Fire On The Mountains

May 20, 2012
   Got a big video shoot in the morning. Getting prepped for that.

   Meanwhile, we had 2000 fires last year (a record) and it appears we are off to a roaring start this year. We've got a big one burning not far from Cave Creek, in the Bradshaws, threatening Crown King, the tiny town with the mining past. I believe it's part of the same fire that's decimated Battle Flat (site of a famous 1860s gunfight we just covered in True West). This one is the Gladiator Fire. When you have fires all around you and it's the talk of the town it tends to get into my paintings. Did this impression of it today, based in part by my impressions of driving through the Wallow Fire last summer:


Meanwhile, got another fire burning near Sunflower:

And another fire in Utah, southwest of Salt Lake City:

And another in Coloroado (Fire On The Mountain):

These fires create their own weather system and kick up clouds thousands of feet in the air. Really devastating and spectacular at the same time:

And not to be outdone, I'm still trying to nail the late light painting (similar problems to fire lighting). This is Last Light On Morningstar Study #99:

"Travel is the art form available to Everyman. You sit in the coffee shop in a strange city and nobody knows who you are, or cares, and so you shed your checkered past and your motley credentials and you face the day unarmed. . ."

—Garrison Keillor, in the New York Times