Four 12 x 16 views near buffalo peak

About a month ago I went hiking and rediscovered the Buffalo Peak area near the Squaw Peak road (near Provo, Utah) Since then I have shared some of the results in other posts. I thought I would share these efforts today they are all four middle of the day as well as middle of the summer paintings meaning the sun was fairly high in the sky when the dark and light patterns were established. Which makes for high contrast and a bunch of green. Although summer has finally found its way up there and the undergrowth has browned and yellowed up a bit. All four were created using only the palette knife. I have a view of the north face of “Y” mountain from the Buffalo Peak trail in the works now and it is also a small knife painting and as I said in my last post, images from my recent Fish Lake trip are still floating around in my head. On the topic of images floating in my head, ideas from Cozumel and the amazing water and sky surrounding the island are always on my mind they just haven’t hit the canvas yet.(Perhaps all the floating images in my head are due to my ongoing exposure to turpentine.) If you are visiting my blog/web site for the first time make sure you sign up for my blog updates.

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I spent yesterday and the day before listening to a giant floor sander sand the oak floors above my studio and today I am breathing some interesting fumes from the finish being applied up there. It is a good thing though, the water that flooded the area had damaged the oak floor. Well enough of home repairs. I did get a little painting finished yesterday despite the distractions of noise and fumes. As I mentioned above I was working on a view of the the north face of “Y” mountain. The composition as you can see includes plenty of interesting foreground elements and the shapes of several nearby mountains. After looking at the painting for a couple of hours I have decided to try it again, only in the new version I will focus in on the unique geology and surface quality of the mountain and reduce the foreground and surrounding space to a minimum.
Today I worked up this study of the north face of “Y” mountain. I did try and focus in more on the face of the specifics of “Y” mountain. I eliminated most of the foreground. However, I could not help but put in some of those persistent balsam roots which are still struggling to bloom up on the side of the mountain. I like the alternating striped patterns that are created by the changes in the ground cover; meadows, stands of trees, and cliffs all mixed together with late morning light and shadow. I think I may find my jeep pointed in that direction again sometime in the near future There are many paintings waiting to be made along that one mile buffalo peak trail. to be continued…….landscape paintings