Pursuing my passion

On my recent trip to northern New Mexico and southern Colorado I ended up painting the Conejos River about four miles over the New Mexcio border in Colorado. (Previous post) After a peaceful day painting the river I assumed this next day would be much the same since I was just across the road from where I painted the Conejos and could still hear the calming sounds of the rushing water. Like I stated in the previous post the calm didn't last long - the bees took care of that. I don't know where they came from because I had no insect problems the day before standing near the river. Anyway, after the second sting I was loosing patience trying to paint shadows and mix colors amidst the pain. Luckily the pain didn't last long and later that night I had no discomfort like previous bee stings.

I had a small studio in the house I was staying in so I was able to work more on this painting that afternoon from memory and the photos I had taken and uploaded to my iPad. I was ready to wipe the painting off when I returned from painting out, but I have a "rule" I have to at least give the painting a chance and wait to the next day to see if I feel the same about it. Usually I will see a few redeeming parts by the next day. After working on it for a while in the studio I started really getting into it and was excited about the shadow shapes which is what drew me to the scene in the first place. I ended up really pleased with the painting which doesn't happen too often. This part of the San Juans are quite unusual in shape and are covered with brush, bushes, etc. I felt like I captured the essence of the mountain that day which is what I always set out to do, but it's never a guaranteed thing for sure. I may work on it a little more, but for right now I'm going to let it rest and study it for a while.