Painting Green and Sketches

We are usually in the mountains for summer time.  We try to escape the heat here in Central Texas.  The last few years we stayed in Angel Fire, New Mexico, for the biggest part of the summer.  In years past we traveled to Canada.  We are planning Canada for this summer.

I think the scenery is sooooo beautiful but it doesn't grab me and say, "Paint me!"  I'm not so sure why, but I think a big part of it is that I am not a green person.  I do not love the color green.  If I have any green clothes they would be dark forest green.

Enid Wood enidwood.com gave a good lesson in green reminding me to use orange.  I've known for a long time that pine trees take some red to look authentic.  You can mix these colors with the green to gray down the green, too.

Richard McKinley mckinleystudio.com is a super painter of green as well and his blog post is very timely for me as our world here is GREEN after all the rain and we will have a summer of green as well.

Richard's blog for the day/week:
http://www.artistsnetwork.com/medium/pastel/painting-greens

You can see how green it is in these photos for painting at the moment, too.  I mentioned before that one of the big trees out back looks like it is not going to make it in the spring when the other trees come out.  It is a late bloomer.  We thought it was dead the first year we lived here.

Here is the tree in April after the big rain.

Here it is now.

And a painting of the scene I did in 2012 as I recall. Similar view, farther to the left, without the big tree.  We did have a lot of wildflowers that year and the evening sun helped calm the greens.

Porch View

Acrylic on cradled canvas (no frame)

18 x 18 inches

I sketched in the big book with the Micron 05 pen/marker at the kitchen table for Scavenger Hunt 453, which I am hosting.  Come and sketch with us.  Even if you don't post your sketches, the Hunts give you ideas to sketch different things that you might not think of.  Sketching from life is an excellent way to hone your skills.  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1406380

Number 5, dish detergent
Number 6, glass bottle
Number 7, a stack of bowls