Sunset on the Elbow River

A big thank you to VIVA gallery for sponsoring my exhibit 'Deep Snow High Mountains' during the month of October. And a big thank you to everyone who purchased a painting. The response to these paintings was heartwarming.

     Now the paintings are on display at the Driftless Cafe through the holiday season. On a chilly day, stop into the cafe, have something wonderful to eat, and enjoy the paintings. Lately I've been enjoying my favorite pizza, affectionately called the "Figgy Piggy".  Mouthwatering bacon, figs, blue cheese and garlic aioli-an unbelievably good combination. But really, you can close your eyes and point to something on the menu and it will be excellent!

     There are more 'mountain paintings' in progress so if you've seen the exhibit at VIVA, stop in at the Driftless Cafe sometime before Christmas to see what might be new on the walls.

     Since Deep Snow High Mountains went on display at VIVA gallery in October, I've been working on catching up with garden cleanup, hauling hay, and generally getting ready for winter. The warm weather has allowed time for the fall outdoor work that didn't get done while paintings were being finished in September. Besides, when it is 60 degrees, with a warm breeze, and the oak leaves are russet and golden in the sunlight, staying indoors just doesn't make any sense. The wind whistles through the eaves blowing leaves up toward the clouds on a sudden gust, warning of changes soon to come; so I know there will be plenty of time later to stay inside and paint. 

     See you at the Driftless Cafe!

Chinook

Changing Weather - Rogers Pass

                                              Changing Weather - Rogers Pass
                                                      Acrylic 12" x 24"

     Imagine 15 degrees below zero, more or less, a clear bright blue sky, blindingly bright snow and your friends and you are slowly moving up the mountain side on skis. The morning is spent in a long climb and your pack full of avalanche gear and all the necessities of back country winter travel is feeling heavy. But the top of the climb is near. Suddenly, the rising ground ends and a vast space opens up; clouds and snowfields drop away below your feet and fade into the distance. Rising over the chasm a mass of dark cloud blocks the sun. Everything below is shadowed purples and blues. Mist and cloud fall down the distant canyons into what seems like bottomless space. The wind picks up. Standing on the col, you are on the edge between two worlds; the bright, quiet sunlit fields of snowy slopes falling away behind and ahead, the low roar of wind and darkening storm.
    That long, cold ski up the mountain brought my friends and I onto the col where we'd planned to rest and eat our lunch before going onto the Illecillewaet Glacier  but the unexpected drama of this view changed our plans. We simply had to stand around for a few minutes and watch the weather roll in. Of course, then our lunch was shortened and the day's plans modified so we could get back down to a lower altitude before bad weather trapped us too far from the hut.
    This view remains one of my favorite of all the spectacular mountain views I was so fortunate to know skiing in the Canadian backcountry. I always knew it was a painting, and finally it is!
     If you ski, here's some information on this spectacular Canadian backcountry destination:
Rogers Pass

Rogers Pass ski routes

   While doing this painting, our Wisconsin snow has turned to rain, the grass is greening, birds sing and winter is finished for this year. But I'm inspired about painting snow so have another painting started of the Blanket Glacier area in the Monashee Mountains of British Columbia.
   Thanks for checking in; please share this blog, and leave a comment anytime!
Susan
   
                                                 

 

Sunrise On the Trail to Bow Hut

 

   This painting was a lot of fun! It's been many, many years since I've painted a wall sized mural and since starting to paint a couple years ago, have been using canvases no larger than 9x12 inches.  This 48x36" canvas was given to me by a friend. There are a lot of unused art supplies in people's closets, and I am the fortunate beneficiary this time.

   After preparing the surface, it was ready to become my first large painting. Time to paint!

   For many years we did extensive back country skiing in Canada. Everywhere we went offered spectacular scenery and lighting. Trying to get photos of the gorgeous light and colors wasn't possible with cold hands and a very basic camera and I always wanted to paint what I saw. The scene on this blog's home page is my first mountain painting (8x22") but the big canvas inspired me to do another backcountry scene.

   I started by making color samples and value studies.

   The photo reference was one hazy mass of vague shapes due to the glare from the low morning sun. Many ski trips found us far from the road by the time sunlight reached the valleys. This was a beautiful time to be in the trackless snow fields under towering peaks.

   There are numerous problems with the above value study; primarily the light is coming from all over the place! Hmmmm....should have looked a bit more closely before putting all that paint on....

 A few more value sketches were done then I just jumped in and laid out the idea on the big canvas.

      Building values.....

     I don't like the direction this is going. At this point I painted over much of it and made it much lighter in value, and changed the light to come from the left side of the picture. The sun is still behind the mountain, the night's clouds are breaking up and floating away in the warming (relatively speaking) air and each angle of slope reflects a different amount of light.

  

    This is starting to work better but it's a long way from finished. I've saved adding the people into the scene until now. There were seven of us on this trip but that was too many for this picture; but since everyone is bundled up and unrecognizable, we can each imagine we are there in the picture.

   By this time life got a bit complicated due to the need to wear a Big Black Boot for 6 weeks.

Suddenly I was very appreciative of Frieda Kahlo's  challenges, and her courage and commitment to her art.

   Oops, there are some awkward things going on with the clothes and positions of people, not apparent in this dark and blurry photo so this is still very much a work in progress. Shadows, clouds, people...all need some adjustments. Keep working!

   This painting took about two weeks to do. At this time it's 'finished'. The quotes mean it gets put away for a while, then taken out to review. Anything that shows up then gets fixed, or if it's the best I can do at this time, it's really done.

   Thanks for checking on this blog; Please share and let me know what you think.