Lake Castle is Done!

I am happy how this painting came out. I finished it in class. It is really great having a teacher give pointers at the end so I don't overwork it. A little history on this location: Back in the early 1930's George Whittell built this estate called "Thunderbird Lodge" (http://www.thunderbirdlodge.org/index.html) right on Lake Tahoe. He was an eccentric millionaire and would hold parties here for the rich and famous. He had a pet elephant and lion which he kept on the premises and paraded out for guests. This picture is of a separate little house called the Card House, where he and his friends could play cards. If he didn't like the company, there was a secret passageway from this house to an underground tunnel to the boathouse, where he would escape in his "woody".

Drawing for next pastel

Tomorrow is my pastel class. I want to do another painting from a plein air pastel I did last summer at the Thunderbird Lodge at Lake Tahoe. This is the card house with the stone staircase to the boat launch. There were some elements in the original view that needed some changing. I moved trees, moved the house, eliminated half of the rocks...that kind of stuff. It was such a great scene but just didn't work on paper, so this is my prep study.