Arivaca, Arizona - and Painting with my dad

Arivaca, Arizona

Oil on canvas, 12x24

Dad is 84, and he's been painting for maybe 10 years, maybe more. For most of that time, he's done watercolors, but recently has moved into acrylics. 

Until Tuesday, he'd never painted in plein air! So I was thrilled - thrilled! - when he agreed to go out painting with me. 

We had a great time bouncing along a terrible road to a teeny town called Arivaca. Dad says it was settled in the 1960s and 1970s by people whose main pursuits were hiding from the law and selling drugs, maybe not in that order. 

These days, it's an eclectic, dusty little town, broken down in places, and kept up in places. 

While we didn't see any drug activity, it did seem that everyone in town smoked cigarettes. Haven't seen that in a while. 

A furniture designer and artist named Peter Saloom (check out his furniture by cicking here) rode by on a bike and stopped to see what we were doing. An awful lot of folks drove by and then sort of turned around and drove by again... I am sure they were wondering just what the HECK we were painting...

At any rate, I had a great idea: Dad and I should do a show together! What do you think? 

Here's Dad and his painting, which is at a midway point

Above is the building we both painted, and below is the building I added on the left-hand 

side of my painting. 

***

Scenes from the day

Here is some of the scenery on the way to Arivaca

 An Arivaca vaca (isn't that Spanish for cow?) 

At the restaurant where we had lunch, the walls of the patio held several large mosaics 

made of bottle caps! 

 Sunrise Tuesday in Tubac

Anyone want to buy a restaurant? 

Why this burrito wagon has a sign saying "Virginia," I do not know. 

Yee Ha! Cow Palace! 

Casper, the Dog of the Day