Last of the fall colors - - which were plenty this year!!!

Both mornings this weekend, I drove up to Hope Valley on hwy 88 in Ca. to see the changing leaves on the Aspen Trees.  This year it was a mild fall, with one early cold night and little storm -  - -then a long Indian Summer with the Fall leaves lasting with brilliant color thru it all.    People were everywhere, taking pictures I guess for their own projects - -  -maybe cards, maybe calendars - -who knows?  But they were out in droves with some the biggest cameras' I have ever seen.   I found a quiet spot at about *  A. M.  Where I spent the morning trying to compose a painting.  With so much brilliant color, and light I found I had a very hard time.   Just changing to mostly Yellows and golds proved difficult in showing 3 Planes for a landscape painting.   I need to be much more simple in my designs and think it thru first.  I did do some thumbnail sketches, and did spend at least an hour on a small painting,   It still needs work, and thought.   I then took pictures to play with during the cold winter months.  I will show you a few of these.   Maybe one day you will find yourself on Hwy 88, going thru Hope Valley in the fall!!

And the last one I will add is my effort for this A. M.---Its rather poor - - -but I do have time to try and improve on these fall trees.   It may be  a long winter, who knows?

This last one is my work - - -which needs some thought and improvement as far as compostion  goes.  It is still a lot of work to plan a simple comp - - sometimes you can find a natural comp, and thats wonderful if it says what you what it to  say.  If not, then you must be able to use the elements of design to get it painted in a way that feels right to you.  So, back to the drawing board!!   Still, it was  a lovely  way to spend sevearl hours!!

February in my world

Today is  a grand day here in my world.  This is the front walk-way to the Dutch Valley house, where I live.  The next pic is my horses having their hay on a bed of snow.  After about 7 weeks of no weather this January, we have had snow every day now for 4 days, and I guess it may continue until Saturday eve. sometime.   Well, there will no shortage of snow scenes to paint!   Down at the ranch house on Foothill Road, where I now am, the scene is just beautiful.  This ranch is different than the Dutch Valley Ranch, just below the Mt's that Lake Tahoe sits on, at close to 8 Thousand ft. (the lake basin)  We are in the Carson Valley, well the edge of it, at about 5100 feet.  The Mt. makes it look very rustic, with the sprawling valley below us.  This is where Lorenzo Chavez came and painted one day, with his workshop in '09- - - Wow, that was cool!

Anyhow, no painting to show you today, but I do have one on my easel.  Its quite large, and I have run into a problem of resolving and connecting the shadows,(darks), and making them go back in space the way I envision it to be.   I have done drawings, notes, sketches and I think it will  work out- - - - - - - - - just need time to work on it and get it finished.  Its a full sheet of Canson,  I think it will be OK.    If not, my time has not been wasted, as I will have learned from this- - -  -and will continue on with this sort of thing, finding the answers as I go.    I have found a great new ( to me)  blog to follow and learn from - - - http://www.marlabaggettastudio.com/     Take a look at her work.   I hope to stay at home in Dutch Valley Saturday, tomorrow and work.  For today, I will study about some value patterns, and composition ideas that interest me, and cook, and feed my animals, and pack in wood.   Fun, Fun , Fun! 

Planning is so important

Today I will post a pastel I finnished a week or so ago. Planning is so important! I did do a most complelte drawing, a notan of sorts----but did not figure out how I was to put the cattle in the background in such a way as to suggest haze and dust from a hot summer day----and so I muddleded thru that part and the finnish was not what I wanted. I feel I must face my failures and understand them so as not to repeat! Wet Canvas is such a great web-site to learn from, and we all love it, but there is no better lesson than trying to put what you learn into action. For me, back to the drawing board!

I would also like to show you a small plein-air---plen-air is just the most fun! We learn to see, and try to paint the light of the day. This is my first with water in a river, plein-air. Just looking at a small portion, I could do this each day of the week!