LJ and NJ

This painting began life with the goal of showing a path to a beautiful beach in Oregon. I didn’t start painting it till i returned to Colorado from a trip to Oregon and so was working from a reference photo that didn’t represent the scene as i’d imagined it. the trees in real life are probably Douglas Firs, but in the photo they are much more bare than i wanted for the painting; and they were in shadow, so it was difficult to figure out the true value variations. At one point — i’ll spare you the example — i had turned them, inadvertently, into deciduous trees. To then re-convert them into coniferous required some considerable rethinking. And my thinking about coniferous trees is pretty closely tied to my repeated experiences with Colorado evergreens, which are quite different. So — what i ended up with was perhaps a fantasy hybrid tree. I was tempted to relegate the painting to the trash heap, but resisted because there are several aspects of it that i quite like. As you consider the various iterations, it might make sense that it’s taken me longer than usual to present a post on this blog. Another interesting learning experience!