In the cool of the day

A couple of days ago, late afternoon, my husband called out and said "You have to come here and look at this". I looked out the window and this is what I saw only MORE so. The sun was in the western sky and shining through a mysterious haze over the lake and through the trees.

 It was breathtaking! 

I quickly grabbed the camera and got this shot and shared it on facebook for all to see.

Well....of course....the challenge began when I said something to the effect of "wouldn't this make a beautiful painting but above my pay grade". My friends would not let me own that!!

But I got to thinking about how much I loved the light and especially that red tree in the haze.

So, I narrowed it down decided to give it a try..WITH THE UNDERSTANDING....that what I did would NOT look like this, but my hope was to capture the essence of this moment.

So....off I went to the Studio.

This was NOT an easy piece to do but I was determined to do the best I could and decided to capture the steps to share here.

**********************************

First I prepared my board (mat board) with Gesso and let it dry then lightly sketched in the "idea". I don't work much from a drawing. I like to just get the idea down and then work it all in together.

I laid down some initial colors and picked out my papers and tapes I wanted to use and off I go.

More and more leaves (Oy Vey!!) and starting to find the tree trunks. Working with the flow of the branches and leaves was a challenge and keeping the colors peaceful but not ho hum was my goal.

Once I got the leaves "pretty much" how I wanted them I started on the detail work. Using some stencils and doing some free hand, I began working on getting that feeling of light and airiness. This is actually my favorite part. It's the work that ties it all together.

And here is the finished piece!

I'm very happy with it. It was certainly a challenge but I do like a challenge!

Thanks for stopping by

Suzi