Colorado Canyon Rabbits

It seem like ages ago already after being back to reality for about a week from the our trip to the Gateway Canyons Resort for the Alegre Retreat. The retreat and trip were everything I hoped for and needed. I would definitely recommend it and will be saving up to hopefully go there myself again in a couple of years.

The location is self was quite inspiring and luxurious. I took quite a few pictures! To make it easier on you, dear reader, I'll group the photos by class photos, landscape, and cars - in that order. That way if you are not interested in canyon landscapes or antique cars, you don't have to read that far!

First the class report. I was in Katie Pasquini Masopust's "Working in a Series" workshop. The idea for the workshop was to bring an existing piece and then build a series from there.

The piece I brought was the one on the left, "Rabbit on the Run." For my first tentative foray in the series, I decided to add a touch of color to my usually naturally colored rabbits. I substituted blue for all the dark and light values in the rabbit. Fun! Then I had to come up with a background for this rabbit. Thinking of keeping with the theme of "rabbit on the run," I thought I'd call this piece "Outta Here" and design a setting to give the impression of a speeding rabbit running "outta here."



I had such fun adding that bit of blue to the rabbit, that for the next piece in the series I decided to go all out with the color and created a rainbow rabbit! The background is inspired by the adobe buildings of the resort and muted blue sky. I'll probably be adding more details, but was anxious to move on to the next piece!



For the final piece, I decided to stay colorful, but also go BIG! I used cool tones in this rabbit and am thinking of doing a matching facing rabbit in another piece that will use warm tones.



Here are all of the rabbits together for the final walk-through of the classes (everyone at the retreat walked from class to class on the final day to get a look at what everyone else was doing).



Now I'm revved up about my rabbit series once again and can't wait to continue letting these rabbits multiply. I currently finishing up the quilting on rabbit #2 and should have it done in the next week.

Okay, now on to the stunning and inspiring landscape of the Gateway Canyons.

The first two pics are of our room and view from our room.



The outstanding feature of the landscape around the resort was, of course, The Palisades, that monumental tower of red rock.



A small, but dedicated group walkers went out every morning at 6:30am. We had some morning greeters on one of the walks.



The Gateway Canyons Resort was built by the founder of the Discovery Channel, so it is not surprising that there are lots of fun stuff to discover around the property! We saw this "dinosaur nest" on one of the early morning walks.



After the retreat was over, we stayed an extra couple of days in Grand Junction, CO to relax and see the sights. The first grand vista was seen from the Bed and Breakfast where we stayed, The Los Altos Bed & Breakfast. (I picked this inn because of the name - we use to live in Los Altos, CA!) It was a lovely inn inside as well, and the breakfasts were always yummy.

On one day we toured around the nearby National Monument Park. Lots to inspire in this park. I loved the colors, textures, and sweep of the vista.



If you love antique cars, or just cars in general, you must plan a trip to the Gateway Canyons Auto Museum. This is John Henderick's collection of American cars. It is incredible even if you aren't in to cars. The museum is set up to display the cars as the works of art that they are, and unlike a lot of car museums, every one of these cars is completely restored to running condition! Wouldn't it be fun to take a spin in anyone of these beauties?

Don't ask me what any of these cars are. I just loved the colors, shine and beauty of design!