Today I realized I had 30 minutes until basketball practice, so I picked something I could paint fast, abstract the details.
Here is what it looked like at 28 minutes
Two minutes left…I darkened the background, and changed the orientation.
Cloudcroft Afternoon
I love the grey days we have been having in North Texas lately, the atmosphere has a quiet quality. As I have been running around the last few days, I have been color mixing in my head…dappled yellow and gold foliage against a warm grey sky. I haven’t gotten out to paint it yet, wet weather is tricky with pastels in plein air, perhaps next week. In the meantime I went through my photos, this one is from Cloudcroft New Mexico, it was late summer and the trees were green, but the wildflowers and overcast sky satisfied my immediate desire to paint yellow and grey.
Yellow Rose
I love all yellow roses, this lovely one was on a cactus.
Golden Fields
There are always flowers for those who want to see them.
-Henri Mattise
6:26am Texas Sunrise
Heading West before dawn is a good feeling.
Sunrise LBJ national grasslands
I painted this a few years ago at the LBJ National Grasslands, near Decatur, Texas. We head over for the trail marathon every year. The race has rolled around again, and perhaps I will be able to sneak in a few studies between checking on my boys today. This is a complimentary color study in violet and yellow, and some neutral grey-violets. I love energy of these colors together.
Alamos Amarillos
If you are a Texan, as I am, “remember the Alamo” is taught to you from Kindergarten on.
Alamo is the Spanish word for Cottonwood. I prefer to remember these alamos rather than the bloody images of Santa Anna, James Bowie, William Travis, and Davy Crockett fighting it out the bitter end.
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