Luck of the Norwegian

Last weekend I spent a couple of days in Crested Butte doing some paintings for an up coming show in July. Saturday I closed the shop up a little early and jumped on the Harley, loaded with camping gear and my painting kit. The weather wasn’t too bad Saturday afternoon and I got some work done that evening. Sunday, the day started out OK even though it was mostly overcast with the sun poking out just long enough to create some nice shadows and beautiful light on the Sherpa Café which was my chosen subject matter for the morning.


Later I stopped by the Oh Be Joyful Gallery which is hosting the show in July and met up with a fellow artist, Meredith Nemirov and Shaun Horne, owner of the gallery. We discussed various locales to paint and then went our separate ways. Meredith was headed for the high country but I elected to stay in town on the pavement, primarily because I was on the Harley and hadn’t brought my tire chains.

I found a colorful flower box down an alley on the side of a building with a red door and red trimmed windows. There was even the requisite bicycle. I was again briefly blessed by just enough sun to give me some cast shadows to create a nice effect of light. By the time I was finished the wind was picking up some more and the crowds on the streets had thinned significantly.

After a burger and a beer at a sidewalk pizzeria, I strolled around for awhile looking for another place to paint and made a few sketches but by then the sun had disappeared leaving everything disappointingly flat in color. I decided to ride out toward Mt. Crested Butte, the ski area, to see how things looked. As I got out of the confines of the buildings and into some open space I was amazed to look up toward the range of mountains to the north and saw what a couple of months ago I would have called a snow squall sweeping in. I sat there and watched it long enough to decide that it was time to bail.

Although I had planned to spend the night and paint on Monday, I headed back to Almont, broke camp, loaded up and headed home. A good thing too as I got wet with a couple of showers on the way home and later that evening in the comfort of my warm house I saw that there was a winter storm advisory in CB for that night. In June? Who would’ve thought? My Norwegian luck worked again. A great time was had never-the-less.