I promised I would post this painting; I just didn't realize it would take me several months. In fact the painting has taken several years to complete. I started this painting a few years ago after visiting New Mexico. I was so taken with the amazing cloud formations across the vast expanse of sky. On the way back to Santa Fe from visiting Ghost Ranch I stopped my car on the side of the road one afternoon to record this vista. I knew only a large painting would do justice to the immensity of land and sky. My usual scale is small and my medium watercolor, but I hung a 36 x 48" canvas on my studio wall and pulled out the oils. I tackled the cobalt and cerulean sky and the scudding clouds. The landscape remained a charcoal sketch until this summer when I could open the windows wide open for good ventilation. When I picked up my brush to finish this painting, I knew using a brush would take forever. I bought large palette knifes and attacked the canvas with gusto, loving the resulting texture and impasto. I picked up a rag and my arm seemed to follow the sweep of the wind. When I look at this painting, it takes me back in time and place to that far off autumn day when my gaze took in the silhouetted mountains, the deepest blue sky, and the clouds flooded with the late afternoon sunlight. That autumn I fell in love with the southwest.
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