Smokey the Bear Grave

Trip Start Aug 15, 1980
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Trip End Sep 25, 1980


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Flag of United States  , New Mexico,
Thursday, August 28, 1980

  I got up and did my tai chi then took some pictures but the high contrast from light to dark was hard to deal with and I stil haven't figured out how to fix that with photoshop but I will add them anyway.  I went back into Roswell and saw the Featherstone Art Collection and about 10:00 I headed west on 70 to Lincoln County for a day of discovery. 
  I did a watercolor off of the main road and then headed to the Fort Stockton Museum.  The fort was at that time a kind of special needs place with a real nice setting and the museum head art.  I was surprised to see a watercolor of the boats in the canal in the little town of Lewes which is 6 miles from where I grew up.  Next after I left there I found not only the gravesite of the famous Smokey the Bear but also a whole museum dedicated to him. Unfortuneatly the life size talking and moving Smokey statue wasn't working because the kids would always break his arms when they were moving.  I bet the adults broke it too. 
  Next stop was a roadside table near Nogel where I did an oil painting of Corrizo Peak.  I went back to the area a couple of years ago with my cousin on the mission to find a ranch (we didn't) but it was neat to starting feeling that where we were was somehow familiar and then when you reach a certain spot to realize that I had painted a picture here long ago as all the features fall into place.  A note about my paintings.  I did these all outside in the sunlight which you could guess since they were all on location.  The thing is I never saw them indoors in house light over a year later and only then did I realize that because I didn't make an allowance for the differnce in intensity of the light that they come off somewhat darker than they appeared to me while I was painting them.  Since that time I am always make sure that I work with my painting shaded when I am outside.  Another thing I did learn on this trip was to keep my head in the shade when I was painting for an extened period.
  I went to the Flaiming Valley State Park to check it out and get some water, but since they were charging for spending the night I went a couple miles back down the road and stayed by a roadside picnic table for the night.
  Again a link to my art sites where I will be uploading the photos and painting to-phots bought from the site online, paintings get in touch with me through site.  http://home.earthlink.net/~greenvanartusa/index.html  and    http://artwanted.com/artist.cfm?ArtID=42727
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