Spring Comes to the High Plains

I have to admit, I am on a winter kick.  Cold, chill.  And loneliness.  I don’t tend to paint or photograph people or civilization, but as far as painting goes, I need to get into painting them.  I’m doing okay with moving inland water.  But buildings, people, and oceans leave me baffled for now.

So, the open spaces of the flatlands between mountain ranges.  Harsh weather, blasted heaths, winter and wild weather. The hint of spring.

Dappled Light

More work with water and light.  Here I thought about some of the exercises I have followed from Rick Surowicz’s YouTube channel – lines, curves, and dots to capture branches, light, and leaves.  I think this painting worked out quite nicely.

Besides considering what I wanted in advance (a way of thinking that has taken a very long time to get to) by applying frisket, I also was determined to paint from light to dark and use glazing and blending.  Areas of color were also considered, and rather than trying to paint each leaf, I painted blobs of color to represent the foliage.  As a result, I built up layers of color throughout the painting as I moved along, and can say this is possibly the first painting in which I have done this.

I also had to be very patient!  Frisket is not happy when you blow dry it – it gets all sticky and you have let it set up again. As a result, this 6×9 painting probably took a couple of hours to do.  However, the results, for me, were definitely worth the time it took.  Perhaps my impatience is lessening . . .