Lake Bonneville, #1, Stonehenge paper, 20″ x 20″

Lake Bonneville, #1 (Study)
Lux Archival, 12″ x 12″

I decided to start a new series of paintings based on photos from Lake Bonneville in Oregon on the Columbia River.  We were there last October and it was one of the loveliest places we visited.  I liked the combination of mountain, lake, grasses and path.  I did a study that I like a lot.  For the painting, I worked on a new paper: Stonehenge. The Rives I had was very lightweight and not great.  The Stonehenge is a heavier paper and worked well, particularly after sitting under weights over the weekend.

The study went so well and seemed so easy.  Not so the painting!  There was too much sky and mountain and it wa difficult to apply well.  I finally had to add another lighter field to keep the mountain from being so big.  I’m finding the skies to be the most difficult aspect of working on this surface as it’s impossible to get smooth applications of color.  But I like it for the grasses, etc.

The painting lacks the bright yellows of the study and I may add those in.

In this case, I didn’t follow the photo completely, but I did try to copy the study and i’m not sure that worked very well.  The sanded paper works so beautifully for the skies and the smaller size is much easier to deal with.  But I will keep at it.  I might try a 12 x 24 next.