The Mountain Man is like no other character of the west. While just about every other person of the west has its "good the bad and the ugly" versions, these lonesome explorers are mystically shrouded in quietness like no other. Probably because they were "alone" during most of their adventures, possibly because there are few movies and books about them, but non the less, they stand in the spotlight of our early discovery period in American History with the likes of John Colter and others. My youngest son even holds the name "Jonathan Colter Keathley" because there are few names that conjur up more of the manly spirit than this one.
in this grand 48x60, this early explorer will be walking up on a knoll (see his ghost figure?) to view what promises to be a "lucrative" spot to do business --MAYBE. Check back to see the progress as his "economy" comes into view. I say maybe, because you never know if I'm going to change my mind on what he is doing.
I've been working in the mountains and clouds for the past couple of days, developing the wonderful and dramatic lighting that often happens around the Grand Tetons. After this area dries, I will brush in many more details with "dry brush" strokes to create a very soft effect that can't be attained "wet on wet". It is late and after a 14 hour day of painting, I am ready to take a break; but I can't wait to get back into it tomorrow!
I've been concentrating in the area on the right... I'm setting this whole area in shadow so that the light coming from around the corner will power with drama!
creating this drama is a game of turning on and off the lighting... creating a spotlight effect if you will. I want the aspen trees in the background to come forward from dark to light just around the shadow rock slide corner
This portion of the painting (the middleground) is often the "make it or break it" section for me. There are so few "perfect places" in nature where you can just snap a picture and replicate it. So I am challenged each time, to create "reality" from my imagination. Sometimes this looks too much like a park, whereas, real nature might not even let you see something like this from underbrush and overgrowth. So goes the balance and choices of creating something from nothing. I often sit back and try to visualize where I want to go and what would be "grand" to see if I were there. Then I go hunt a photo if it "isn't happening" from my paint brushes so it will come to life in a realistic way.
roughing in the fields and trees across the lake. I will have some deer in this area. I'm thinking about a whole heard of mule deer
Over the holiday weekend, I kept this painting on the easel to "envision" what I wanted to do with the mountain man. In my study paintings, he was posed and prominent... too prominent, so I dug thru stacks of photos that I have and found three that I thought would work. After roughing them in, (pic on left) I noticed that the pack mule was too close and appeared to be in front of the horse, so I scrubbed him out and found a different mule and made it smaller. I am really happy with this subject - casual, yet regal, and looking back into the scene where your attention will be drawn. I'm getting excited now!!!
Today I roughed in the left side of the painting behind the mountain man. A combination of aspens and fir trees in an organic arrangement that will make a great back ground for the figure.
12 hour day today... detailing trees, changing the water from teal water to reflective water, adding deer, an eagle, some geese flying, and roughing in the beaver dam.
A couple more exciting days in the paint... this is my favorite stage -- roughing in -- when the creative juice is flowing. I'm always alternating between rough in days and detailing what I roughed in the day before. Here you can see the water and foreground is shaping up. I'll spend a few more days detailing.. but as you can see, it has to be "right" when it is in this stage. All the details in the world won't make something "wrong" become right. I can tell I want to calm down the dark area in the middle of the water, and add more reflective blue on the left side. Overall though, I think it is working out nicely.
I've spent a couple of days repainting some areas (sky, water, mountain man) adding details, (rabbit, deer, leaves, trees, grass, flowers, etc) after this one detail of the Mountain Man (notice I changed his coat so he didn't stand out as much) I will probably only post the finished painting photo in a couple of days. See if you can catch the changes...
You would just have to see this painting in person to appreciate the scale of things. Being a 48x60 really projects the size of the land. I'm really thrilled with where this one has come. Most times, paintings just fall of the brush for me, and other times I "work them out". This is one of the latter and I am proud and pleased. Notice the sky color from half way up this page... compared to this final picture. To "make" the blue water work that I wanted to have in the painting, I had to go back and change the sky colors so there would be blue to reflect. Several things have changed, and I imagine, as I look at it over the next couple of days, it will find it's way back on my easel for some other fine tuning. Thanks for watching
Mark
