Light is the Master

Here are a few studio pieces that I recently completed.  Though they are over a thousand miles apart, they have one strong commonality.  Both are fairly ordinary subjects that have been transformed by light and atmosphere.

This first one, "Flint Road," is a 24x36 oil painting of an area just a few minutes west of my home.  It's amazing how light can affect a person's perception of a place.  I drive along this road a lot, and have seen it look very ordinary.  But doing some land snorkeling on a day when the clouds were moving along at a pretty good clip, I was lucky enough to catch many photos of cloud shadows raking across the land.  A few plein air pieces looking another direction, and a couple sketches of this view, and I couldn't get back to the studio fast enough! (I will post the plein air pieces soon.)

Flint Road, oil, 24x36

This piece, "Rain Glow," was painted in the studio after a trip to the Jackson Hole, Wyoming area.  I was there in September, painting with my good friend and fellow artist, Cally Krallman.  We spent several hours painting the mountain views along Spring Gulch Road.  Even though the sun went behind a thick haze and there was already mist in the air, we decided to try for one more piece down the road where we found this intimate little pond.  We were just getting warmed up when the rain came pouring down and we had to abandon the spot.  My plein air piece was pretty much destroyed by the large rain drops, but I did manage to shoot some photos of the sun trying to peak out of the fog before the heavy rain hit.  Back in the studio, I used my photos, my half completed plein air, and my memory to finish.