Shade to Light

The first painting I did was of a grove of Aspens that were just starting to turn their fall color. I set up my easel and started to paint, soon realizing one of the fundamental difficulties with painting outside on site - the lighting quickly shifts. To offset this problem I decided that I just had to imprint in my mind the lighting that first caught my eye and go with it. I also made the decision to edit and even add to the scene that was before me, all the while holding on to my original inspiration. Here is a photo of the scene and the painting it inspired:

Here is another photo and painting in the same area as the Aspen grove. I liked the little red tree so much, I included it in the first painting.

And finally, my "hay rolls" painting and one of the photos I took of the scene. As we were driving to Telluride I saw several fields of hay bales and something about them appealed to me. I think they look surreal against the backdrop of sprawling vacant fields. The problem is getting close enough to them to paint as they are on private property. There was one field in particular that we saw on the way and I made a mental note to take pictures of it on the way back. Driving back we stopped at the spot and a tractor was already picking up the bales. I jumped out and quickly snapped several pictures. Further along the sky was starting to change as a storm started to build in the distance. I liked the look of the transition so I photographed it. Later on, back at the Ouray house, I put aspects of the different scenes together into one painting.