Not Quite To Imnaha

I drove out toward the Imnaha River Canyon down a single lane potholed gravel road on the prairie. I didn't get as far as I had hoped before I hit a gate. My map didn't cover the area so I didn't know if it was okay to proceed, so I stopped and painted where I was. This is where the Zumwalt prairie starts transitioning into the canyon. I am now itching to paint the canyon more than ever, if only I could figure out how to get a view of it. Need a better map. On the way, I had the treat of seeing a herd of elk up close. I should have known that the shape and features of this hill are too weird to paint. I only like the left third or bottom third of the study.

Elk Mountain Aspen

Yesterday afternoon I wanted to go out and paint the layered cumulus clouds shadowing the Zumwalt Prairie. The prairie is the largest remaining grassland of its type in North America. It is currently still covered in wildflowers which helps it not look quite so bleak. I wasn't paying attention and made a wrong turn, which was fortunate for the cowboys we found stranded by their broken down '83 Chevy pickup pulling a horse trailer. We gave one of them a lift into cell phone range so they could summon help. By the time we returned to their pickup (locally called a "rig"), it was too late to paint, but it ended up being an interesting scouting adventure. We looped back on some remote dirt roads running through vast cattle ranches with no people. In one little turn of Elk Mountain road, there were several beautiful stands of aspen that I returned to this morning. I was visited by many deer and a few rabbits. I'll have to wait a little longer to paint on the prairie, and I wish I could return to paint the aspen this autumn; it is definitely a nice location to paint again. The pristine fresh mountain air alone is worth the trip. I would like to fuss with the shapes more in this study, they are a little clunky, but at least I'm painting a little bit looser.