Class Notes: Beautiful Days of July

In Colorado, these are the days we live for: sunny and almost no wind, afternoon storms filling the sky with beyond-belief clouds that later part to create amazing sunsets, and beautiful evenings full of stars.
Last week class met overlooking the river.
On the right, I painted looking into the morning sun. The mountains appear as a flat shape, almost the same value as the sky, creating a good foil for the tree shapes below which are partly back lit.
Soon the sun would rise higher and light would define all the different shapes of the mountain,
but that would be a different painting.



Later in the week we went out to the
wetlands near our local golf course
and I turned my back on the sun and
faced a group of trees getting
the full morning light.


These are typical valley views:
cottonwood groves, wetlands,
all on the backdrop of
14,000 ft peaks that surround the valley.
Both paintings here are 8"x10".