52.  Original Plein Air Watercolor Painting, “Plein Air, Ponderosa Pines in Buffalo Park, 3:30-5:30pm, 5.17.24, Friday”, watercolor, 22 x 30”, 2024

Location: Flagstaff, AZ

Event: ArtX Flagstaff

ArtX Flagstaff, if you can believe it, is the first Art Opportunity, Residency, Grant, anything to actually accept me despite years and years of applications to similar festivals and residencies.  As it was, my proposed project to come to Flagstaff and paint en plein air was not granted funding, but I was nevertheless welccome to participate, including a few scheduled events and finding my way into the official program.  This painting is from one such event, an all-ages paint-out (get-together of painting outside) at Buffalo Park.  I arrived, greeted fellow artists and volunteers, and made this piece while loosely narrating the process for a few onlookers.  While I didn’t think very much of this at the time, the practice of making en plein air watercolors at a specified location and time for an audience was something I would repeat many times during Art Tour 2024, and early-days iterations like this one make me grateful for ArtX Flagstaff as a precdent-setting trip.