Hello and welcome my friends to March’s Journey of Plein Air 365,

I hope your March was as interesting as mine. March was a month ranging with from bitter cold days to dry, hot and windy conditions which made for some challenging days of painting. One day it was 16 degrees with 30 mph wind. These are the kind of days that the cold blows through you to the bone. I don’t mind painting in the cold but add the wind to it and it quickly becomes miserable. Then there were days that can make you a little spoiled. With calm, warm 40-50 degree temperatures and you can taste and smell that spring is near.

March also brought the 800th day in a row of alla prima Plein Air painting for me. I remember when I started this journey thinking to myself, “Wow 800 paintings I don’t know if I can do it.” It was just too big for me to accept then. But now, over 800 days later I can’t believe how quickly the days have gone by.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you can look at it, I had the chance to do a night scene in Golden, Colorado of the big mountain wildfire. The flames in the painting were well over 100 feet high. It was beautiful and quite sad at the same time. The power of the flames that were fueled by the blowing 60-70 mph winds was very impressive. All I could think of while painting was how thankful I am to the many brave firefighters that were working so hard to save the forest. With my deepest appreciation, I would like to say thank you.

I had an interesting thing happen the flowing day after painting the night time fire. I was supposed to meet a group of artists near the fire to paint. The other painters didn’t show, but guess what did?… flying towards me and landing no more that 75 yards away was one of the fire fighting helicopters! I couldn’t believe it. One day painting the fire and the next day having a fire fighting helicopter landing next to me. I took this as a sign that I need to paint it. So not knowing how long they were going to be there, I frantically began to paint and 20 minutes later I finished the painting of the helicopter with just a few minuets to spare before the engine started up again and back to sky they went, what an experience!

One of the most interesting things March offered, happened on a Sunday morning. I was driving down one of the roads in a suburb called Thornton. This area used to be farmland, but now it’s pretty much homes and apartment buildings. In between some of the homes and apartments you can still find an occasional patch of farmland. It was in one of these patches that out of the corner of my eye I spotted a strange site. It was a flock of wild turkeys! I thought to myself, “No way am I seeing a flock of turkeys” So I pulled over and quickly began to capture this unbelievable site. As I finished painting the hens, the tom decides to pose for me and show off his handsome feathers. It was a great and rare plein air moment for me.

March also brought a new sponsor to Plein Air 365™. I would like to give a big thank you to Dave and Leslie Allen of Denver, CO. I feel very fortunate that the Allen’s would like to sponsor my project. Some of you may know Leslie as one of the founding members of the Plein Air Artist of Colorado as well as Women of the West Artist as and many, many other groups and organizations. To top it off, she’s also a wonderfully talented artist. I encourage you if you have a moment to please look at her website www.allenfineart.com.

This month also gave me the chance to step out of my painters clothes and do a little sculpting, and for the second year, create a Fabergé style egg. The egg is a donation for our Evergreen Easter Egg design competition and annual auction. A benefit fundraiser for our Evergreen Downtown Business Association to help with their annual festivities. If you are in the Evergreen area please stop by Evergreen National Bank on main street in downtown. Take a look at all the wonderful works that were created and vote for your favorite. My egg was created with cathedral door that opens with miniature keys. When the doors are opened, it reveals a 24k gold leaf alter and 24k golden crucifix with a heavenly hand-painted sky background that is illuminated by a alternating colored lights. To finish it off, the egg sits upon a base that is also 24k gold-leaf.

One last thing, I have started a daily blog with a little story about my daily journey. You can view it here. http://pleinair365.blogspot.com
I am also on facebook, which can be seen here. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1301262145

Well, those are the highlights for March’s Journey. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. Until next month remember, “May love fill your heart and art fill your life.”

Best Wishes,

Ted

www.tedgarcia.com/mar_11.html
tg@tlcunlimited.com

If you, a company, or charity would like to be a sponsor of Plein Air 365™ by Ted Garcia, or if you are a gallery that would like to represent or show Ted Garcia Fine Art, please contact tg@tlcunlimited.com Thank you.