untitled

Untitled
Pastel on Paper 5.75"x9"

This was an attempt to loosely interpret a photograph of some trees, with a more gestural quality. I've been following Casy Klahn's Tree School on his blog. Although we have quite different painting styles, I greatly admire his work, and there is so much to learn there. I am trying to incorporate some of his ideas in my paintings.

I'm finding pretty consistently that the parts of a painting that are easiest to paint, are the best parts. Or perhaps the truth is that some parts just come out right the first time, and so they are "easy", and I don't spend a lot of time reworking them. In this painting I struggled with the sky and the trees. The ground, the hills, came easy. Hopefully as I get more experience, and make better choices of color and value, more and more of the painting will seem easy or flow more naturally.