"Red Mountain Ghost Town" About a year ago I was lucky enough to take a Rusty Jones painting workshop. The first day, we stayed inside and painted from photographs Rusty brought with him. It should be no surprise that I went straight for an old paint flaking white house surrounded by trees. After first painting a value study, I proceeded to paint what turned out to be a pretty nice little painting. Rusty told me the photo was taken in Colorado while he himself was watching a demo by William Kalwick Jr. On my recent vacation to Colorado, I almost jumped out of my car when I spotted the real house from this painting. I wasn't searching for it, but just turned a corner and it was there. You would have thought I was seeing the ocean for the first time from my reaction. It was weird to see one of my painting subjects for the first time after painting it.
Now I have several photos of my own to work from.
( What you can't see is the hundreds of mosquitos swarming me )
Besides seeing you attacked by mosquitos, I really like to see the reference and the photo together to see what choices were made when painting the piece. Nice choices on this one by extending the trees up to provide a nice contrasting background for the lights on the house. Also like the foreground simplicity and the muted close-in trees for me to look over. Looking forward to seeing more work from Colorado!
ReplyDeleteThat is a terrific story Randy. What a very unusual coincidence. This looks the like Ophir Pass area, although it could be situated in many vistas in the San Juans. I hope you enjoyed visiting Colorado.
ReplyDeleteGawd, I love stories like that! Wish it had happened to me :0) I'm really enjoying your work. Rusty's a great guy isn't he? And the man can paint. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing your talents and artistic journey with the rest of us.
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