Tollgate Sunset

To receive more information about this painting click here.

This was painted near interstate 80 in Green River, Wyoming. We really liked the area around Green River as Carole and I passed through on our way to Cheyenne to teach a couple workshops. Once we finished the workshops we checked in for the Wyoming Plein Air event and then headed back to Green River to paint for a few days. I spent a couple evenings on this maybe for an hour or two each. The first evening there were these great cloud formations as a storm was brewing. Maybe an hour in to it from out of the blue both Carole and my hats blew of at the same time. We both darted across the road trying to get our hats back before they were gone for good. We looked down the road by the hotel and a wall of dust, maybe 12 feet high was quickly heading our way. My first thought was a funnel touch down but it was just a large gust. We grabbed our easels and ducked behind the truck for cover holding on to everything as the wind was trying to take it all away. Dust everywhere. Heavy rain soon followed as we tried to tear our gear down and get into the truck. We watched the storm pass through the rain with lots of thunder and lightning as the sun went down.

When we went back to finish the paintings a few nights later it was a completely different sky so I went with the new sunset. It was a calm night and a few folks stopped by to chat and let us know that this was a great spot to take photos. We agreed.