Glenwood Canyon 1978 (Inspiration for Painting)

Looking for more mountains to paint! I found this in a photo album from 1978.  We took a family trip to Colorado, and drove to Glenwood Springs. Of course the hot springs is fun, but what I remember most is the beautiful drive in Glenwood Canyon.  I wanted to paint this.  But this photo is "portrait" (vertical orientation) and I needed it to be landscape (horizontal).  I decided to use Painter to turn this into a painting  reference.  To be continued. . . .

Front Range Sunset: Near Fountain (Acrylic Mixed Media Painting)

Here is my painting as it looked on February 9, the day I finished it.  I painted back into the pasted paper to adjust the colors.  I added a layer of green to the foreground, and brightened the blue of the clouds.  

Front Range Sunset: Near Fountain (Painting as of February 8, 2022)

Here's my painting of that Front Range sunset, as it looked on February 8th.  I added colors to the sky with pasted paper, using my reference photo.  I painted into the gray clouds to add some blue. To be continued. . . .

Front Range Sunset: Near Fountain (Painting as of February 7, 2022)

Here's my painting of a Colorado sunset, as it looked on February 7, 2022.  That day I finished creating the shapes of the clouds, using pasted gray tissue paper.  

Front Range Sunset (Near Fountain): Painting as of February 6, 2022

On February 6th, I got this painting started.  I used pasted tissue paper to establish shapes: black tissue paper for the foreground, blue for the mountains, and grey for the clouds.  To be continued. . .

Front Range Sunset: Near Fountain (Sketch for painting)

On February 6th, I got another painting started.  I began with this sketch.

Front Range Sunset (Fountain, Colorado): Painting Reference

I took the original version of the photo during a trip to Colorado several years ago.  My friend Herman drove me from Colorado Springs down to Pueblo and we visited his mom. By late afternoon, we headed back to Colorado Springs, and I took a picture from the passenger seat around the time we drove through Fountain.  The sky was just starting to change colors, edging towards a sunset.  I recently rediscovered the photo and decided to use it as a painting reference.  I liked the composition, but wanted a dramatic sunset, so I used Painter to speed up time: to make the mountains darker and brighten the colors in the sky.  To be continued.

Near Snowmass (Acrylic Mixed Media Painting)

Here is my painting of Snowmass as it looked on February 5th, the day I finished it.  It was nearly finished when I started that morning,  but I just made a lot of small changes. And then finally it was done.  

Near Snowmass (Painting as of February 4, 2022)

This is how my painting of Snowmass looked on February 4, 2022.  I was painting over and into the pasted paper that I used to create shadows on the mountains and in the foliage.

Near Snowmass (Painting as of February 2, 2022)

Here is my Snowmass painting as it looked on February 2, 2022. I added more pasted paper, this time in dark purple to create shapes and shadows in the vegetation. To be continued. . .

Near Snowmass (Painting as of February 1, 2022)

Here is my painting of Snowmass as it looked back on February 1st.  I started adding some collage elements, using pasted tissue paper to create shapes and shadows.

Near Snowmass (Painting as of January 31, 2022)

Here is my Snowmass painting as it looked on January 31, which was the day I began to actually paint it.  I posted my painting reference here yesterday: a picture that I took during a family vacation in 1987.

Trail near Snowmass (1987): Photo reference for painting

I was recently looking through family albums again for inspiration for my mountain paintings, and found a photo taken in the summer of 1987 during a family trip back to Colorado.  We spent one night at Snowmass Village, and this photo was taken during a morning walk on a very easy trail nearby.  I decided to base a painting on this photo, so I used Painter to crop it and add some posterizing effect.

Lake Estes (Acrylic Water Media Painting)

Here is a my painting of Lake Estes as of January 30th, the day I finished it.  This was an interesting trip down memory lane! Imagine painting a scene that I once drew as a child in 1956.

Reposting: Paper Roses (Collage - PosterizedVersion)

Sending out a bouquet of paper roses for February 14th.  I created this collage in 2005 or 2006, and resized and posterized the image in 2012 so the image would be big enough to keep up with the times. 

Lake Estes (Painting as of January 29, 2022)

Here is my Lake Estes painting as it looked on January 29th. I was working from a small family snapshot in black and white. So to figure out what colors to use, I looked online at color photos and even a video taken at Lake Estes, showing the marina, which I recognized in this photo.  And at this point I was still working on basic shapes and textures.  To be continued. . .

Lake Estes (Painting as of January 28, 2022)

Here's my painting of Lake Estes as it looked on the first day of painting.  Still pretty rough, but a start. As I was getting this underway,  I did a little more looking on the Internet and found some pictures, maps, and even a video of Lake Estes, sort of a panorama.  From this I was able to tell that we were at the Lake Estes Marina, and also got an idea of the colors at that location.

Lake Estes (Reference for Painting)

I created this painting reference from the little 1956 black-and-white photo that I posted here yesterday.  I straightened it and cropped it in iPhoto.  Then I opened the image in Painter and used cut-and-paste to remove myself from the picture, and used some digital pastel to reconstruct the shore line.  I added some posterizing and color overlay, keeping the colors simple at this point. To be continued. . . .

Lake Estes 1956 (Inspiration for Painting)

This little black-and-white snapshot (maybe 2 x 2.5  inches) is from a small "Sparkletone" album of prints from a 1956 trip to Estes Park with my cousin, her mom and dad, and our grandmother.  This little lost album came to me in a box of my Dad's photos, sent to me by my cousin a few years ago.  You can see me* in the picture (looking at the camera) as well as my cousin and my uncle. My aunt probably took this picture, though it could have been my grandmother. My uncle loved to fish and with a little research on line, I figured out that this was Lake Estes.  I loved the view of the mountain lake and I wanted to know more about this photo, so I decided to use it as my inspiration for a painting.  I would have to do a bit of work on this photo to make it into a painting reference.  

*Looks like my cousin and I were drawing. If you look closely, you can see I am holding crayons. I must have been drawing a picture of this lake.

Rising Road (To Estes Park) Acrylic Mixed Media

I thought this painting was finished back on January 25, but since then, I have worked on it twice (on February 1 and then again today).  I made small changes to enhance contrast.  Now I am ready to say it is done.  This is acrylic and pasted paper, 16 x 20 on masonite board. Note: this photo was taken late afternoon, so the colors look a bit different from previous photos, but I haven't change the colors on the canvas.

Rising Road: To Estes Park (Painting as of January 25, 2022)

Here is my "Rising Road" painting as it looked on January 25th.  I did a lot of work on the sky that day.  I thought it was finished, but since then decided to make a couple of small changes.  To be continued. . . .

Rising Road: To Estes Park (Painting as of January 24, 2022)

Here is my painting as of January 24th. You can see the recent work on the foreground, with pasted paper and paint. To be continued. . . .

Birthday Bouquet (with Prisma app)

Here is my birthday bouquet, with the Prisma app's "Watercolor" filter.

Rising Road: To Estes Park (Painting as of January 23, 2022)

Here is my painting as of January 23, 2022.  I worked on the road, creating color and texture with pasted tissue paper.

Rising Road (To Estes Park as of January 22, 2022)

Here is my painting as of January 22, 2022.  I painted the sky with acrylic paint, and created the distant mountains with paint and pasted tissue paper.  To be continued. . . .

Rising Road: To Estes Park (Painting as of January 21, 2022)

This is my painting as it looked on January 21st, which is the day I began.  I used acrylic paint to begin to set up the composition. Because my painting reference was created from a small black and white photo, I chose colors I remember from the Colorado landscape: dark green stands of forest, sage green vegetation, and a pink cast in the road. To be continued. . .

Rising Road: To Estes Park (Sketch as of Jan. 21, 2022)

My painting reference is posted here yesterday:  a small black-and-white snapshot from a family trip in 1956.  I used it to to create this sketch, drawing on the gessoed masonite board with conte crayon. To be continued. .

Mountain Drive 1956 (Painting Reference)

This is the painting reference that I created from the 1956 snapshot that I posted here yesterday.  The original 2 x 2 photo was a bit blurry to begin with. As you can (barely) see, by the time I cropped the photo to get the composition I wanted, the resolution was not good.  But still, I used Painter to simplify the foreground, etc.   I printed it out as an 8 x 10, and believe it or not, it actually did work for me as a painting reference. Perhaps you can see that I had to sketch in lines to make sure I could see the shapes of the mountains. And of course, I had to rely on memory and imagination for the color.  To be continued. . .