Family Affair - Part Deux

This is a SCUBA diving painting done by my father, Richard Suitts.  I seem to have gotten part of my sense of adventure from him and an interest in Art.  He dove back in the early 1960s, i.e. almost pioneer stages compared to today's equipment and training.  He sought to capture his experiences in paint and succeeded pretty well.  He was 26 when he painted this.

Family Affair

This is a painting by my Father, Richard Suitts.  He probably did this around 1964ish.  It is an oil painting of the American Desert, probably of the Book Cliff area near Grand Junction, Colorado.  So Dad passed away in 1966 and my mom remarried to Richard Brandt.  Luckily for me, he raised me as his own.  He is an artist in his soul also and is a photographer.  So we go out on photo safaris and record the world as we see it and find it.

Signal Lantern

To finish up the railroad theme, this is a pen and ink sketch of a brakeman's lantern.  They were used to signal the engineer of the train and to signal other engines, if necessary.  I liked the look of it.

Cumbres and Toltec Narrow Gauge steam engine

If you are ever in Southern Colorado check out the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad.  It is the old Denver, Rio Grande and Western Railroad's line across the San Luis Valley and into New Mexico.  The eastern terminus of the road near Antonito, Colorado was used in the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade movie's first scenes as the Circus train chase scenes.  The run finishes at Chama, New Mexico.  Half-way thru your trip the train stops for a lunch stop.  This is where I found Engine 487 and turned it into a pen and ink.

Today is my Grandfather's 93rd birthday, he helped with the train interest and took me out to see things like the Cumbres when I was young.  So Happy Birthday.

Galloping Goose - Part Deux

This is a pen and ink of the Galloping Goose with pines and thunderhead in the background.  This art shows the Goose as it looked in the early 1950s with the Wayne Bus body and the windows in the box for the tourists.  I Goose is also have this available on my Fine Art America site.  

http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/scott+suitts/all

Colorado Galloping Goose

I am originally from Colorado and an interesting tale of the "Good Old Days" is of the Rio Grande Southern Narrow Gauge railroad in Southern Colorado.  I will give the  short version of its history, the railroad had the misfortune of starting in a depression over 110 years ago.  The road limped on for years through some of the most impression scenery in the state.  One of the financial crises was a lack of money during the 1930s depression, the road faced a loss of the U.S. Mail contracts because a steam engine was too expensive to run.  The Rio Grande Southern's engineering department created rail cars which eventually became known as Galloping Geese.   They wobbled down the track and looked a little like a goose trying to fly, hence the nickname.   The road made seven of these geese, most used Car bodies and boxcar like rear areas.  Eventually the front car bodies were replaced with Wayne Bus bodies on some.  This is what I depicted above with art markers.  The history of the Rio Grande Southern is really interesting, full of ingenuity, and the photo's of the road are of spectacular scenery.  So if you want more look around on line.

Happy Sunday - Blue Jay

He is not the BlueBird of Happiness, but the Blue Jay is always are entertaining and intelligent bird.  They are always around, active, and very vocal.  They have been very prevalent in North Carolina and Maryland, but we have seen them in other states, too