Aspen grove

"Aspen Grove" 8x10 in, oil on panel

This is one of the paintings I did on my marathon painting day last week. This was the last painting of the bunch and I started it knowing that I was really tired. I usually stand up to paint so that I can step back easily and see if things are working or not, but for this painting I sat on a wide flat granite boulder and set my easel down low. I wasn't able to step back at all, and at some point I stopped to look at the painting as a whole and thought "this is a mess", but I got up and looked at it from distance (all of 4 feet that I had available to me), and the elements of the painting all snapped into place. Amazing. I'm really happy with the reflected light on the trunks of the aspens. I really want to find more aspen groves to paint this fall.