The Sunday Post-Painting a Challenge

If you ask most serious artists what is one of the most important things to do for your career,an answer that would be near the top would be to keep learning, and growing.

Well, I certainly abide by that...in fact I often quote Michelangelo, who towards the end of his life said " I have yet to learn".
...and one good way to keep progressing is to come up with challenges now and then. Now, some of the challenges that come up on social media are popular, but I'm not talking about that here.
I am referring to tackling a subject, paint handling, color harmonies, or trying to capture an elusive quality, etc.,that is just out of one's comfort level.

"Deep Vermillion Shadows" is a good example of a technical challenge that I gave myself. I wanted to keep the shadow of the left cliff face transparent, warm with reflected light, and to have the appearance of desert varnish. ( Which is an aged dark growth that is on many desert surfaces, often in  striations on vertical surfaces) I knew I did not want to actually paint the dark stripes, as this would not be in keeping with the effect I was after. So, I painted the initial wash with a lot of Gamsol, allowing drips to naturally occur. My subsequent layers were very transparent in this area...only painting opaquely where there is an angle change, allowing the rock to reflect the cool blue of the sky.

 Here is a detail of that section.

Sometimes ...well, often, actually; I tackle a busy subject.

Such is the case in " Brambles, Blooms, and Impossible Blue"

The challenge was to simplify the blossoms and "scraggly" branches in to a readable composition. I did so, by warm and cool groupings , and to impose an order on the whole. Notice how the top right movement echoes the dark scrub behind it, and of course the shadow is an echo of the branch in front of it.

Here is my most recent painting. The goal here is to reproduce the soft late day light in the moments just before everything is cast in shadow. The fading sun picks out parts of the landscape, imparting a luminous spotlight on those elements. I kept everything very soft...as there is a hazy glow over everything at this time of day. This is my favorite time of day, and has been a lifetime challenge to capture those moments. I think I'm getting closer...but I have yet to learn.