*Reconnecting with my mentors from Naropa University*

I had the absolute delight of spending a week at Mountain Water, a space dedicated to mindfulness and creative practices in Southern Colorado. The simple accommodations and awe-inspiring landscape brought me right back to what's essential.

…And it was a joy to reconnect with my art teachers and mentors from Naropa University after 20 years. Joan Anderson and Robert Spellman, lifelong Buddhist practitioners and artists, generously created this space for people to experience meditation and dive into their artistic practice. The sanctuary, 240 acres of land dotted with piñon, juniper, high desert shrubs, native grasses, and pockets of willow, cattail, and cottonwood is both an essential habitat for wildlife and a place to marvel at the natural world.

*The corner of the beautiful studio at Mountain Water where I worked*

During my stay, I spent time in the studio revisiting paused paintings and allowing them to guide my next steps. I played with oil sticks, exercising a lack of control in my painting practice, and did studies for future paintings.

Mountain Water's extensive visual library was a wonderful place to sketch and research. Filled with years of curated books, it has everything from artist retrospectives to pattern designs and regional plant guides. One could spend a lifetime there, reading and gazing out the window.

I loved being connected to nature each day. I'll never forget the moment I startled a large animal on a walk, and suddenly, a herd of elk poured down the mountain, filtering into the canyon below. Or waking to a world transformed by hoarfrost, every surface having grown several inches of sparkling, silvery ice.

Another night, I walked back to my cabin in the dark, and when I shone my flashlight into the field, hundreds of tiny eyes reflected back at me—I'll let you guess whose eyes they were.

Perhaps my favorite activity was sketching and painting the landscape from the beautiful studio windows. There were so many iterations of the scene: fog, mist, cold, shifting light, revealing hidden canyons and mesas. Every day brought small miracles and a new scene to marvel at.

*the view out the window of Mountain Water were the inspiration for this Colorado landscape painting (30”x36”, in process)*

In this series of Colorado landscape paintings, I hope to offer you a personal portal, transporting you to your own timeless and humbling feeling of awe and wonder, to your own liminal space between dream and reality. You can gaze at these scenes and be brought back to that space and feeling. I’ll be showing new work at West & Main in Louisville, CO in April, and then the Colorado acrylic landscape paintings will be for sale on my website.

By far, my favorite time of day was 5 pm, when I would join Joan and Robert on the porch, bundled in coats, hats, and wool blankets with meditation cushions, sitting silently together, no matter the weather. Cinematic scenes unfolded as the light changed across the mountains, and there were a few minutes of pure gold illuminating the dry grasses before the sun dipped behind the mountains.

Explore my collection of Colorado paintings or contact me for a commission.

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