Little Pumpkins (with Prisma's Cowboy filter)

I took this photo last week at Marini Farm Stand, and added Prisma's "Cowboy" filter today.  Sending this out to say that I hope all the lil' pun'kins out there have fun today.  Whether you celebrate Halloween, watch the fun from the sidelines, or like me, just gripe about the traffic jam in Salem, I wish you a happy October 31st.

Reposting: Morning Mountains (Colorado Springs) for Solo Show

 On October 27, I retrieved this painting from my studio at Porter Mill so I could take it to Boston because it would be included in my November show at Galatea Fine Art. This is an acrylic mixed media painting that I completed last year. 

Ski Trails in Summer (Breckenridge), Acrylic Watermedia Painting

Here is my painting as it looked on October 20, 2023, the day I finished it.  I wanted to make sure each area was distinct, so most of the changes were to the colors,  especially the green in the foreground, and the purple on the mountain on the right. I also soften the sky with some translucent white.  And then the painting was done.

Rocky Mountain Tree Line (Acrylic Watermedia Painting)

Here is my painting as it looked on October 19, 2023.  I did a little bit of work to refine the sky and the top line of the mountain.  I added some addition contrast to the foreground, and then I was ready to call say it was finished.

Ski Trails in Summer (Breckenridge), Painting as of October 19, 2023

Here is my painting as it looked at the end of the day on October 19th.  I based the composition on my photo reference, just making a few changes in the foreground.  Then I used acrylic paint to apply color and texture. This came together quickly, but I was still concerned about using different colors to distinguish different areas.  To be continued.. .

Ski Trails in Summer (Breckenridge), Photo Reference for Painting

Although I still had a painting in progress on my easel, on October 19th, I was already planning the next painting.  That morning, I found a photo that I took in Breckenridge, during our trip to Colorado in 2018, and cropped this image out of the background.

Rocky Mountain Tree Line (Painting as of October 18, 2023)

Here is my painting as it looked at the end of the day on October 18th.  I followed my reference photo to set up the composition, and then I defined the areas. I used a much more saturated green for the forested areas, and created a texture to suggest vegetation.  To be continued. . .

Southern Colorado Evening (Painting as of October 18, 2023)

Here is my painting as it looked on October 18th.  Using my photo reference as a guide, I painted in the basic shapes with strong colors.  I simplified some of the detail in the foreground of the photo, but stayed pretty close to the composition in the photo. I was inspired by the colors in the reference photo, but added contrast by making the colors much more saturated and distinct than in the photo.  This painting came together quite quickly.  At this point, it was almost finished.

Southern Colorado Evening (Reference for Painting)

This is a photo that I took back in 2011 during a trip to Colorado, probably to attend my high school reunion. This is a bit south of Colorado Springs, taken at 6:37 PM.  I only know this because of Google photo  Around October 15 of 2023, I cropped this photo so I could use it  as a reference for a painting.  I was in a rush to paint at the time, and have since lost track of the original photo.  But thanks to Google Photo, I was able to find it and here it is.

Outcropping West of Denver (Acrylic Mixed Media)

Here is my painting as it looked on October 17, 2023.  I lightened the hillside in the background with some translucent washes, and added touches of white to the hillside in the foregound.  I also added a few more shadows in and around the outcropping. And then I was willing to say this one was finished. 

Rocky Mountain Tree Line (Photo Reference for Painting)

This is a photo reference that I prepared around October 17th, when I was planning my next painting.  I have always loved the way the mountains look above treeline, the demarcation that you see when you reach the altitude where trees no longer grow.  So I searched my travel photos and found an image that I liked, captured during our 2018 trip to Colorado.  I cropped this image from the original. I liked it but wasn't completely happy with the composition, so I used the Painter program on my computer to modify the top line of the mountain slope.  To be continued. . . .

Mountain Sunset (Painting as of October 17, 2023)

This is my painting as it looked on October 17, 2023, around noon. This was at the end of my first painting session that day.  At this point, I had added green paint to the foreground, along with some darker shapes to suggest vegetation.   I returned to the painting later that day and finished it: adding a pink sun and washes to the sky, painting into the mountains with shades of blue, and changing the foreground from green to purple. The finished painting is posted here on November 28, the day it was sold.

Mountain Sunset (Painting as of October 16, 2023)

Here is my painting as it looked on October 16th, at the end of a long day that included two painting sessions. This photo was taken at 9 pm., I began by sketching in the composition with acrylic paint, including the shapes of the cloud formations. 

Then I began to use pasted paper to establish the main shapes of the mountains, but  I did a lot of work on the sky.  To be continued. . . .

Mountain Sunset (Posterized Photo for Painting Reference)

On October 15th, I was already planning my next painting.  I cropped these mountains in the background of one of my photos taken during a trip to Colorado. I thought this would be a good photo reference so I used the Painter program on my computer to check the size and then added posterizing effect. 

Outcropping West of Denver (Painting as of October 15, 2023)

Here is my painting as it looked on October 15, 2023. At this point, the basic shapes were in place.  I began to add light to the painting, including the sky and the slopes, using layers of translucent paint, as well as some pasted paper.  I also used touches of pink as well as pale pink outline, to represent light hitting the tops of the mountain slopes and the edges of the stone. Almost done.  

Manitou Springs Fantasy (Acrylic Mixed Media)

I worked on this painting on October 12, making minor adjustments, and finally finished it on October 15th. I finished adjusting the shape of the golden slope and was finally happy with the composition. Then I added touches of gold and pink paint to suggest sunlight hitting the top of each slope. As a child, I thought of Manitou Springs as a magical place, full of exotic sights and sounds: Japanese toys, Native American dances, little paper cups of  bubbling spring water. And the beautiful backdrop of the mountains.

Outcropping West of Denver (Painting as of October 14, 2023)

This is how my painting looked on October 15th at 11:30 pm, after two painting sessions.  (The colors look a bit darker because the photo wasn't taken in daylight.)  I added dark washes to the slope on the left, to make the brushstrokes more subtle and to create the look of a forested hillside.  I added some washes to the slope in the background as well.  But I spent most of the time struggling with the outcropping itself, using diagonal brushstrokes to define the shapes of the rock faces.  I added some shadows around the outcropping and also added additional boulders on the hillside nearby.  This was new and a challenge, but I started to feel like I was getting somewhere.

Outcropping West of Denver (Painting as of October 13, 2023)

On October 13, I continued to work on this painting.  I began painting the sky.  And I began to suggest a forested area on the slopes on the left-hand side, using strokes of purple paint. with purple brushstrokes.  Using my photo reference, I also added some shadows to the outcropping and to the area around it.  To be continued. . . .

Outcropping West of Denver (Painting as of October 12, 2023)

On October 12th, I got this painting started.  Using my reference photo, I sketched the major shapes onto the canvas with blue conte crayon, and followed with some thin layers of blue and green paint.  To be continued.

Outcropping West of Denver (Photo Reference for Painting)

On October 12, I was already looking through photos and videos for an image for my next painting.  I found an image of an outcropping of a highway west of Denver.  I had been thinking about painting an outcropping, so I selected a section part of the background, and used the Painter program on my PC to add the texture and color.  When you drive into the mountains west of Denver, you see many rocky outcroppings,  artifacts of human construction. They are created when mountain highways are built, so they result from the construction that makes access to the mountains possible, and so I am grateful for that. But the outcroppings are also powerful evidence of how much the mountains have been changed for the sake of those highways.  These outcroppings are often quite striking, very beautiful in their own terms as they reveal the beauty of the rock within the mountains.

Near Vail in Summer (Acrylic Mixed Media)

On October 12th, I finally decided to declare this painting finished. I made a lot of small changes, and although some of them were almost imperceptible at the end, on the whole I think the changes made a difference.

Manitou Springs Fantasy (Painting as of October 11, 2023)

Here is my painting as it looked on October 11.  At this point, I had modified the color of the slope on the right, bringing back green tones, but more subtle this time. I added some gold highlights to suggest roads, as well as a bit of turquoise to relate to the sky.  I also added some pink highlights and washes to the golden slope as well as the slope in the lower left, trying to tie the colors of the two areas together, and also reflect some of the colors of the sky.  So I had been focussing on the colors, and was happier with the way the areas were beginning to come together.  But something was still bothering me, and as the color issues began to resolve, I realized that I wanted to change the composition.  So I made a beginning, and you can see here that I had begun to modify the shape of the golden slope.  To be continued. . . .

Manitou Springs Fantasy (Painting as of October 10, 2023)

On October 10th, I continued work on this painting.  I began by painting in the sky.  I considered using brighter colors on the slopes on the bottom left and middle right, but changing my mind and used earth tones for those areas, so they would echo some of the darker tones in the golden slope.  (By the time I took this photo, I had tried out several colors on both areas.)  At this point, I was happy with the sky and the bright golden slope, but I hadn't completely solved the problem of getting all the parts to work together.  But it was time to stop for the day, so this is where I left things.  To be continued. . . .

Manitou Springs Fantasy (Painting as of October 9, 2023)

Here is how this painting looked on October 9th.  To simplify the composition,  I eliminated the slope that had been at the lower right corner of the canvas. Then I began to play with texture, tearing strips of gold paper for the mountain slope.  This was a different kind of paper than I had been using and it would tear only in straight-line strips. This wasn't exactly what I had expected, but I forged ahead.  To make it work, I painted into the area with gold and green paint.  For the hillside on the right side of the canvas, I began to create another texture using torn blue-green paper. Then I added some purple washes to the slope in the lower left corner.  I once had a wonderful painting teacher who said, "Randi, you have to give yourself a problem and then paint your way out of it."  Well, I had given myself a problem alright!  I liked each of the four areas of the painting, but the problem I needed to solve was how to get them to work together.  To be continued. 

Manitou Springs Fantasy (Painting as of October 8, 2023)

I got this painting started on October 8th.  I didn't have much time, but working from my photo reference, I sketched in the basic composition.  I added the hillside at the bottom left.  I painted in some color washes to differentiate the areas, just as a starting point. To be continued. . . .

Near Vail in Summer (Painting as of October 8, 2023)

This is my painting as of October 8th.  My main goal that day was to correct a problem that I had noticed the day before: not enough contrast between the white areas and silver areas toward the top of the canvas.  Under artificial light,  the silver was so reflective that it seemed to disappear.  So I wanted to make the silver areas less reflective so they would show up under a bright light.  I did that by darkening the silver paint, adding a bit of black and some purple liquitex.  (You can see the purple shades toward the bottom of the canvas.)  I also repainted and sharpened the white areas. I was much happier with the painting once that was done.  I also repainted the sky.  Almost finished. . . .

Manitou Springs (Photo Reference for Painting)

On October 8th, I was getting ready to start another painting by creating this photo reference.  I began with a photo taken in Manitou Springs, and cropped the mountains from the background.  I used some posterizing on the sky, and some color overlays to the hillside. I thought this was going to be a relatively easy scene to paint.  But I was wrong.

Near Vail in Summer (Painting as of October 7, 2023)

On October 7th, I continued working on this painting.  The biggest changes: adding yellow to the foreground on the right side of the canvas, and added depth to the forested areas with blue-violet pasted paper and paint.  This photo was taken at night so the colors look a bit different.  Also, looking at this photo, I realized that under bright light, the areas painted with silver were reflecting light and so weren't showing up enough against the white areas.  So I knew I would need to create more contrast. To be continued. . . .

Near Vail in Summer (Painting as of October 6, 2023)

Here is my painting as of October 6th.  First I worked on differentiating the colors of the three green areas, and then worked on creating the visual "texture"  of mountain forests, using brush strokes. 

Near Vail in Summer (Painting as of October 5, 2023)

On October 5th, I also got this painting started.  Using my photo reference, I sketched in the main lines of the composition, and then followed with loose brushwork in green for trees and blue for the sky.  I used silver paint for the darker areas above treeline. To be continued. . . .

Tunnel Ahead (Near Central City), Acrylic Mixed Media

On October 5th, I made some small changes to this painting, refining some lines and changing a few shapes by adding pasted paper.  Then I was finally ready to say this one was also finished.

Above Dillon Lake (Acrylic Watermedia Painting)

On October 4th, I returned to this painting. I added some washes to intensify the blue slopes, straightened out some lines, and then I was ready to say that this is finished

Near Vail in Summer (Photo Reference for Painting)

On October 4, 2023,  I already had several paintings in the works. Still, it was time to get ready to start the next one.  This image began with a photo that I took on June 7, 2018, during a trip to Colorado.  So I used to Painter to crop the original to  get a 16 x 20 format, and then added some posterizing effect.

Tunnel Ahead (Near Central City), Painting as of October 3, 2023

This photo shows progress on this painting on October  2 and 3rd.  I began to add pasted paper to the road, to the rocky part of the slope, and to the foliage.  I also re-painted the lines of the road.  To be continued. . . .

Tunnel Ahead (Near Central City), Painting as of October 1, 2023

This is my painting as of October 1. I started painting the sky, and added more color and texture to the hills, green foliage, and rock. The road is unchanged from the painting session of the day before. To be continued. . . .