Wonderful Daze

I Just Have Not Had Time To Paint 

There have been too many other indoor and outdoor activities to enjoy:

Indoor activities include sewing  Wonder Bear

Wonder Bear with her Wonderful cape

Wonder Bear and all these creations are for my newest great niece who was born

more than 3 months premature, after spending her first 4 months in the hospital, she is finally home

with her family.  She is  Wonder Baby Emma 

Another indoor activity:  Tie Dyeing  Infant Onesies

Long sleeved Onesie

Back of another long sleeved Onesie,
Tie Dyeing is so much fun, I never know what will happen

Fleece lined afghan,  I knitted this afghan a few months ago, but it was not soft and cuddly,
so I lined it with fleece, now it is snuggleable

All these things went in the mail yesterday, so don't tell, shhh

I love Snow Daze

Winter's Gift

A fresh start to a beautiful New Year

Continued from December 14th, Time To Paint Winter:
Distant trees were added,  they help define the layers of ridges

The foreground is a wet in wet wash of violets and yellows using very little pigment

A small tree done in greens and blues, then shadows.
 I used a damp, stiff bristled brush to slightly fade out
the mountains.  Resolve to do more painting!

"With winter comes a time to reflect on days gone by
To draw our friends and family close,
To touch a stranger's life.

From the chaos of preparation
Evolves the joy of sharing
And winter's gift of quiet."


Happy New Year!

Seasons Greetings

Portland Mine Road in Winter

Ironton's Winter Glow

Winter on Black Bear

Shivering Sisters

Winter's Light on Mount Abrams

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous,

leading to the most amazing view.

May your mountains rise into and above the clouds."

Edward Abbey

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Winter's Wonderland

Let's paint winter

Here is my sketch using the above photo.  I have used Aureolin
working wet in wet for the glow in the right corner of the sky area.
For the remainder of the sky, still working wet in wet, I dropped in some cobalt blue and a little
permanent rose

After the sky was dry,  I wet the main mountain slightly, then used ultramarine blue
and cobalt, leaving white areas.  As we move away, the mountains must be less
in focus.  For the mountain on the far left, I used a light wash of june bug (blue green),
The next 2 mountains in the distance are of a light wash of rose and cobalt.  

The small. very distant mountain is a light wash of cobalt.
Moving forward,  The mountain on the right is catching the winter light.
The slope on the left is a wash of june bug.  Different effects are possible with water and pigment
as demonstrated by the area behind and to the right of the trees.  To be continued... 

Finishing the Angels Landing Painting

Angels Landing, Zion NP

This is where I left off last time

Details have been added to the rock formation 

First wash on the sky using ultramarine and cobalt blues 

After several wet on dry washes on the sky, I used a paper towel to wipe some pigment away
using an upward motion to give the effect of pale, moving clouds

Thanksgiving in Zion

Zion's West Temple

Desert Varnish in Zion

The Colors of Zion

Zion Narrows

Crescent Moon Over Zion

Angels' Landing

Angels' Landing in Zion National Park

Capturing the glow of the colorful monoliths found in Zion National Park is a difficult challenge.

The light in the canyon changes moment to moment, so that sometimes even a camera

can not record the mood and color as we see and experience it.

This is not a very good photo, but I have made a rough sketch and done a wet in wet
wash of pale yellow and cadmium orange over most of the paper.

Excuse the shadows, here I have added another wash with more cad orange on
the rocks and more yellows and some oranges in the mid ground, where the trees are.

Oops, several steps have gone by because I forget to record them.
More details everywhere,  keeping the mountains in the background faded since they are in the distance,
and gradually adding more detail as we move forward, with darker areas around the edges
of the trees to make them more defined and to indicated that they are in front of the mountains.

Here I have added some detail to the focal point which is Angels' Landing, and the trees in the mid ground.

Next the foreground grasses and bushes were added.
There is still work to be done on the focal point, Angels' Landing, as well as deciding what I want to do with the sky.