New Work: Sun Behind the Foothills oil on canvas, 36 x 60 inches

Sun Behind the Foothills  oil on canvas, 36 x 60 inches

This is my most colorful version of the foothills nearby. After getting halfway into this 5 foot canvas and the complexities of the sky, I decided to start a smaller version shown below, Radiant View, 24 x 24 on panel. In Radiant View, I began to work out some of the sky ideas started on the larger one and quickly got myself into another set of problems. Now I had another painting that was half sky and the lower half had a considerable amount of land mass that required an interesting solution.

I had to laugh at myself, now I've created two problem canvases, but that's the nature of all the other artworks currently in the studio.

Continuing to work on the smaller oil, I opted for a mountainside at the bottom with slight details in order to make the sky the prominent feature of the oil. Surprisingly, I had to add another line of hills at the very bottom to make that land portion more interesting. It also gave the mountain above it even more mass and created a nice counterpart to the illuminated sky patterns.

Getting back to the larger oil, I went the other direction with the land mass, adding considerably more detail and brighter colors to the sky and the foothills. As the panting developed, I pushed the brights, setting up more contrast and drama.

With both of these oils the primary motivators were the painting themselves. Although they are similar, I followed where each painting took me, working through options unique to to each oil and striving to reach the best result.

Radiant View  oil on panel, 30 x 30 inches