" '63 Willys" -- oil field study -- 11x14"
-- Margie Guyot

For the past two weeks I'd been out in Victor, Idaho, taking a plein air workshop with Scott Christensen. My good friend Carole Flaherty let me stay in one of her little log cabins. Their property butts right up to the national forest (in the Tetons area) and it was very beautiful. A few years ago Carole bought this interesting-looking '63 Willy (I'm not sure if I'm spelling it right) as a birthday present for her husband. Never mind that it didn't have a working motor! Patrick's a hellfire mechanic. He put in a new motor and they tool around Victor in it. The front windshield's got a crack in it, but I think it adds to the charm.

After class I'd come back to Carole's and set up my easel by the Willys. The sunlight falling across the hood only stayed like that for about 5 minutes for me, by the time I got there. So it was "paint fast"! I'd set my easel up at the side of the gravel road leading up into the mountain and had to move it a couple times for jeeps on their way up.

Painting this vehicle was a nice little break from painting mountains and fields all day. At least it was close up and a big, solid shape.