Thoughtful Experience

Sun Harvest

6x8

Right after work tonight i bolted for Jonsrud Viewpoint in Sandy,OR to paint the evening light on Mt. Hood. Shortly after i started, two curious ladies came over to see what i was doing and we had a nice chat. They were genuinly interested to see what i was going to come up with when done. So the pressure was on to come up with a painting that i was happy with enough to blog about.

Much to my frustration, not even half way into the piece, i lost my light. The sun retired and i was left with two options, scrape it down and turn it into a nocturnal or keep working and put my memory to the test. I hope you can tell that i chose to continue with my initial plan and paint the warm sunlight.

After some thought about this evenings events, i really wanted to blog about it. Not because this is my best work, but for the truth and the experience. There are some issues with this painting; first is the mountain, which happens to be the main subject, but it's the wrong value, it needs to be cooler. And some of the shapes are not quite what i wanted. But, what i really like is the overall feeling of the piece, it is pleasantly warm with colors for the harvest season. And the emotion of a painting is still more important to me than having all the i's dotted and t's crossed.

The truth is that this was a challenge to paint. If you ever painted in the dark, and from memory, you know it's bizarre... I didn't even get a good look at it until i arrived home. But, i loved the challenge and learned and grew as an artist from this experience.

I also wanted to thank all the people that have ever come up to an artist with inquisitive eyes. Its inspiring to me that people would take an interest in what a painter does and in doing so, they become part of the moment. A little bit of them become part of the work, part of the experience, part of the truth.