d.i.y.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

There I was, boyz and girlz…alone on the bone-chill balcony, Creekside 20 at Bear Valley – the best spot in the place – standing still in sub-freezing weather with my hands in water … painting watercolors.

Insane!

BTW, Santa brought me that jacket (carhartt), and it is warm and tough! (Like me!) (haha)

Here, I want to show you seven little watercolors from that moment — on Arches 300 lb cold press.

Three of them are 5½” x 7½”, three 11” x 7½”, and one is 15” x 11”.

They’re sized in proportion (and tagged).

I don’t have titles for them yet.

They’re just scenes of snow and trees, one also has kids and a dog.

There’s always kids and a dog somewhere, if you look around, ain’t they?

I was happy as a clam painting there while the snow fell — or the icicles on the roof eaves dripped melt right past the railing, sometimes splattering my imprudently placed painting — doing what I love.

You’ll notice, i’m floating these paintings on a dark background to let their lovely raggedy edges show, instead of cropping tight to the painted area. That’s the natural tear of the paper.

cold. snow. This was Yosemite country just a couple days before 2010 staggered in to warm its hands by the fire.

A creek ran along the bottom of the little valley i was painting, and on later days the melt let the grass show through a bit in spots — which is hard to see with these small reproductions, except in the largest, the 15 x 11. Makes me kind of wish i’d done click-enlargements for some of them. But I didn’t, did I?

I loosened up a bit on the 6th and 7th paintings. I was warmed up from the others, had a good sense for what i was painting, by then; and there was something about that golden green tree standing in front of the others that demanded something freer.

I had a go at it.

Thus:

There were eight of us: Alli & T-bird & Crack, Dew-dew & E-Guy & Liesel, Shoobs & Pops.

Oh, and Thomàs the mellow yellow dog was with us, also known as Mana until Rangi’s little brother got named Manu, at which point Rangi announced the dog’s new name.

Which i assiduously respect. But some others rudely slide on this.

Which they definitely would not dare do if the Rangman were here in person to exact discipline. [See Dec 6 post for the Grom.]

It’s all there at Bear, the snow-fun: skiing, snowboarding, sledding, cross-country. Snow balls.

Night falls, indoor rec: Wii games and tripoly, poker, rummy or gin. Vodka. Pink Muchachas [4 parts fine rum, 1 part fine vodka, ½ part cranberry juice].

We did have Jimi’s Back-Country Chili, too, by jove! [See Dec 15 post.] And good! Though I did back off on the spices some, out of concern for the ladies, and I kind of regretted that….

Deep snow. More came. Four-wheel drive or cable chains. Or both. 7,000 feet at the condo, 8,000 on the slopes.

High altitude short breath at first.

It was snowing when we left. It’s probably snowing right now. Look outside and see….

HAPPY NEW YEAR!