Lonesome Line

Last fall we finally got to revisit old vacation haunts in Colorado. Lots of photos and lots of potential for paintings. This view was taken in Hartsel, Colorado. The abandoned rail line and the looming thunderheads really called out to me.



After completing the sky under-painting in May, this canvas languished in my wet panel storage area waiting for enthusiasm and inspiration to return. I avoided it by doing another painting and then finding other excuses to procrastinate.



With a lot of trepidation I returned to it this past weekend. Luckily I like the results so far. Otherwise I'm afraid I would have returned to "avoidance mode". This photo has exaggerated the color difference between the top and other clouds. I'll still have to evaluate that difference after I get some of the land painted in.



Now comes the challenge of avoiding competing centers of interest and allowing the thunderheads to make the abandoned rail line into a lonesome, secondary element of the painting; there, but overwhelmed. Of course, a "happy accident" may change where this painting is going !

Nice start, Jim. I don't think you can make any big decisions till you get working on the lower part of your painting. Filling in the colours and tones will change the way the sky looks. I think you'll be much mopre inspired to paint this when you've taken the plunge into that undeveloped area.

The clouds look great...Very threatening. You even got some of the virga in the sky. For those of you who don't know that term, I learned it when I moved to Arizona. It is rain that never hits the ground, especially in dry desert area.

Jim, I like your new picture. It's always nice to see the real person.

Good luck with the painting. I'm sure you'll work it all out. You have a very good start.

Judy

Very nice so far, Jim. Can't wait to see the next stage.

Great atmosphere. Just go ahead and paint Jim. With oils nothing is permanent until the final varnish is applied.
Hope to see your progress on this one soon
Jack

Fantastic start Jim! I love seeing how you started the underpainting!

Thanks all for your supportive comments. Doing the landforms is extremely tiring -dragging the buildings and digging up and replanting the trees is so much work !



More "replanting" to go of course. Lots of sky colors worked into the mountains and hills. It's interesting that in the reference photo the buildings appear to be skewed in relation to the angle that the roadbed takes through the photo. I think this illustrates distortion due to the wide angle lens used. Needless to say the buildings got "re-perspectivized" a number of times. Got some other stuff to do for a bit. I hope it won't take me away from the painting for too long.

Judy; that old avatar was so glum looking (afraid it was rubbing off on me). The new one is from my past life in cartography and symbol making. I'm grinning at my (then) latest design.

Great sign, Jim. Very creative and good for a real laugh. The painting is coming along beautifully. I really like what you have done so far.

Judy

Jim, Love the additions to your painting! I'm really enjoying watching you paint.

Jim, I like your comment about bringing the sky colours into the mountains. That's something I find challenging: getting all the colours in a scene to look like they really belong there, when I have mixed them at different times...
The painting is coming along beautifully!

This painting is turning out great. Thanks for showing us your step by step progress.
Dayle

Jim. I am green with envy. you have no idea of how many times I took my paintings outside trying to get just the right colors and gradation. Your work is wonderful.

I have tried combinations of Ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, cerulean, pthalo green and white. Then I started building up the depth by more and more layers - which sort of works, but I can't seem to achieve that clear mid tone that i find so appealing.

Let me know when you start producing videos. I will be the first in line to buy.

Well, not a lot of new area covered with paint, but a fair amount of effort went into evaluating, decisions and reworking below the sky (which I don't think I'm going to have to do any more to). That far building has about five coats of paint, but I think I've got it close to right now. Of course, as more of the foreground goes in I'll have to re-evaluate that.



There are lots of changes from the reference photo going into the foreground and middle distance. Such as adding viewer pathways into the picture and other visual "stops" and guides that don't appear (and don't seem necessary) in nature. However, when the view is captured and confined to a canvas these really become important. Of course contemplating these changes can lead to that dreaded artists' disease "ODS" (ongoing decisional stagnation) . I seem to be particularly susceptible to this. One of the nicest antidotes for it is all the great encouragement in this forum .

Great progress

I think the addition of wandering curves leading in to the center will really add to an all ready great paining. It will be worth the "ODS."

Judy

Jim,

Your sky is just amazing! Wonderfully amazing.....I do like your angling of your buildings better, looks more accurately placed, like they are next to a road and belong there, I can see what you are saying about the photograph and how those buildings seem skewed at an odd angle. Very nice…enjoying watching the progression of you piece.

Amazing Detail!

I keep looking back and forth from the original photo to your recent picture and see more and more detail I really like. I like the way you have made the distant mountains on the left larger and shadowed them from the storm clouds, how you reversed the positioning of the buildings, and created a slope on the sides of the track so it is easy to visualize a track being there. Without that it just appears to be a field. If you hadn't mentioned the abandoned rail line, nobody would have ever known it was there. You are really doing a great job with it.

Judy

Wow! Amazing! I'm already getting the sense of being their.

Well a little more detail filled in and lots of "ODS" delay on doing the foreground. I finally got frustrated, dug out the watercolors and quickly finished the painting.



Just kidding folks! I guess this thin WSO underpainting is sort of a "gesture drawing" of Mother Nature. I was worried about maintaining perspective on the railroad bed, bushes, etc. as well as providing those nice curvy paths to bring the viewer into the painting. Now I can study this a bit and decide what changes are necessary to make it read right.

Every time I go away from the painting for a time that main building sort of inches its way into prominence a bit more. When I come back and look at the painting, there it is, jumping up and down and saying "Me! Me! Me! Make me the center of Interest!!!!" Of course if I let that happen and the thunderheads get mad at me they may send a KABOOM my way. Ahhh, the hazards of the art world.

Jim,

I think you have done a fabulous job. The thunderheads should be proud that they were included in such a fantastic painting. It is the right corner that catches my eye first.The main building does draw the eye to it, but the way you have raised the rail bed on the right without any rails being visible (if they are even still there)makes you look at the bed first and follow it right along to the big building and then on down the line to the smaller one. I LOVE IT.

Judy

Just one word Jim. 'Magnificent'
Jack

Jim -
I love how you've used your "artistic license" to create a much more interesting composition. It feels like the middle of nowhere, yet here's these buildings along the tracks. Is it possible to get back to "civilisation" before the storm hits? I love it!!!
Thank you very much for sharing your process

This is gorgeous. I am drawn to that magnificent cloud. There is a story there

It's looking great Jim. I like your compostional changes.