looking for sunflowers...and water

LOOKING FOR SUNFLOWERS

I set out on an adventure last Wednesday.

A quest, if you will.

I was looking for sunflowers to paint.

And so were my friends:

Jillian, Barb, Susana, and Susan.

It has been at least 6-7 years since I've been to Bosque del Apache.

I called about a week ago and they said the sunflowers were just

starting to bloom, so I thought, let's take a day trip.

We'll drive down, see a lot of ducks, geese, water, maybe a crane or two. 

And sunflowers.

We left the house about 7:35am.

It took us longer than we thought to get there and

when we arrived, it was already HOT.

But we found sunflowers!

They were not all fully open yet, 

but enough so that I got a few good shots.

 Jillian enjoying the scenery

Susan looking for that perfect shot.

 We also saw a cool old truck!

 Peaceful and serene

More suns

 The only water we saw

 I see a painting here

 And here

 And here!

 The trees were full of all kinds of variations of green.

And this yellow-rusty plant - we didn't know if it was 
normally that color or dying.

 BEAUTIFUL!

 Taking a close-up

 My best shot of the day.

But look how dry it is!

 We finally painted at the Coyote Observation Deck.

At least it was shady.

 Hmm, I'm goofing off.

 This is a beautiful scene 

 We saw two deer!

Okay, this is confusing to me.

When I went several years ago, there was SO much water everywhere.

I went in the winter when the birds were already there

and maybe still migrating.

A few scenes from that time:

So much water!

So, can someone enlighten me?

Do they keep the fields dry during the summer

and flood them in the winter?

It just looked so different from what I was expecting.

The water above with all of the ducks was a huge dirt field on Wednesday.

Bosque Del Apache was still beautiful.

Just different.

I'm going to call the Visitor Center tomorrow.
It was closed when we went.

I WILL HAVE SOME ANSWERS.

"APACHE AUTUMN" auction

"APACHE AUTUMN"

8x10"

oil on canvas

I have never seen Bosque del Apache in the spring or summer.

The only time I have been is in the fall.

It's a fantastic time of year to visit the wildlife refuge.

The sunflowers are spent, the fall colors are incredible,

especially with daily flights of white snow geese

 against all of these golds and oranges.

I am going to make it a point to get out there 

in late spring this year.

And also in late summer, when the sunflowers and blooming.

This painting is up for auction for 7 days.

To view auction information, CLICK HERE.

#15-2 "BOSQUE FALL"

"BOSQUE FALL"

8x10"

oil on hardboard

$99

This scene is from an autumn trip to the beautiful Bosque del Apache.

This huge wetland area is a wildlife sanctuary for Sandhill cranes, snow geese, and a lot of other wildlife. I've seen deer there on occasion.

My favorite part of the painting was mixing the reds and oranges to create the willow

that is so abundant throughout the preserve.

I am putting it on my bucket list to go there in late summer, when the sunflowers are in full bloom.

To see all available paintings, click HERE or
go to: www.deesanchezdaily.com

To buy this painting, CLICK THE PAYPAL BUTTON BELOW.