utah

Art in the Barn 2024

This weekend I participated again in Art in the Barn hosted by the Draper Visual Arts Foundation. It’s a fun, local show that I’ve done for three years now. I always opt to have a tent outside of the barn at Draper City Park so I can set up my own booth. Every year I consider setting in physically IN the barn, but it gets very crowded in there and it’s just not my jam.

I got to chat with some artists who I met last year and meet a few new faces too. The DVAF brought in a food truck each afternoon and there was plans to have live music playing on Saturday afternoon too. I got to chat with Stasia, a violinist who played at last year’s event. It was awesome chatting with Jacque Tietjen with High Adventure Photography and meeting Brooke Ochs, a contemporary folk artist.

This year, Utah’s summer weather got the best of us though.

On Friday, it was breezy, a little gusty, and a few scattered moments of rain. It was honestly no biggie. My tent held up just fine and my displays are heavy wood and pegboard, so nothing budged. I just had to move things around a little bit when it rained for 10 minutes at a time.

I assumed the weather kept lots of people away. There really weren’t a lot of people, but I knew that in previous years, Friday was typically slower than Saturday.

When I signed up for this show three years ago, I had wicked anxiety about it being super windy and stuff blowing over, so my husband and I built my stuff to withstand those potential winds.

Saturday proved to be different.

There was no rain, but by about 2pm, the winds were gusting horribly. I tried to stay confident that my tent and displays could handle it. I even started painting a little bit. But when one of my 7-foot-tall displays blew over and I could see the wind trying to pull tent stakes out of the ground, I cut my losses and called it quits. Thankfully, nothing was broken.

I did manage to sell a few prints and I gave away a bunch of the Delicate Arch postcards that I had made. I got to bond with a couple of awesome artists too who were my neighbors over the fun weather. Unfortunately, both of my kids had soccer games this weekend, so they couldn’t come and hang out with me and let me browse the rest of the show. So I totally missed getting to see the artwork of my friend’s daughter.

Overall, it was disappointing to have to close up early. Saturday afternoon and evening usually brings the most people. But I also understand that we can’t control the weather. Given that this was my 3rd year at this show and this was the first time the weather played chicken with us, I count myself lucky.

And let’s be honest… a little wind and rain is still WAY better than 100°!



10-Day Painting Challenge

I stumbled upon a 10-day painting challenge on Instagram co-hosted by Canvas; the company where I got my awesome desk lamp that lets me easily make time lapse videos for my socials and decided to sign up.

The challenge was hosted by Blue Pine Arts; a boutique watercolor supply company based in India, included a private Facebook group (over 600 people!) that I joined where we all shared our paintings each day and how we felt about them and the challenge. I’ve seen challenges like this a lot over the years, but 10 days felt much more doable than a 30-day or longer challenge.

When I saw this challenge, I realized that I hadn’t painted anything since March. I needed a kick in the butt to make more art, and this was it.

Now, what to paint… often the biggest challenge.

Day 1:

I started with absolutely NO idea what I wanted to paint. Thanks to Facebook memories reminding me of an awesome camping trip I took to Kents Lake in central Utah many years ago, I decided to paint that lake from a photo I took.

Honestly, I don’t like this painting at all. I felt rusty. I felt like my hands didn’t know what to do, what colors to choose, how to make the brushes do what I wanted. I kind of gritted my teeth to get it to a finished spot so I could move on. HERE you can watch the Reel I made for this one.

Kents Lake watercolor Utah

Day 2:

I opted to paint something well within my comfort zone so I could have at least one painting I knew I would be happy with. I painted a galaxy sky on a 4x6 piece of paper with some happy trees at the bottom. I limited palette to only phthalo blue, imperial purple, indigo, and white gouache for the stars. I kinda love it. You can watch a Reel of this painting HERE.

Day 3:

I tried something new on day 3. Upon seeing a handful of other paintings in the FB group I opted to try some misty mountains and trees. I have always struggled with getting wet-on-wet to do exactly what I want. Usually, I have blamed it on the dry Utah climate. One artist explained how she soaked her paper in a bathtub for a few minutes before starting her painting and all I could think of was, “why have I never tried that?!?!”

I submerged a piece of 300lb watercolor paper in a bin and let it sit for 5-ish minutes and went to town with indigo to just see what happened. After that first wash dried, I went in with varying shades of dark greens and blues to add trees and I really love how it turned out. This one was a win. You can watch the process for this painting HERE.

Day 4:

Continuing on this trend, I soaked Day 4’s paper in water too with the goal to attempt an aurora borealis. There are a few artists on SkillShare who’ve done aurora tutorials and I have never been able to get the paint to behave the same way. I honestly hate this painting and I think I have a ways to go to figure out this technique, but at least I learned a few things.

First, soaking the paper for 10 minutes helped a ton, but part of it still dried before i finished the first wash. In the future, I’m gonna try to soak the paper for longer AND paint faster.

Second, I need to choose my colors more wisely. These washes granulated a LOT more than I wanted. Granulation = that grainy separation in pigment. I think I’m good to keep the indigo, but I need to choose different blues and purples that don’t granulate as much. I know some artists love granulation. I do when I’m painting things like rocks, stone, or sand. But I don’t like it for this.

Day 4 was a learning experience, and I have no video of this because my phone filled up!!

Day 5:

I started Day 5 with the goal to paint Horseshoe Bend in Arizona from a photo I took a few years ago. Then my family was invited to spend a day at a lake with friends, so that won. I got it sketched out and some colors blocked onto the paper and left for the day.

Also on Day 5, I submerged a couple of 4x6 pieces of paper in water for 10 minutes and threw some indigo or dark green on them to see what would happen. I had zero plans for what they would be, just decided to let the art gods take the wheel.

Day 6:

I finished the painting of Horseshoe Bend. It was a little challenging to be loose with some of the texture of the sandstone and to not get nitpicky on the details. I did a lot of squinting and stepping away from this one so I didn’t overthink it. Overall, I love how it turned out and it keeps the somewhat “illustrative” style that I love to do when I paint red rock. HERE you can watch a Reel of this painting process.

Day 7:

For Day 7, I took one of the little papers I submerged in water on Day 5 and threw on some purples and pinks to see what evolved; thinking I’d do another galaxy. I ended up with what looked like pretty stormy clouds, so I added a horizon and some simple waves and voila! a moody seascape! HERE you can watch the reel I made for this one. I’m think I need to learn how to make some different waves. In hindsight, this moody sky deserved some more turbulent waves.

seascape watercolor

Day 8:

For Day 8, I started a larger painting of a part of Kanarra Falls in southern Utah. I was too ambitious with my time on this one. I got it started, but then had to take my kids to soccer and taekwondo. So Day 8 was a work-in-progress.

Day 9:

My family decided to spend the day (a Sunday) in the Uinta Mountains fishing, relaxing, and escaping the heat at home. We spent the day at Pass Lake, which is one of the many lakes along the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway in Utah. My husband and my boys did some fishing (my husband actually did catching). And I painted this little scene. It’s always fun to paint outside when the breeze makes the paint dry super fast. I was also grateful for that breeze keeping the mosquitoes away.

HERE you can watch a Reel of what I pack with in my Art Toolkit when I’m painting en plein air and the supplies I bring. Also, HERE is a reel of me painting this one.

Day 10 (and 11):

For Day 10 I finished the painting of a slot canyon in Kanarra Falls. Well, it took longer and spilled into Day 11 too, but I’m happy with how it turned out. I used watercolor, ink, and gouache.

This painting is an example of one I will probably tweak in Photoshop after scanning it. I want to lighten and adjust the saturation in a few spots to help with depth. Even when the painting part is done, I still consider a few unfinished until I can play with them on my computer. This is why I don't sell very many original paintings (maybe for the right price). We'll see if I can get it to a place where I am happy with it. HERE you can watch a Reel of this painting process.

kanarra falls watercolor

All in all I am SO happy that I signed up for this painting challenge. I needed to pull myself out of a rut and I needed to relearn how to MAKE time for myself and my painting.

Delicate Arch in Watercolor

When you think of Utah, an image of Delicate Arch from Arches National Park might be one of the first that pops into your head. It’s easily one of Utah’s most famous and iconic landmarks. Heck, it’s even on our license plates!

I have painted Delicate Arch a couple of times as little, fun paintings. The first was when I tried out some watercolor markers on a scrap piece of paper. You can watch a time lapse video of that painting here.

Another time I painted Delicate Arch was when I made a 5x7 birthday card for a close friend. That little painting I made into stickers as well. You can buy one HERE or by clicking on the image.

A couple of months ago, my youngest son requested I make a “big” painting of Delicate Arch and I figured it was time. By big, that’s usually on 11x14 paper. I am still working on organizing my studio space to accommodate larger paper.

I had lots of fun with this one using white gouache paint for the stars instead of masking fluid and really loving the warm purples in the shadows of the arch. I never get tired of painting beautiful red rock.

I have this painting available for sale at prints in 5x7, 8x10, and 11x14. Click on either of the images to link to those listings. This one will be available as a vinyl sticker soon.

HERE you can watch the time lapse video of this latest painting of Delicate Arch.

What should I paint next?

Lone Peak in Watercolor

I have wanted to do a larger painting of Lone Peak for quite a while. It’s the biggest and most prominent mountain that I see from the part of the Salt Lake Valley where I live. I periodically post images of my view on Instagram. You can see the vast differences in weather, light, and colors.

I did a little painting of Lone Peak at last year’s Art in the Barn, as it was viewed from the spot at Draper City Park where my booth was. When looking for photos of Lone Peak, there are many that are taken from the cirque; which is the little valley just below the summit on the east side of the mountain. When people are hiking to the summit, that’s the route that’s taken. I haven’t made it to the summit yet, so I didn’t want to post a photo of that view.

Lone Peak in Watercolor

The cross country team my kids run with does weekly trail runs from different trails throughout the south Salt Lake Valley and one park in particular, Steep Mountain Park, has one of my favorite views of Lone Peak. So that’s the view I went with.

I usually have a plan in my head on how I will do any of my paintings… whether it’s a starry sky and what colors it will feature, or a clear day with clouds. With this one, I literally had NO idea what I wanted to do with the sky. I started with a basic blue sky wash and then went in with some toilet paper to lift out some clouds. The AC was on in my house and my wash was drying really fast, so that plan kinda went out the window.

Once I had that first wash done and dry, I decided to come back to it after finishing what I wanted to do with the mountain.

I thoroughly loved playing with the purples and teals in the shadows and figuring out what kind of colors made the sheet granite cliffs that adore the top of Lone Peak. My youngest son watched me for a little while and I was SO PROUD when he noticed the differences in the warmer, yellow-y greens of trees in the sun and the cool, bluer greens of trees in the shade.

When the mountain was all done, I did another wash of my sky blue to make it all darker and then I busted out my Himi gouache paints to figure out some clouds.

My first pass was an attempt to do wispy clouds and I ditched that idea pretty quickly. I don’t have enough experience with gouache to try and make it wispy like I could do with oil paints.

Instead I focused on making them fluffy and tried to give them some dimension and scale. I really like how they turned out.

And then the washi tape I was using to hold the paper down tore off a little bit of the sky!! I was so mad! At least that is easily fixed after I scan the painting and open it in Photoshop.

I am working on a way to have this painting done as a trucker hat for the running club my kids are on and eventually, I will have this available as a giclee print. So stay tuned.

Supplies: (a few are affiliate links)

You can watch a time lapse video of the process here: