Moving on to the 3rd piece

Outlines of the shapes for the 2nd piece of the "stampede" series are about to be done. The background of this piece is now about the same level with the 1st piece. Now it's time to start the 3rd, and the last, piece.

East of the Mountains

This is the title of David Guterson's second best seller book after "Snow Falling on Cedars". I've been thinking using this title for my painting a while. I think it's time for that. I painted at 4 - 5 miles south from Ellensburg after passing Shashuskin Canyon. After passing the canyon, the view from the hillside was spectacle. I pulled over and set up my easel. Although the colors and values are a little off and kids in a family who had a field trip to learn geology commented "it doesn't look like it". But I don't care what others think and I was actually pleased with the outcome. Originally I thought I wouldn't paint the barbed wire fence, but the stick provided a good guidance to define the positions of shapes in a wide open space. I took it in instead. I'll paint this in bigger format later this year.

Chauvet Cave Painting?

In the second part of the stampede series there are many cows running. So, I wanted to draw them a little more in detail than I regularly do. Especially positions of paws would decide speed of their movement. As the result, it looks as if Chauvet's cave paintings in France. Thinking about the fact that I'm painting this from a photo, I need to admit that Chauvet's paintings were far more sophisticated.

Color Coordination in a Series

The shapes of cows have almost been determined. Now it's time to decide colors and textures of background pastures. But the background colors and textures need to be consistent throughout this series of paintings. So, I'll put this aside for now and start working on the 2nd painting of the series.