"GORE RANGE LAYERS" ORIGINAL MIXED MEDIA PAINTING OF THE GORE MOUNTAINS IN COLORADO © SAUNDRA LANE GALLOWAY

"Gore Range Layers"

18" x 48" mixed media on MDF cradle

will be available on my website after the show at the CORE!

FINALLY...I had time to finish this long skinny of the Gore Mountains here in Colorado!!  As you can see I put in a few pines that lined the hill and my signature aspen along the bottom.  It took me a few days of deliberating before I decided on how to treat the foliage of the aspen.

I decided to use the several colors that are often seen in aspen at certain times of year...did I exaggerate a bit...YEP...we can do that!  For me...the images...the feelings that come from memories are important and that is what I went for.

The leaves are meant to be a part of the blending from one layer to another...and not to take away from the beauty that is the Gore Range above...a tricky feat to play with when one loves the trees as much as I do.  I softened them a bit with stamping of aspen leaves that are merely a suggestion rather than an image.  I don't know how much of our minds pick up on subtle images...or, as in this case...parts of images...but, just in case I DID use aspen stamps!  FUN!

This painting will be hanging at the CORE gallery off of Santa Fe beginning February 16th.  If you are in the area I'd love it if you stopped by to see it in person.  This is one of my favorite paintings to date...I think mainly because of the challenges that layering affords...I LOVE challenges and things that make me think...

Now I'm thinking what will I do next!!  HAPPY CREATING!!

GORE "Y" STAGE!...YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE UGLY DUCKLING STAGE TO GET TO THE HOPEFUL SWAN!

In every painting there is usually an ugly duckling stage...USUALLY it comes in the beginning as you are putting in a background or sketching something in.  For these "layer" long skinnies I have found it can come anywhere during the process.  For all practical purposes I am painting several different paintings and blending them into one complete painting.  As I move downward I am often changing my mind from what I had originally wondered about doing to what it becomes.  Things can change as the painting shows itself.

I put the meadow with the yellow and purple tiny flowers and a hill that originally had pines all along it...and at the bottom is the dark color laid in for what will eventually be aspen.  The aspen will come much above the dark color...THIS is where I make decisions...

First...just what do I do about the pines on the steep sloping hill...will I put some in and lay aspen in on top for added depth or do I skip them.?..I will play with that decision today...

Second...Do I bring the dark colors up a bit to eliminate the "line" that always screams BORING negative shape...probably so I answer myself...

Third...the foliage on the aspen trees...hmmm...this piece has shown itself to be a spring"ish" piece with the spring snow on the mountains, but color bursting on the scene of the lower elevations...so a decision as to HOW I will approach the leaves of the aspen as well as COLOR of the foliage will be another decision...COLOR and VALUE will play a big part here as I see where the tops of the trees will land and what is behind them...all the while keeping in mind the fact that one "layer" blends into another...AND...always keeping in mind the negative shapes that are made (the outlines of the subject matter at hand) can sometimes make or break a painting...

ALL IN ALL...it's a fun piece to do as it is a challenge and things can change in an instant.  The next photo will be quite a change from what you see here as far as what happens towards the lower parts of this..so stay tuned!!

HAPPY CREATING!!

WORKING SECOND LAYER OF GORE MOUNTAINS

I've been inching along with the second "layer" of my long skinny Gore Mountain painting...The fun challenge of these layer paintings as I call them is to try to blend each layer with the layer above it so it looks seamless...like it really belongs.  In reality I am using several reference photos of scenes in and around the Gore Mountain Range...so, blending each scene or "layer" is important.  You have to keep in mind the colors and values with each layer and make sure you bring unity to each step down the support. It is FUN, but challenging, which is what every artist wants when working...otherwise it becomes tedious and boring...well, for me anyway!  You can see the unpainted section at the bottom just waiting for me to add layer number 3! FUN DOINS!

This detail section is me laying in the water and beginning to put trees in and going down to prepare for the next layer...at this point I'M not even sure what scene I will incorporate....that is exciting stuff for me!!

For the larger tree on the left I grabbed my sandpaper and oils and painted it in oil.  I wasn't happy with the viscosity of my acrylics to get the effect I wanted in the tree, so I sanded a little behind it to give the oil a surface to grab on to and painted it.  I have to have this painting finished in a few days for a show on the 20th of February, and now that I've incorporated a bit of oil I need to give it time to dry a bit!  I'm not laying in the oil very thickly so it should have plenty of time to dry!

So...as life demands I'm off to do asundry things and hopefully back this afternoon to play some more!!

HAPPY CREATING!

MOVING ALONG...OR DOWN...GORE RANGE PROCESS

I'm still working my way SLOWLY down the support for my big ole long skinny of the Gore Range here in Colorado...as you can see I've moved a little away from the snow scene...have added some trees and have begun to add papers that will eventually be one of the many lakes that can be seen in and around the range.  You can see where I've blocked in a bit of color for the water...and on I go!  This photo shows the sky MUCH too green...but our light is rather strange here on the mountain this morning...that is why you may see a slight color change from day to day...fear not...on the day it is finished I will make sure the colors are true...well...at least on MY monitor!

Time has been my enemy of late...the good news is I've been preparing and delivering paintings for various shows, competitions and shops in the area...this takes time...precious time...but important to keep things moving along!  The frustrating news is it leaves me only moments here and there to come in and slap down some paint or paper! LOL...this too shall pass!

HAPPY CREATING!!

THERE IS MORE TO SNOW THAN JUST WHITE!

I've begun to lay in the section of the Gore Mountains that I chose.  As you can see, there is very little "white" in the snow...there are shadows, and reflections in snow.  So, remember when you are painting snow it is the shadows and darks that make those white areas sing!  From what I can tell the Gore range is a lot of rock, so you can see it peeking through amidst the snow.  As I begin to move down I made the decision to add color to the trees and valleys.  I think I will incorporate papers with my trees that are laying at the base of this interesting section of the Gore Range...

Yesterday was a frustrating technical day at our house which left me precious little time to paint. We got an update for Cisco (the makers of our Lynksys router)...my husband innocently clicked on it and that caused us to loose our wireless connection on our laptops and ipad.  As I spent over 3 hours on the phone with their technical department I became more frustrated.  What started out as a request for passwords that the update didn't supply ended up with them telling us our router was broken and they could do nothing for us!  I had to argue with them for half that time as they wanted us to buy an extended warranty before they would help us!  SORRY...but NO...so, after much discussion and explaining to the service people out in the Philippines they got on with my husband and led him through an exhaustive diagnostic which left our router non functional and him late leaving for a very important conference out of town! WHEW!

WELL...as I should have done FIRST I called my friend and computer expert who had us back to functionality within minutes on the phone...still with the wireless problem...but functional all the same!  SO, today she is driving up here to help fix the situation...The moral of the story for me...DON'T LET CISCO TRY TO HELP!!  DON'T automatically click on updates...they mess up your system!! WHEW...as much as I love our techno world...I HATE how complicated they make the fix!!

SO, as soon as I'm back to 100% on my computers and other wireless devices I'm back at the easel!  Here's hoping your day is MUCH more CREATIVE!!

HAPPY CREATING!!