Lisa McShane Art

Painting at the Painted Desert Inn. North light - great spot. Day 8 at the Petrified Forest National Park. We've settled into a great routine here: up at 5:30 for a long hike and/or run, then I spend the afternoon painting in the shade at the Painted Desert Inn across the road. At 6:30 or so we carry chairs up to the top of a nearby hill to watch the sun set. We love this. We're staying at an adobe casita - a delightful cabin across from the historic Painted Desert Inn. After sunset, when the rangers chase the last visitors from the park and lock the gates behind them, we are the only people in the park. It's hard to imagine a better Art Residency.

Columbia and Contrails. 2015, Oil on Linen. 18" x 36".  Still interested in contrails and the way they reflect light and shadow. This is the Columbia Gorge, one of my favorite areas in the northwest.

This winter I applied for and was accepted into the Artist-in-Residence program at Petrified Forest National Park. This is a program administered by the National Parks in more than 50 parks, including some of the most iconic ones: Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, Zion, Glacier. It's competitive - more than 60 artists applied to Petrified Forest and 15 were accepted. There are sculptors, a cellist, an installation artist, photographers and me, the sole painter. Most of the programs provide housing, often in historic cabins. You can find more information about the National Parks program here. This is the charming historic casita I'll be staying in. I've been preparing my supplies for a month: building linen covered panels (8 at 20"x30" plus a large stack of small panels) and ordering and organizing paints, pencils, papers, brushes, the works. My husband is going with me (he's a geologist) so we'll camp and hike after the 2-week residency. That...