Oil Studies

9x12, Hermit Trail Study

16x20, Kaibab Juniper Study

9x12, Kaibab Study

8x10 Cedar Ridge Study (Kaibab Trail)

These are oil studies that became part of my big painting posted earlier on this blog.  They are done from charcoal sketches from photographs I took on two different hikes last winter and spring.  I hiked the Kaibab and Bright Angel Trail the first weekend of March and the Hermit Trail during the first weekend of April.  The charcoal sketches I did served to extract from the photos the essence of the scene, not worrying about every detail.  I will post some of the sketches as part  of my next posting.  I took these sketches into my studio and used them as a direct source for these oil studies.  I made up the colors in these studies, not looking at the photos again.  I wanted to create a painting using more of my imagination, drawing from my experiences when I was hiking and thinking on how I remembered how it looked, not how the photograph looks.  I used a palette knife to paint these.  I painted five different scenes in 8x10, re-worked them in 9x12, and chose two to paint at 16x20 before I began the big painting.