Here’s my husband again, hiking up to the top of Baldy in mid-March. I haven’t painted a lot of figures, so it’s interesting to try and put one in without it getting too detailed. Baldy is steep, and I’m finding it a challenge to portray that when painting snow in full sunlight. Lots of folks hike it in the winter, hence all the footsteps and tracks.
I’m working on a series of paintings that feature “Baldy,” a mountain close to my house that I have climbed probably 1,000 times at least. A couple years ago I started bringing my camera, hoping to capture some of the beauty I see there and transform it into paintings. I’m really attracted to the winter landscape, as the snow/rocks/shadows have a lot of inherent contrast. This particular view is from the top (that’s my husband up there), looking back out over Eagle River. It was January, late in the afternoon when the light is low.
A couple months ago I was out at my friend Cheryl’s house for a ski, and took some pictures of chickadees feeding at the birdhouse that hangs off her front porch. Or I should say, TRIED to take. Most of the photos are just the birdhouse, or birdhouse with a black and white blur. I gained some appreciation for professional bird photographers! One of my pictures was workable though, and I based this little painting on it.
Continuing on with the chickadee theme here, only this time with a red background.
Trying another chickadee here, sticking with the idea of presenting strong values of light and dark against a brightly-colored background. This one I put in a nice black float frame.
I’m painting a different bird for a change: chickadees. I like the combination of black and white with some bright colors, so I’m trying to keep the background simple – just a suggestion of leaves, or a change in light.
This is another small painting that belongs to my friends Kim and Jon, and is an appropriate one for this time of year. I’ve used some complimentary colors here, and experimented with a somewhat out-of-focus background.
I decided to paint up another rose, using a warm background this time to capture the heat of the sun and the cast shadows of the leaves.
I had this lovely rose bush growing outside my front door, but for some reason it didn’t come back this year. Fortunately I had some photos, so now it is immortalized in paint. I framed it up and sent it off to Picture This Art Gallery.
This is sort of a plein aire painting, at least as outdoorsy as one can get in February when it is about 5 degrees. Friends of a friend let us come over to their house while they were at work, and paint the view they have from their living room. So we have Flattop, a famous Anchorage mountain, and the peaks next to it, which are all part of the Chugach Range.
