Quick Draw in Ouray

It was an invigorating paint out in beautiful Ouray this morning with many artists scattered about throughout the historic downtown and side streets. Doing an hour and 30 minute painting is a workout for me. With heart pumping and brush shaking I proceed to map out the large blocks and then fill in the detail to hopefully bring the painting to a finished state within the allotted time before the final bell chimes. There are areas I wish I had a bit more time to work on, but it was a great experience and good training. I should set a timer in the studio!

Final Painting: "View of Velarde"

Finally, finally got this little painting finished. I completed a large painting in-between for an upcoming show, Artist Alpine Holiday in Ouray Colorado. It's a little too disconnected when I start a painting and have a gap of time before coming back to it. I find that I lose the continuity of the original reason I was attracted to the scene. So the ending was a bit of a struggle with a little too much fussing, but here it is, finished at last.

Part 2 of "View of Velarde" Painting

Took a bit to get back to the studio to work on this little painting! Here again is the first stage:

Here at last is the middle state of the oil sketch I talked about last post.  As you can see below, I've blocked in all the color notes and more details, while trying to keep a painterly looseness. I wanted some farm animals so sketched the 3 under the big tree. I'll work on their shapes & shadowing more. I'm still tenuous on the overall color and may adjust the temperature as I feel my way through the painting in the next session since it has more of an orange tint than I would like. I may even add a vehicle or two next to the house. Often, though, if elements like trucks or animals are not in my initial oil sketch, they don't ever find their way into the almost finished painting. See you soon with the finished painting!

The bare beginnings

Here's the initial wash on a little 8x8 cradled panel I started today. It's inspired by a photo I took of a scene in the Velarde area of New Mexico along the river. This time around I wanted to share with you the stages of the painting surface. Before starting the painting, I complete a quick sketch of the scene. Even though I don't always love drawing, I feel this is such an important step to define and focus on what excites me about the scene and lay down the boundaries and basic composition.

Now I'm ready to paint! I start by laying down a wash of cadmium orange, alizarin crimson and mineral spirits over the canvas. I begin to sketch in the shapes using a varied mixture of cobalt blue, alizarin crimson & burnt sienna. Areas I know I want to remain light, I often wipe off the color to show the white of the canvas. I try to keep my paint strokes loose and adjust shapes as needed to tie the pieces together as I go along. Nothing is rigidly defined yet.

In my next post I'll show the layering of color and developing painting.

Final Touchs

I have several new landscape paintings heading to the gallery for the "Out of the West" Colorado art show I am exhibiting with 2 other artists at Around the Corner Art Gallery in Montrose Colorado. The Montrose art exhibit opens Friday, March 4th and the art show continues through March. Dan Deuter and I are Montrose artists, Barbara Churchley is a Cedaredge artist, all of us western slope artists living to the west of the Denver metro area.

Often for me, the finishing of the paintings can be quite trying and frustrating as I try to resolve problems in a painting where the solution isn't always clear. But now I am happily just about there so it's off to photograph and frame the paintings, then deliver to the gallery.