Colorado Art Studio

Sunrise from our hotel room
View of slopes, Steamboat Springs
Rabbit Ears Pass, Route 40
Outside Silverthorne
Loveland Ski Area

We’re back from our quick trip to Steamboat Springs, CO. My husband’s job interview went well. He’s one of 5 candidates for the position and will find out tomorrow one way or the other whether he will be offered the job. We’ve decided that if the job is his then it was meant to be. We have mixed feelings about moving, so either way it will be okay. My biggest concern is the price of homes up there and being able to find a large enough one to house a studio for me!

We were there during one of the coldest weather snaps of the year. It never got above 8 degrees during the day and in the am it was as low as -24°, yes that is a big negative 24°! Needless to say, we didn’t ski. It was just too cold and I am a fair weather skier. We did go ice skating at an indoor rink…that was a blast. I don’t think I’ve been skating since we lived in Maine. We also hot tubbed it at the pool, so all in all a nice little weekend trip. After a weekend of snow and overcast skies, we woke up Monday morning to clear skies and I was able to snap a few shots of the surrounding area and our drive back to Denver.

Meanwhile, my new art supplies arrived from Dick Blick! I ordered Shiva Paintsticks, some water soluble oil paints and 10 - 22 x 30″ sheets of Fabriano 140# watercolor paper. Must get working now….

Giovanna Albizzi Paying Homage to Venus and the Graces, Lemmi Villa Fresco, currently at the Louvre, Paris, France
This is really interesting…Botticelli was commissioned by the Tourbuoni family, during the Italian Renaissance, to paint 2 frescoes to honor the marriage of their son Lorenzo to Giovanna. The frescoes are currently in terrible shape because they were meant to be party decorations and were white washed after the marriage celebrations. It was in 1863 that the Lemmi family, who then owned the villa, uncovered the fresco during a renovation. If they hadn’t renovated, this fresco may have been lost forever. How many other treasures have been lost since then? You can read about it here.

2 of the Graces that I chose to paint
I applied a 1″ grid over my desired section, after I resized the painting to 4.25″ x 6″.

My painting on fabric, not yet sewn or quilted, 4″ x 6″

My painted section took quite a long time; though I did find it rather enjoyable. I haven’t spent as much time this week in my studio as I had hoped. I also had to come to terms with the fact that I probably wouldn’t achieve the antique craquelure of the fresco, but will see what I can do with thread once I quilt it this evening.

The aftermath…I am a messy painter!

I had the most bizarre dream early this morning. It woke me up around 5am, so after trying in vain to go back to sleep I decided to get up and research some dream symbols while having my first cup of coffee of the day. So, in my dream, I was with my former landscape architecture studio peers. Only they were on a school fieldtrip and I happened to bump into them at the zoo. While we were making idle chit chat, the most amazing colorful large beetles began swarming all over my left arm. I would try to swat them away, and they wouldn’t budge, and then the beetles started crawling under my sleeves. These beetles were magenta, cobalt blue, orange, yellow, emerald green and black. Panic started to creep in and that’s when I woke up. According to Dream Moods when a person dreams about bugs, it is symbolic of anxieties and fears.

Weird, since all I have been thinking (obsessing) about the past few days is the possibility of a family relocation. My husband has an interview on Monday morning in Steamboat Springs, CO (population 9,354 as of 2005) for possible employment with Routt County. We’ve decided to make it a family affair and go up for the weekend. We’ll tool around and try to ski on Sunday. I’m a fair weather skier so if it’s too cold or snowy, I’ll head on over to the hot springs instead. Despite trying to stay away from the internet, I spent the last 2 days looking at real estate, schools and other facts that would affect our lives. I have to stop worrying about it though because first he has to be offered the job.