Yosemite in autumn

Last week Elke and I took a quick trip to Yosemite to take some photos of fall colors in the valley.  We weren't disappointed.  So, up next is a painting from that trip.  El Capitan from the Merced river.  I've been working on this for a few days, so not much to see....if you return in a week should see some yellows and golds...

thanks for coming by...and get to Yosemite if you can...it's always beautiful.  Mark

Hey...just 5 more minutes

Never did get the elk to look straight ahead again.  So....a slightly unfinished work.  Here it is.

Up next is Yosemite in autumn.

Answering a question...

I'm often asked, do you paint outside from live settings?  The fancy term is: Plein Air.  From the french impressionists of the 19th century who painted outdoors or in the "open air".  But I digress.  My answer is always the same...no, I do not paint plein air, but instead I paint from photos I take or clients take from live settings.  The reason is, as you might be able to guess, is my style and technique is to pay a lot of attention to details.  And these details take me on average 3-4 weeks to put on "the canvas".  So for my next painting I am doing something a little different...I'm creating a painting from 3 different photos I took in Yellowstone earlier this summer.  This painting has the purpose of expressing the difficulty I would have if I were to try to paint from a live setting....that being trying to keep things relatively still for a good amount of time.  I will be titling this painting something like, "hey just 5 more minutes".

As you can see this is early stage development.  The canvas on the right will be the profile of the elk that I am attempting to paint - almost completed.  Keeping the elk looking straight ahead is the chore!