Berthoud Pass sketch - day 11

Berthoud Pass, 9x12, oil on panel

The trail is bumpy to this the 11th day of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. I am behind in posting but not so far behind in actual paintings. I had planned to play a bit of catch up today on this blog but our internet was not cooperating so I have given up on that and just going with this one and moving forward from here. My goal for myself was to do at least 15 in the 30 days, and I think I will make it.

Even though these is not technically "finished" according to my definition, I am going to go ahead and post it for today. I like the energy and the movement that is going on. If I decide to "finish" it at some point along the way, I will re-post it. One of the things I want to work on for this challenge is to paint quickly, as if I were actually outdoors painting. I got this done in about 30". I am focusing on keeping it simple, loose and energetic. I tend to tighten up the more finished the painting is. I found a few artists whose work I like and I keep those images in my browser so I can check in from time to time. I want to do a bit more layering too. This canvas was coated in a yellow ocher. As I progress, I have a tendency to not let those prior colors show through as much as I intend. The ocher under painting surface was still slick from the oil gesso I have on it so the paint slides around quite a bit. It makes for interesting brush work.