Time does fly in the summer especially when the weather is nice and there are so many chores to be done... Anyhow, this is another photograph soon to be painting of the West Canada Creek and fishermen in "Red Boat".

Finally back to painting after our yearly crazy, busy two weeks of work on my husband's business side. Now back to painting local scenes of the Trenton Falls area. After finishing the "Etched Rocks" painting which is being worked on now, one of the next paintings will be of the scene above which is of the West Canada Creek.

I'm very happy with how my painting "Sunlight and Shadows" turned out and yes, it is indeed declared finished! Now onto new Prospect Gorge and Trenton Falls area paintings including the one I had previously started, "Etched Rocks".

Finished...

More changes... Perhaps done?? ... with the thankful guidance of an artist friend whose landscape and bird paintings are well respected in the art world. I've added more intensity and deepness to the shadow area on the lower right, changed the large middle rock mass to slope a bit more upward on the right side and therefore into the painting, added the tree saplings to the lower right which are actually there, and added a little more color to the icicles, blueish towards the top and a yellowish white to the bottom for reflected light from the snow. Still need to touch up the saplings when the underpainting dries but this painting is finally basically done!

After perusing some design books over the weekend, I realized I've been a little too much the slave to my reference photographs of the gorge, especially with the "Sunlight and Shadows" painting. So I just reworked it a little to strengthen it's design flow. I added more sky to the middle to upper left to help pull the design flow through to that section of the painting, I strengthened the entrance area on the bottom left by adding a bit more dark shadows/edging to the water. I reshaped the water flow area to make it a bit more of an "S" shape. The blueish shadows overall were darkened and therefor the trees needed darkening as well. The original version is immediately above and the newest version above that.

Finally back to painting thanks to an all day rain over the weekend. This is the start of my Prospect Gorge "Etched Rocks" painting which I sketched out over a month ago. What caught my interest in my reference photo were the abstract patterns created by the ice, rocks and snow so that will be my focus with this painting. With each landscape I do now, I am more and more tempted to put wildlife in and I might even do so in this piece. Also, the frame shown is it's intended frame. If I have a frame ahead of time, I will always check the painting's progress by putting it in the frame to see how everything is melding and if the design is going as planned.

Photographs of the gorge dressed in her spring finery... dramatic morning lighting.

Afternoon lighting...

My newest work in progress, yet another painting in my series of the Prospect Gorge. This work is 22 x 28 and shows my initial sketch along with my reference photograph. It is the scene where after a few days of winter thaw and then flooded gorge, the water had gone back down and we had a very cold night with light snow, thereby etching all of the rocks and leaving the water frozen with some very cool abstract patterns. This is one of my favorites images of the gorge. The large sketched board is slightly intimidating by all of the detail, but I'm excited and after a couple of weeks of not painting due to outdoor necessities, I am more than eager to dive into this painting!

An Adirondack storm as viewed from Rt. 7 near Shelburne, VT looking towards the high peaks of the Adirondacks. I took these photographs several years ago and plan on painting both of these.

Adirondack storm II, another view...

"Mourning Doves"
8" x 10" unframed
Acrylic and Oil on masonite

"Prospect Gorge - Fall II"
20" x 16" unframed
Acrylic and Oil on masonite

After taking a week off from painting, I'm back at it with two in the works. One is of two morning doves and the other is of a fall scene of the Prospect Gorge. I'll post my progress as they develop.

Skijoring with the boys. Possibly one of the last days for it this year. I'm still touching up my last painting and am about to start the next...

"Prospect Gorge - Turkey Tracks"
15" x 19" unframed
Acrylic and Oil on masonite

Skijoring is an absolute blast!!! Going 21 mph (clocked on the GPS) down the driveway behind Seeley and Bristol, we then do a more leisurely pace on the trails. The dogs love it and are an awesome pair. Seeley is a tremendous athlete and has the endurance and power, Bristol tires half way and usually ends up trotting next to me!

Seeley critiquing my latest "work in progress" of the Prospect Gorge. It's only about half done... I still have a lot of work left to do on the trees, tweaking tonal values, colors and more details. At this point it is all acrylic paint, I'm about to switch over to oils for the rest of the work.

Snow etching the rocks of the Prospect Gorge.
More gorge photographs...