Arkansas River. The Oxcart Ranch sits below this convergence, advertised by the modest sign next to the highway- attached to --- an oxcart. There are a smattering of buildings in this ranch complex but I have always been drawn to the log cabin on the ridge above the verdant meadows.
The cabin seems to be dormant- boarded up windows and doors, faded paint. Sitting next to the cabin is an Airstream trailer, also seemingly uninhabited. Attached to the cabin is a collapsing 2 by 4-construction porch. These structures sit amidst aspens of various sizes, some blue spruce, junipers, chamisa and sagebrush. My thoughts about this scene have always been about the various styles of housing and the delightful and picturesque juxtaposition of these elements, especially when the aspen turn in the fall.
The onset of the Covid Plague facilitated my decision to work up this painting for a couple of reasons.
The plummet in art sales with gallery closures gave me pause about what to paint next. There didn't seem to be a great need to increase my inventory with any speed. I thought about pieces bobbing in the mind shallows and that it might be a good time to fish them out- the oxcart piece being one of them.
The other consideration was that this piece is about housing. With quarantining at home it seemed topical to explore how we have created shelter over the eons. I feel fortunate in that I really like our home and property. We have a modest sized home that is a text book (on what not to do) example of globbed-on architecture. An old abobe core, frame addition with stucco and advanced solar aspect- 40 feet of southern facing glass. The house is on a 1/3 of an acre and with spring-into-summer weather it gave us a lot of time to pay attention to our garden, flower beds, trees, shrubs and a token lawn area in the back accented with a pleasant ramada. I realize many people do not have the same fortune to be sequestered in such pleasant surroundings.
So with decades of photo references and a detailed sketch I worked up this piece. I chose to open the cabin up and converted the porch into a abobe and stucco structure to further my theme of variety in building materials. I also buffed out the Airstream trailer's weathered metal exterior and made the background mountain range taller and more rugged.
Other than that- the real thing!
The video below illustrates the process and condenses a week's worth of painting.
Now with this subject matter attended to it is on to the next project(s). Hint: Land Snorkeling (a term mentioned by landscape painter Clyde Aspevig.)
