Rocky Ford is a magical place, an oasis in the middle of the eastern Washington desert. I remember the first time I went to Rocky Ford, we were driving through a field of rocks and dried grass and I kept thinking, "yeah, yeah, there's a beautiful trout stream in this". We finally came around the bend, down the hill and there it was, all green on the banks surrounding the bright blue water of the river itself. The contrast between the green rushes and the dry surroundings led me in the fall of 1999 to work on a whole series of Rocky Ford pastels that became on of my first major efforts in pastel painting. All the scenes center around one portion of the river by the lower fish hatchery where there is a nice blend of water, reeds, trees, buildings, and the dry hills in the distance.
The series was started in November of 1999 and finished in January 2000, there were eight finished pieces. All are 16x20 done on LaCarte pastel paper using Rembrandt soft pastels.
Two of the early Rocky Ford pastels are showing at the Washington Trout Store in Duvall, WA. Pieces 4-8 showed at the DharmaWorks Studio opening in May of 2000. One piece, #6, will be showing at the Pastel Society of Oregon show in Roseburg, OR from May 19 - July 14, 2000 and #5 has been entered into the Northwest Pastel Society 14th Open International Exhibition to be held July 8-31, 2000 at the Harbor Gallery in Gig Harbor.
More of the Rocky Ford series.
