Painting near Sheep Mountain Lodge

July 11 was set aside for an "all day" painting excursion. Plans had to be modified a bit when I got paged for a flight an hour before my shift ended. You would think that making plans for 13 hours after you are off shift would be safe-but not in the unpredictable world of medivac  nursing. So our plans were changed and it made for a bit shorter day-but still was productive and happy. Even though I was a bit sleep deprived all day.

My painting accomplice Kirk and I went to his chosen area near Sheep Mountain Lodge, I was excited to revisit this area and find some new painting inspiration. Weather was overcast, just warm enough not to be cold (Alaskans should understand this-I think it's called summer?). Just enough of a breeze to keep any mosquitoes down, and only had to grab the easel a couple times to keep it stable. We were in a large pullout just off the road and occasionally tourists would stop for photos, and some even took photos of me and my painting! They were very polite Europeans and Canadians and asked permission, they were excited to see artists painting.

First painting scene

Painting in progress

This painting was done on a wood panel. I used some venetian red gesso that I had gotten a while back and forgot about. It is a richer red and more opaque than the burnt sienna underpainting that I usually do. The wood panel was really different to paint on than a canvas, after a little while I got used to it.

Kirk at his easel

Me at my easel

painting and source

I really tried to do a value thumbnail sketch!

My second painting of the day was on a landscape format canvas-I liked the way the paint went on the canvas better. This painting was almost complete, needs just a bit more drying time and a few changes and I will post completed painting.

Second painting, mountains in front of last scene

First scene-light changed

Just as we were finishing, I took another look at the mountain range I had first painted-the light had changed-see photo above. It would have been fun to paint again with the change in light-maybe another day-or a winter studio painting day from my photo? That's part of the challenge and fun of painting "en plein air"-the ever changing light and weather.