Monday, December 13, 2010

Rattlesnake Ridge, Pulaski County

Rattlesnake Ridge
8X10 Oil on Wood
SOLD



Here is the completed piece from this month's Arkansas League of Artist's paint out.  This ridge is part of the Pinnacle Mountain complex.  It is just west of Pinnacle Mountain State Park.  This marvelous view is right behind the studio of artist Bob Snider!  He also has a view of Pinnacle of which I got a couple of pictures in a great light.  Those may find their way onto the easel soon enough.

I've done more work on this in the studio than I did in the field so I'm not sure it still qualifies as plein air!  One very interesting thing about this one is that I made a shift in my yellows.  Usually, yellow ochre is the coolest yellow I use and sometimes I wonder if it really isn't actually warmer than Cad yellow!  But I usually use it as my cool yellow because it's lower in chroma.  However, I used lemon yellow here as my primary yellow.  My thinking here is that as the weather cools, the sun will be less intense and I can simulate that feel with a cooler yellow for my lights. 

4 comments:

  1. Thanks! You've got some pretty cool stuff yourself!

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  2. This is a great blog and a good project. I used to whitewater kayak in the northwest mountains of Arkansas...very pretty land. Your studio is breathtaking....wow! I think lemon yellow as a good call on the one above. I have been thinking about doing a similar project with each town in VT. That would be a huge commitment, require some research and good traveling weather. I have too many ideas for time...that is when being an engineer is a real advantage (I am married to one...congratulations on being so impressionistic with an engineers mind...huge accomplishment!)

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  3. Hey Christine

    I grew up in the northwest part of the state so I probably know some of the places you paddled. Not a whole of "whitewater" but some great paddling streams when the weather's wet enough. I wish I could claim that studio but it belongs to fellow artist Bob Snider who was gracious enough to let the ALA paint some of his views that day. Maybe he'll turn around and buy this one for the beautiful new home he's building beside the studio. The studio was completed before the house! My studio is a room over the garage. You should definitely do a project like that! I bet there are hundreds of towns though so you might consider a population limit. As for this project, I'm hopeful I can complete it before the end of 2012 but I've got no time table just yet. Being an engineer and an artist is not as incompatible as you might think, in my opinion. After all, there is definite structure to good design, no matter how abstract it might be! Abandoning objectivism is the hard part. However, I've analyzed myself into design corners often enough. I have one I did that with that I need to post, just to say uncle and get it off my back.

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