Cooling Off

 Cooling Off

10x8, pastel

A sheep herder's dog is one of the hardest working dogs around.  They spend hours on end watching over the herd and seem to love moving them from one location to another, dodging here and there, watching for strays and bringing them back into the fold.  After a long day on the range, this guy is cooling off in a nearby stream. 

Ditch Bank

Ditch Bank

8x6, soft pastel

Day 3 of 30 - The fun thing about painting landscapes is that there is subject matter absolutely everywhere you look.  This small ditch bank is right down the street from my house.  I liked the composition...so, I painted it!

Behind the Guest House

Behind the Guest House

10x8, soft pastel

Another stab at plein air painting yesterday.  My friend Tina and I are both a bit shy about painting in public...mainly because we're new at plein air...and fairly new at painting landscapes...and actually (for me anyway) only a year into using soft pastels. Together, we build each other's confidence and laugh a lot in the process.  Every outing is an adventure and there's always something we forget to bring.  This time for me it was bug spray.

We drove around for awhile and found a gorgeous property along the Boise River.  The Boise River is much like the Snake River with many twists, turns and in shallow areas branches off on occasion.  With permission from the landowner we painted along one of the branches behind his guest house.  It was an absolutely picture perfect day (at least for a few hours) before a late spring thunderstorm rolled through.  By that time though, we had packed up our gear and were enjoying a scrumptious lunch at a favorite local cafe.

The Long And Winding Road

The Long And Winding Road

8x10, soft pastel 

Trying to become an artist is tough. Oh sure...you can have the occasional success.  But (at least in my case) it's immediately followed by lesser works.  Keeping one humble. Very, very humble. 

I am officially declaring to the universe that am not a landscape artist. And, I don't think I ever will be.  Not that this revelation is bad.  There are other genres to focus on.  The whole point of this entire year is to challenge myself and try to learn how to paint with pastels,  I just need to find my niche.

In today's case, I had a great composition (at least I think it is, and thank you Danielle for the reference photo)...and I completed a good solid notan under painting.  In fact, once I did the under painting I thought, "wow,  this is going to be a good one".  But capturing the essence of the view and the appropriate colors eluded me.  

The path to becoming a good artist is a long and winding road for sure! Oh well, as I've said before...there's always tomorrow.