Painting in Montana

 I spent the past weekend at a painting workshop in Montana.  The still lifes were painted from a set up in the studio; the landscapes are based on reference photos taken this week along the Gallatin River and a couple of months ago in Yellowstone and Paradise Valley.

All these paintings were started with a value sketch and then quickly painted with color after that.   After an accidental splash of turpenoid over the paintings, they got a bit of repainting on top of that.

I'd had a bit of "painter's block" for a while now, and it was nice to just push through it and paint!

The painting of the still life with the "wallpaper" pattern behind it was done first with a burnt umber band at the top of the painting.  It was too big, too dull and made a lousy composition.  After thinking about ways to solve the problem, I considered what a painter like Eduard Vuillard would do -- and added the pattern (based on a scarf) to bring the painting together.