Wow! Had a really great time at Dunton Hot Springs over the weekend. What a great place. The ambiance is superior if you are looking for a high-quality “rustic” Colorado mountain stay. Dunton Hot Springs, located in the town of Dunton is located back in the mountains between Rico and Dolores, Colorado. The town of Dunton itself dates back to the late 1800’s when it served as a respite for the miners working the area. It was here that those hearty souls could get a room, some food and drink and take a soak in the natural hot springs. Today’s guest at Dunton can do the very same thing only on a much classier scale.
The town of Dunton originally had some 300 residents. Over the years it has served as a guest ranch, hunting camp, hippie hangout and now a world class resort which has garnered numerous awards from the likes of Conte Naste, Bona Petite, Travel and Leisure and others. The owners have gone to great lengths to make this a truly one-of-a-kind destination experience. No expense has been spared to include a world class staff. You can find out more at www.duntonhotsprings.com.
While there I had the opportunity to do a couple of plein air paintings. The first one is pictured here:
This is a little watercolor I did of the outdoor wedding chapel on the south end of the town. I had seated myself on the porch of the “town library” and set up my little watercolor kit trying to decide what to paint when the snow on the roof of the wedding chapel caught my attention. One side was completely melted off and the other still had abundant snow clinging to its slope. Being that the clouds had started to roll in, the light was rather flat but I decided to give it a go anyway. About the time I was finishing up with this little sketch I noticed that my paints were a bit “sticky”. What I finally realized was that while I had become so engrossed with doing the painting, I had failed to realize the temperature was dropping and my paints were freezing up.
That evening we enjoyed a cocktail around the bonfire outside the dinning room while waiting for a wonderful fresh halibut dish. All of the meals are served in the dining room “family style” which is to say there is one long table and everyone dines together which makes for a great opportunity to meet your fellow guests.
The next morning broke with clear skies and a gorgeous view from our cabin window begged to be painted. Because of the freezing temp outside, I began another watercolor sketch, from inside, of the view to our north which depicted a couple of fourteener peaks towering over the valley floor. After an award winning breakfast the temp outside had warmed up sufficiently that I was able to setup my oil painting kit on the sunny side of our cabin and render the scene I had started from inside earlier. Pictured here is the finished oil sketch:
The peak left of center is El Diente and the mountain to the right of center is Mt. Wilson, both of which are just over 14,ooo feet in elevation. The winter willows along the valley floor of the West Fork Dolores River were a dashing orange and yellow lit by the warm morning sun which also cast long blue shadows against the brilliant, blinding snow. Absolutely stunning. By the time I finished this little sketch, the morning had warmed sufficiently so that I was able to shed my coat and wound up in shirt sleeves. I’m sure that the temp wasn’t much above freezing but the solar effect was definitely working well.
Both of these paintings are going to be the start of a collection of paintings that I will be doing of Dunton and the surrounding area. While these originals are currently available, I hope to put these into note card and print form as well as a select dozen or so images to be put into book form will also be available in the coming months.
I’m very much looking forward to spending more time in the Dunton area to complete this project. I’ll probably go back at least once or twice more this winter and then it’ll be the spring mud season which won’t offer much. My next opportunity will be in late spring when the Aspens begin to green up and then into summer for the wildflower season. That should yield some great material. Of course the highlight will no doubt be in the fall when the colors will light up the mountainsides. I’m looking forward to a great season of painting “Dunton”. I’ve been wanting to do this for sometime now and I’m very excited to finally get started. Stay tuned and follow along as I continue my “Dunton Experience”.