I have decided to try selling some mini paintings. These are very difficult to photograph clearly but I did my best at this point. Each of these are 2×4 inches. I do not plan to frame them because they are stretched canvas and I painted around the edges. I do plan to add some sort of ribbon or hanger to show how they c
ould be used as ornaments. They also look really cute on the mini easels that are available.
On this foggy morning, I was just struck by the beauty of the layers and the lifting fog. Then when I got closer, to see these beautiful colors just beginning to peak through the fog…what a treat! It is a beautiful place for sure.
This beautiful place is Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, AK. I am fortunate to live just within a few miles. My husband and I love to take morning walks here and we were blesses on this particular morning with this spectacular view. I really love how the distant peak is the only area receiving the warmth of the morning sun. This type of contrast of sunlight and shadow is what really inspires me. It is a challenge to capture that light.
Here in Juneau, AK, we call the road going north, “out the road.” It is a dead end and does not connect to any other part of Alaska. You can drive for many miles along this road and the whole way is a continuous view such as this painting. the mountains are called the Chilkat range. As you can see, it is spectacular on a clear day!
Another morning walk to Mendenhall Glacier. It is beautiful no matter what the weather. On this morning the fog was just clearing. I liked the warm reds on the peaks contrasted with the deep purple in the shadow from another mountain. And of course the little bits of left over fog are always interesting. This is a 5×7 oil on canvas…mostly meant to be a study of the light effects.
This is a 5×7 oil painting of a point outside Juneau, AK. When I took this photo, I just loved how the blue reflection on the shady parts of the rock seemed so blue and complemented to bright, vivid green of the grassy knoll. But when I started this picture I was really intending to practice my skies. I have trouble keeping them light enough, and I’d like to be able to get better blues into them. So on this one I was trying to use some Cerulean Blue…I usually use Pthalo. I used both here, starting with Cerulean near the mountain peaks and gradually going to Pthalo as the sky got higher. this is not how my photo looked, but I was happy with it. After the sky was done I figured I’d just add the rest…and here it is. I think I will try to do some quick practice though of mainly skies. Because I started with the sky I ended up running out of the proper proportion of water at the bottom. I think this would be much more pleasing to the eye if it had a couple more inches of water, but there’s always next time.
This is the view from my dining room windows. It is not always visible because of all the low clouds and rain that we get, but when it is, it is spectacular! During winter the low sun creates the most beautiful lighting effects on everything. On this evening the frost was really thick on everything. It tends to build up because the sun doesn’t get high enough to melt it off things. So the hoarfrost almost seems to grow. This made everything seem so cool and gray and soft compared to the bright warm glow on the mountain peaks. I cannot seem to get a photo of this painting that really shows the coloring well, but this isn’t too bad. As with a few of my paintings now, I have painted this a couple times (or pretty close to this) and it gets a little better each time.
This is the valley in Juneau where I live. It is the main road that goes to the glacier. In the summertime there is a constant stream of tour buses that run from the cruise ships downtown out to the Mendenhall Glacier. This is the road they take. On a clear day, when you get to this point it can be so beautiful that it makes your heart leap! Tourists must have their jaws drop as they approach. It is about 4 miles from this point but you cannot wait to get there to see it when you are given this glimpse beforehand. I have also painted this a couple times trying to get the values just right. The mountain is difficult to get just right. It seems darker than you have to paint it in order to put it into the distance. I’m learning ( =
Someone let me borrow a photo they took of a beautiful lookout spot here in Juneau, AK. I can just imagine how awesome it would be to sit here in the evening and watch the whales and seals and other wildlife out on the water. Beautiful spot! It was a pleasure to paint.
This is a little painting of one of my favorite views. It is looking toward Mendenhall Glacier where my husband and I walk all the time. On this particular morning, the silhouetted trees stood out to me. And I just love the cool colors of the green and blue background. I also like that there is a little bit of balance to all the cool colors with the warm reflection tones (of almost orange) coming in from the lower left corner of the picture towards the center.
Art with my Coffee 