Working on light and shadow patterns

This is a new painting I am working on.  I have a little fine tuning to do on it yet.

I visited the Phoenix, AZ area last fall and we went for a drive to see the Superstitions Mountains and park.  Nearby was a little mining town.  This is the little jail house.  I loved how the light filtered through the roof and made patterns on the adobe wall.

Why I like rocks....

In progress now.....maybe half done

Sometimes I wonder myself why I like rocks so much to paint them.  Maybe it is this:

Their interesting shapes, sizes, colors, cracks, the way they are stacked, split, leaning or falling.  The moss or lichen or rust on them.  The way light hits them, the way bounced light from surrounding plants reflects plant colors on their shade sides, the way the blue sky is reflected on the sides that turn down from the sun-lit tops, and the way plants grow around them or under them.  I also am impressed with how they are around for so many eons - surviving wind, rain, ice, heat, earthquakes, landslides, glaciers, and volcanoes.

"Living on the Ledge" pastel painting

I finished this today.  Yay!  Second time worked out!

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't

This is the second time I've attempted this painting.  The first one ended in the trash!  I couldn't save the paper this time.  Oh well.

This second time around, I'm going slower.  This paper is a little different and doesn't seem to have as much grit. So, I had to adjust my ways.

I need to work on the foreground now - it is just blocked in.

This dramatic place is in Colorado (I think) called Black's Canyon.  We were driving out of Telluride to our next location and our friends said to go visit Black's Canyon on the way.  I was amazed how the trees and plants grew on such small ledges.