Rattlesnake v2.0

Rattlesnake Badlands, one more time

I posted this painting on Tuesday. Seeing a painting in a jpeg can be a very helpful part of the process. Once I saw it at that small scale, I realized the foreground needed to be even darker and the sky was all wrong.

Actually figuring out how to resolve the sky took some research. My art books were little help as I didn't find many paintings that included skies at dusk. So I looked to two places: Deborah Paris' website and my own digital files of photos.

Deborah, as you can see on her website here, has gorgeous paintings of skies and landscapes at sunset, dusk and twilight. Looking carefully at her paintings I realized that my sky had too much pink, too much blue and much too little yellow and orange. So I spent the last two days adding layers to the sky and I believe it's done now.

It's wet but I plan to pack this up this afternoon and take it to Walla Walla with me for an ongoing show there. I have a feeling I'm not the only artist who's packed up wet paintings.

Comments

Casey Klahn said…
I have spent many a day up on a ridge in Yakima called Rattlesnake. I carry a scar on my left ear from there, I think it was.

These are a nice series of central Washington desert scenes, Lisa. Thanks for posting them.
June 10, 2010 at 1:54 PM
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