Mountain Meadow Flowers

Mountain Meadow Flowers

11x14in  oil on linen. Demo - Not for sale.

I did this a demo in class this morning. It is from a photo
I took in southern Colorado. We were driving to our destination
and I nearly dropped my jaw when I saw this amazing carpet of flowers
in the middle of nowhere. When I opened my mouth to yell, stop the car,
I found my own Mr Wonderful was already pulling over.
The years together do have their benefits!

I am not sure what flowers they were, but they looked to be in the wild aster family.

Artist Note.

This months focus in class is painting on a colored background.

I covered the canvas with a pinky/purple color and I lifted
out the light of the sky.

I chose this color as it would give me a good idea
of the placement of the flowers without having to put paint on top
too soon. I like to keep everything in a transparent paint quality
for as long as possible. Two reasons. It is easier to lift off cleanly anything
you are not comfortable with, and I like the dark areas to be painted
as transparently as possible. Richard Schmid along with many other artists,
stress this theory.
Unless I am making soft grays I never use raw umber. (as a dark)
I do use a beautiful transparent brown by Rembrandt which is
wonderful mixed with Ultramarine Blue or Viridian to achieve
rich, non chalky darks.