A Quiet Lake Tahoe Cove

I finished this painting today. If you follow my blog, you might remember I did this painting last year, too. What made me want to do it again? For one thing, I wanted to do it on a better surface - one that is archival and had more grit. Another reason is that I wanted to tie the foreground with the background more successfully. Also, I wanted to do a better job with the foreground rocks, and simplify it! Take some rocks out! I think I accomplished my goals here. It is really fun (and challenging!) to do a scene where you can both look into the water and see the rocks and sand; and, also have some kind of reflection on the surface. I learned some techniques from Reif Ericksen. You can visit his website at : www.reifart.com. I took classes from him last year. His subject matter is the Sierra Nevadas - granite rock, forests, streams, waterfalls. Just what I love to paint!

Lake Tahoe Cove, still continuing...

I had a few things to attend to this weekend. My beautiful french angora house rabbit had an abscess that needed vet care. And our Truckee house needed defense against the bird-wars. My husband eliminated the little black woodpeckers nesting in our walls, only now it was two pair of Northern Flickers who enlarged the holes and moved in. I'm afraid our attempts to evict them did not work. (Sigh!) Always something! Miss Lucky the bunny is doing great by-the-way. Next, I had to groom and exercise my horse since the 9 days of rain.

FINALLY, this afternoon I did more work on the Tahoe piece. It is rather hard. But I will keep plugging away with it.

Lake Tahoe Cove, continuing...

Before the T-showers came, I had to check on my buddy, Casey. I haven't seen him since I went to New Mexico. He made it known he missed me...with a pretend nip. Next, I cut some roses, then picked some of our strawberries growing under the rose bushes...very...carefully....before the Robin pecks holes in them, and the family of quail with little peeping chickies find them. Got the easle up on the kitchen table under the skylight and did some more on this painting to my "mood" music. The sky opened up and poured on us, the rain drumming so hard on the skylight my "mood" music was drowned out. Oh, well. I hope it is raining this hard over Lake Tahoe. It is low this year. We can really use the rain.

North Tahoe Cove - work in progress

We are having an entire week of afternoon thundershowers. My roses love this rain! Usually I have to protect them with umbrellas to keep them from frying in the hot sun. The mornings are the only time I can paint in my outdoor studio. When the dark cloud came over and thunder and rain started, I tried to continue under the skylight indoors, but the drastic change in lighting confused me. So I stopped for today. I think I'll spin some baby alpaca (cria) into fine yarn and listen to the rain.

Back to my subject - the North Lake Tahoe Cove painting. I am doing a familiar painting, cropping off some and simplifying a little. I am also doing it on Ampersand PastelBord, an archival surface. I am finding this surface is already easier to work on than the one I did last year.

I began with a sketch and value thumbnail.

Then two layers (drying inbetween) of watercolor wash. For those of you who want to try this - notice the "blooms". Even though the board seemed dry, when I added more dark, it blossomed outward. No problem, that will be covered up with pastel anyway.

Now for some pastel. The camera flash insisted on going on because it was so dark from the storm clouds. I don't like using flash, it washes out the color more than it is. Looks weird at this stage. Tomorrow I can do more.