Arroyo

"Arroyo" (pastel, 9x12 inches) $475 framed

This was my painting from Lorenzo Chavez's workshop at the IAPS convention earlier this month. I'd had no time to come up with any photo of my own so I used one of Lorenzo's pics that he graciously supplied to his students.

Lorenzo is a wonderful teacher, and gave the most creative demonstration of reflected light I've ever seen, using a rainbow umbrella and a white cloth and a fountain in the courtyard of the Hotel Albuquerque. I highly recommend his workshop to anyone wanting to improve their landscape painting!

I did get some photos of Lorenzo's demo, which I've posted on my Art Journal Blog.

Here's my attempt:

Thumbnails... an excellent tool!

 I'm not usually a thumbnail kind of artist, but for landscapes I'm learning that a few thoughtful thumbnail sketches can go a long way to simplifying a vision and improving composition. Most landscape photos have more information that a good painting really needs...

It was the red wall of the arroyo that first caught my eye in this photo of Lorenzo's. So I honed in on that rather than try to include the mountains, the plains, the plants, and the arroyo equally. (Though the photo is gorgeous as is, and would also make a beautiful painting with much less editing..)

At end of workshop

Tweaked a little at home.

  I enjoyed Lorenzo's workshop very much... except for the fact that he uses Canson paper. I grew up on Canson in my early years of pastel, and thought I would take right to it again, but I found it a little more challenging than I anticipated, after so much time using sanded surfaces. I guess one likes best what one gets used to over time. I do like my result with this painting, but I'm eager to try more landscapes on some sanded papers!

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