Wow! What a trip.  Big Bend Texas, is certainly worth the drive down.  I think I drove at least a hundred miles a day.   From location to location, the scene of the mountains changed from rolling vistas to tall spiked golden peaks.  From dust and rocks, to tall mountains with trees.  At the Basin there was  a 5 degree drop in tempeture. Since it was very hot a few days, this felt great.  It is a wonderful and very difficult place to paint.  

This painting was done at Green Gulch.  It was a truley beautiful and in-

spirational area.  These golden peaks were done on a very small format, 4" x 5".  After ending the previous painting on a bad note, I though it might break my bad mood to try something different.  It worked well.   I approched this little painting as if it were a drawing in my book.  This is the smallest painting I have ever painted.  It went very fast  (about 20minuets)and because it was so small, I couldn't labor over any details.  I broke the mountains up into three colors just like a value study, and built the painting from there.  The 4 x 5" format is great! I must remember this experience, and try it again. 

I did limit my paints this trip. I only took  seven colors! It was hard a first, but soon mixing became easier than I thought, and traveling with only seven tubes of paint took up less room in my backpack. 

Big Bend Texas was well worth the trip.  I could travel to any Big Bend mountain range  again and again,  never seeing the same scene twice.  Beautiful area to travel for fun and for plein air painting!