Moving cross-country threw off my painting rhythm a bit, but every so often I've been making a little bit of progress on this landscape. It's from a photo I took while on a mountain bike ride in Bend, Oregon. The way the clouds were sweeping in majestically over the distant trees stopped me in my tracks, literally. Took me forever to catch back up to my group! I first did the blue sky, and loved it. Then one night I timidly approached the clouds - totally intimidated. I'd never attempted any significant cloud form before, especially not one that should be the focus point of the painting! After sleeping on it, I loved them too. But the trees and other greenery has been a struggle - ironic since that's usually my strong point. And the reflection has been a disaster. I can't seem to keep the style in with ripples. Here's what I have:
That's after a night solely focused on fixing the water. Not having any idea how to improve it (or hope really), what do you think of cropping the image to this:
Not only does it cut off the offending part, it brings the clouds back into the spotlight I think. Might need to slightly darken that row of shrubs too to help that. Maybe I shouldn't have tried such a difficult painting after so much time off :) but it was so inspiring to me. After being frustrated though, I went back to my sure-fire painting block fix: a flower. Somehow, making them shine always comes easy when nothing else does with a brush or without. After this decent start, I might actually be able to get some sleep now:
Now if I could get myself to paint two nights in a row, I might get somewhere!
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