Whew - like the old John Denver song - some days are diamonds, some days are stones! It's been slow going the past couple of days, so I didn't post anything yesterday. I've been working on the water reflections and after I finally got all the big shapes and colors right I decided to blend again with the long edge of my little finger to obtain the softness of the reflections, blending straight down. Then I went back in with the small strokes of color, indicating ripples. I've still got several more problems to work out, but I think I'm almost there. The actual title for this painting will be "Fresh June Snow".

Here I have basically finished the mountains and have started adding more color and detail to the trees. I don't want to make them TOO detailed so as not to detract from the mountains. Right now the trees in the foreground are very warm shades of green. I may tone that down after I get everything else in. I've also added more color to the water and reflections. 

I normally don't blend the pastels after I have put them down, but here I have blended the blues in the sky (with my fingers) to achieve the gradated color. I also took a kneaded eraser and just barely touched upon and softened the edges of the big horizontal shadow of a cloud on the mountains.

More tomorrow!

Here is a close-up detail of "Teton Morning" in progress.Working from top to bottom and left to right to keep from smudging things up, I am adding details to the mountain tops and working into the trees in the distance. It's amazing how well defined the timberline is. I have also added warmer colors to the trees in the foreground (not pictured here) which I will show tomorrow. 

As I have been working on this painting, it has taken me back to when I lived in Estes Park, Colorado,  where I could enjoy a spectacular scene like this one every day. The Rocky Mountains are truly an amazing part of the West. 

I am very excited about this project, because of the subject - the Grand Tetons of Wyoming. What a spectacular part of the world, right here in the good 'ol USA. I normally use my own photos for reference, but this is a commission from the Wyoming Medical Center Foundation and they provided a wonderful photo by Barry Horn of Casper, Wyoming.

This will be a bit of a change for me from my prairie landscapes and skyscapes - it has a while since my last mountain scene. As I have been working on it so far, I see that each part of the scene will provide it's own challenges. The mountains with their craggy forms and different shades of white snow, the trees with their warm and cool shades of green and finally the water echoing the landscape with ripples of color. Then there is putting the whole thing together to try capturing the glory of the Tetons and the silence of a beautiful mountain morning.

I started with a light pencil sketch paying particular attention to the "skyline" of the mountains, because it is so recognizable. I always draw freehand because it is good excercise for my hand and eye coordination, which comes in very handy when drawing from life! I then started working all over the sanded pastel paper laying in all the shadows in a dark blue. I then used a couple of different warm greens to indicate the evergreens. All the while, I was also laying in the matching lights and darks in the water area. I decided then to concentrate on the beautiful blues of the sky, darker tones at the top graduating to lighter, warmer hues near the mountains. The working title for now will be "Teton Morning" More to come!

Now we will let him stew for a while...

I use a lot of dark blue paper or board for my rodeo scenes because it really pops the bright colors out right away. I started by sketching the cowboy and bull, now I am layering pastel on the bull's body to build up his form. I'm thinking of calling this something like -"Black 'n Blue"?

You can literally see for many miles in eastern Montana. Here is a view of the Yellowstone river valley one morning, when the mist was rolling through the trees, as it often does.

Here is my cowgirl - I  tightened up a few areas like her hands and boots, worked on the background quite a bit, then finally added some highlights to suggest jewelry. I will let her "stew" for a few days and see if I want to change anything.

The working title for this one is "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues". I chose a deep tobacco brown paper to contrast with the pink shade of the shirt. We'll see what happens.....

Sometimes a person (or a horse for that matter) would just like to get lost in the crowd... I swear this horse was playing hide-and-seek with me while I was trying to get his picture.