January 2024. Gouache on paper. 6×8.
Every January 1st, artist Cliff Austin invites a group of Colorado plein air painters out to start the new year amidst the beauty of Colorado’s landscape. Through my association with another Colorado artist, Lorenzo Chavez, from whom I took several workshops in 2023, I was invited along. It was a wonderful way to start the new year. We went to McCabe Meadows in Parker, CO, which is one of numerous natural oases of natural habitats located in an increasing urbanized Denver metropolitan area. Small, but beautiful, McCabe Meadows offers Denverites a taste of Colorado beauty without having to travel far afield.
I did this small gouache study en plein air, trying to capture the deep russets and browns tucked into the grays and golds of the winter landscape. Snow still blanketed the ground. A fine morning.
John Walthier 