Road Through Colorado

 

6x8in. oil on Ampersand Gessobord - not available

In October 2021 we took a trip to Phoenix, AZ. To get there, we drove across Nebraska, through Colorado Springs and ended up in a place called the Rio Grande National Forest. Our navigational system directed us to take the back roads, so to speak. In places like the desert at night with no lights around for miles it was absolutely terrifying, but in the Rio Grande National Forest, I was extremely thrilled to get lost on winding roads through the sea of aspen trees. I drove (and we were the only car around for what seemed like miles), which, of course in the place that we were, meant that I drove about 15 miles per hour and made my husband take plenty of photos from our rental car. I sorted through probably a hundred car photos and landed on the reference photo for the above painting. There was something about these trees that shouted at me "turn back! You're leaving your home!". It was on this road trip that I was confronted with the truth that one day we will live in Colorado. This painting is part of a series I am calling my "diary pages" - not for sale, but paintings that are snapshots of meaningful moments in my life. The first one was the Estes Park plein air painting from October of last year, a view of the mountainside from the deck of the cabin that I got married in. I have plenty of these diary paintings to create, so stay tuned! This painting is part of my personal collection.

Jenny Lake Study

 

14x11in. oil on canvas - click to purchase here

Another Paint Coach Patreon study! I did a few Paint Coach tutorial studies in order to study for some plein air work when I went on my trip to Estes Park last fall, starting with this one! I loved scrubbing in various colors to make the lake.

Small Landscape Study

 

6x8in. oil on Ampersand Gessobord - click to purchase here

Another Paint Coach Patreon study in the books! I really liked this quick study, how the warm light is shining on the barn to the mountains in the far background. The paint strokes are also pretty thick in this painting, which I like a lot. I definitely enjoyed the mountain practice, I have a lot of photos from the Rocky Mountain National Park that I'd like to paint.

Poppies in the Mountains

5x4in. oil on canvas panel - not available

This spring I started to vend at craft fairs and my first-ever craft fair required a raffle item from each vendor. Since I am an artist, I figured a small painting would be perfect. Not exactly knowing what to paint, I turned to my resources. Indeed, this painting is composed from no single reference photo, instead, multiple references Frankensteined together to make my finished piece. The mountains in the background were inspired by Bob Ross' glorious mountainscapes, the midground a Patreon tutorial by Paint Coach focusing on atmospheric perspective and the foreground a photo of poppies from the Cascades National Park. I especially like how the poppies pop against the green grass, and how the grass reflects in the river. Practicing working on my own compositions is difficult but it rendered great results.

Mountain Study

8x6in. oil on Ampersand Gessobord - click to purchase here

This is another Paint Coach Patreon tutorial that I completed in order to study for this year's October Plein Air challenge! I highly recommend checking out his YouTube channel. One of the things that really drew me to complete this study were the juicy paint strokes. As I continue to work on my creative skill, I'm realizing that I'm really drawn to making thick, juicy brush strokes rather than blended colors. The brush strokes blend together from farther away but once you look up close, you can really see the nuance between colors.