April 2015

 One day recently, we decided to go out for a hike, so we drove out to Morgan Territory Regional Park. The day was sunny, but very cool and windy, especially up in the hills. As we were hiking there were a number of scenes that seemed worthy of a painting, and I took a few photos with my phone. Back home a few days later, I picked out a couple of shots to paint.

 First I did this dead tree. I thought it made an interesting shape and I liked the contrast between it and the green trees in the background. In my photo, the tree was centered, but for the painting I remembered advice from somewhere that centering an object makes for a dull composition, so I offset it a bit. In hindsight, I think I should have followed my instincts instead of following someone else's advice. I remember many years ago reading lots of rules for composition in photography, and at some point, I became aware that there is a lot of artwork that breaks the rules, and I often find it more interesting because of that. So I began learning to trust my own gut feelings about what looked good. Now that I am trying to learn to paint better, I sometimes get distracted by other artist's ideas.

 Then I did this one of a tree and distant cows. I liked the shapes of the meadow and the shadows of the tree. Both of these paintings were done fairly quickly, but I think they came out pretty good.

Another day recently, I was walking with Darby out into Garin Park from the ranch where our horses are boarded. It was a beautiful day with puffy white clouds, and as we came out of the woods on a steep hillside, I thought that the scene would be fun to paint. I got out my phone and called Darby back to me and got a shot as he was trotting back to me. I painted this during the first two days of my class when we are free to work on any of our own ideas. I am quite pleased with the results, and I like that I put Darby into it because he is so much a part of my hiking experience these days.