Bob and I are on a road trip to soggy Michigan.... can't wait to get back to CO where the sun shines and the sky is BLUE! Anxious to paint!

I think it's done. Did I get the light right this time?

This was in the Robert Genn BiWeekly email Newsletter that came this morning. I found my stomach twisting and my blood pressure rising! What do YOU think?

Yesterday, Colorado painter Tom Lockhart wrote, "I work 50 to 65 hours per week, teach workshops and serve on the Board of a Local Arts Center. I judge art shows and travel to locations to paint. I earn $75,000.00 to $100,000.00 annually--too much to get a grant. I pay more than my share of taxes, expense out what the law allows and still find it difficult to make ends meet. I'm constantly paying entry fees, dues, advertising, framers, suppliers and travel expenses. I can't understand why the public insists on buying cheap, crappy art from poorly educated artists who suffer for their craft. Yuk! There are constantly retired lawyers, doctors, architects, dentists and other professionals who decide to become painters. They put their work in galleries and sell to the unsophisticated, taking sales away from deserving, serious artists. And now with the economic bad times, it's even harder to sell your art. What do you think about this?"

So, I worked on this one again. I know it's not there yet. I'm posting it to compare with the previous version which has been painted over. Two of you caught problems with the light source. Thanks! I'm still struggling with the trunks... but, BOY! did I have fun just digging in there with the dark background color and making some of them disappear! Making them bend was fun, too! Makes me feel like a sculptor ... and takes pressure off of being concerned about the brush stroke.

What do YOU think?

BEFORE & AFTER: "Aspen on Hwy 104" was begun in Mark Daily's class last fall. The point was to quickly capture the essence of the lighting of the scene in the block-in. "Key the painting to white" was emphasized when Mark demoed. He gave careful atention to the lights (values and colors) as they would represent the light source. Above is my field study.

Now, I'm ready to turn it into a painting. Below is the the second version of my efforts. I tried to capture more of the light and improve on the composition. I particularly didn't like the six tree trunks in a row; and the other trees and space behind the aspen was vague. I think this is an overall improvement, but now I want to work on the trunks more.... more variety of thickness and angles.... work on foreground grasses and shadow....

What do you see that I might be missing?

SNOW! hint, It's NOT White!

OK, well then what color IS it? (trick question!)

That depends on the light in which you are looking at the snow! It could be blueISH or violetISH, it could be pink, orange or yellowISH! Often, it's kind of GREYISH, but never greenISH!

AND, it's ALWAYS a darker value than you think! Only the spots where the light (sun) is hitting it directly can be painted with what you might think of as white, which is probably a very pale yellowISH, pinkISH, orangeISH color!

Good Luck! Thanks, I'll need it!

This painting was done on location in Salida, CO last September during the first Colorado Plein Air event there. After a little touch up back at the B & B we stayed at, it went in a frame and was hung at Joshua Been's gallery for the event show. It's been up in my studio since and eventually I got itchy to FIX it. The weather had been stormy and clouds we're moving fast. That afterstorm gloom shows in the painting, but doesn't necessarily make sense with the vivid colors of the fall grasses in the foreground. I thought the big tree was just too dark.