Fleeting Summer: Embracing Colorado's Vibrant Greens

Fleeting Summer

It's been a while since I have posted, but I haven't stopped creating. I have taken a detour to explore fiber art as well as classical drawing and oil painting. I will hopefully have some more posts on these topics coming soon. In the meantime, I wanted to share this painting I created while on vacation.

This painting is for sale on my website, but first, let me describe a little bit about the process.

This painting came from a visit to a camping site in northern Colorado during the summer. The rain was pretty frequent this past year, so everything stayed green much longer than usual. It was a welcomed site in Colorado after all the wildfires we have had over the past several years.

I take my soft pastels with me whenever my husband and I go camping. Sometimes, I just take reference photos instead. The painting above is from one such reference photo. I like to go on reference photo hunting expeditions.

I set up my home studio with my photo on the left-hand side. This allowed me to view it while I was painting. Then, after I have completed a thumbnail sketch, I put in the dark values with vine charcoal. From there, I select ten to fourteen pastels to start the under-painting. I work thin to thick, just like oil painting. Even on sanded paper, the pastel will not adhere if it is just too thick too soon.

Many times, in painting there is an aversion to green, or at least, too much of it. I have experienced this personally in some workshops. Some workshops were geared specifically around the idea of managing those nasty and unwieldy greens. I have witnessed some painters expressing consternation or confusion over how to get the 'right' green. With oils and acrylics, it's preferred that you mix your greens instead of painting straight out of the tube. The green that comes from the tube is can be garish and sometimes needs some toning down. Having to rely on mixing color can be really intimidating and time consuming.

For this painting, I worked with soft pastels. This means that I choose my colors. For example, with oils, you mix a green from blue and yellow paint. However, when painting with soft pastels, mixing occurs visually. It happens on the paper as each color is layered one on top of the other. This means that you should have a good variety of soft pastels in order to create the effects you want.

It's quite possible that there is an aversion to the color green in paintings because of where people live. They see it all the time. It's everywhere. It's just too much.

In Colorado, where the climate is usually dry, you really can't get too much green. This painting captures a rare moment in which the scenery is lush and beautiful. There is such variety of a rare and much sought after color- green! Sages, deep greens, yellow greens, the full spectrum of green is on display. I guess that is why they called the state Colorado (colorful).

Well, I guess the mystery remains for me around the stigma with green. But I love it, can't get enough of it, and I hope my painting does it some justice. This painting "Fleeting Summer" is available in a wide variety of framed prints, canvas prints, acrylic prints and other items. If you would like the original painting, please click the link "Fleeting Summer" and scroll down to the 'click here to contact the artist' link beneath the 'Buy the Original Painting' button on the right-hand side.

What are your thoughts about painting with green? Is it too much? Leave your comments below.