Elk Herd

Yesterday while I was painting the iconic view of Ajax Peak, which towers over Telluride, a herd of elk came to the meadow which was on my left. Despite my excitement at seeing a herd of 50 elk, it was too late for me to switch my painting topic.

I went back this morning to the same spot in hopes that the elk would return and painted most of this scene before the elk herd finally came down off the mountain. You can see in the photo below that the elk kept their distance from me. It was hard to make out their individual shapes, so I just added my impression of the herd as they made their way along the far side of the field. If the elk had been there from the start, I might have topped the painting at the cottonwood trees in order to emphasize the elk. As it is, I made the herd proportionally larger than the actual scene.