Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Learning to paint ROCKS!



















This is a detail of the big painting I'm working on.  The one with the boulder field I mentioned in my pica painting.  You can see all the areas I haven't finished yet, but I think I've got a handle on these boulders.  Before I started, I sat down and looked at lots and LOTS of images of rocks.  Mostly from magazines and a few off the internet.  After that, I put everything away and left it to my imagination.  I really think, in order to understand a subject you really need to experience it.  Plein air painting helps to be sure, but also a keen since of observation and awareness.  I've spent lots of time in the back country, so have sat for many hours studying boulder fields.  They are amazing!  I know they come from glacier movement, but the random placement of each rock makes them seem as if they've fallen from the sky.