For the past six months I’ve been working on a series of paintings of the Alps using studies I made on a trip to Switzerland last August. This is a plan that’s been simmering in my brain since my last trip there twenty years ago and my last exhibit of Swiss landscapes in 1988. Interesting the changes that twenty years bring: a little less energy, a lot more painting experience, and a willingness to trust my own knowledge more and care about the outcome much less.
(By the way, if you want a fabulously light and comfortable folding chair that fits easily into a backpack, try a Helinox – your derriere and your back will thank you.)
This has been a respite from twenty years of painting landscapes of Maine, which I sorely needed. It’s an interesting challenge reacquainting myself with a subject that for me is both sublime and very personal.
So, the gouache I did on location (NOT “en plein air” :), see earlier post) is 11 x 14 inches and in the photo is covered with a piece of Mylar, gridded off so I can transfer the composition to the canvas (28 x 36 inches). What has delighted me during this process of generating a larger painting from a small study and memory is seeing that there has been definite growth in my work since 1988.
