Following up on yesterday’s post, I went to another grove of aspen today, this one along the Telluride River Trail. In today’s sketch, some of the aspen trees are much closer to the viewer, giving a stronger sense of being in an aspen grove.
The Ridge Trail near Telluride climbs through a forest of fir trees, aspen, rocks, and meadows. I need to go back and do several more of these until I understand how to convey aspen. Even so, I like this sketch because it captures a bit of the mix of all these elements.
I painted the same scene yesterday, but today’s sketch is from a vantage point about a half-mile further west.
There was a competing view to the view I last posted. If you turn 90 degrees to the south from the spectacular mountains I painted yesterday, there is a meadow edged with cottonwood trees and sandstone cliffs. I had difficulty deciding which scene to paint and had to go back to sketch this one.
We are in the small mountain town of Telluride, Colorado, for a few weeks. This afternoon I biked down the valley a mile or so and sketched for a few hours. As I worked, the sky clouded, and the mountains above the town got quite a bit of rain, although most of it evaporated before it got down to where I was. Looking out into the beauty of distant rain is really special, and this feeling is what I tried to capture in this sketch.
One enjoyable part of a reunion is entertaining each other with a good story. And, since I enjoy sketching my relatives, this works out well for me. This is a sketch from last week that I finalized today. Although it is cartoonish, and I squeezed my relatives onto a small page, I like it because it shows the attention they give each other.
The early morning view across my brother’s meadow to the south and to the magnificent Sneffles Range is one of my favorite. I like the way the mountains take on three-dimensional shape as the light hits it. Painting this was a great way to end our annual family reunion. I am so grateful for the generosity of my sister-in-law and brother.
Deliberate Sketching 