Into Lamar by Shirl Ireland 24" x 24" OilLamar Valley is one of my favorite spots in Yellowstone National Park. It was the inspiration for this studio painting. One autumn day, when I went out specifically to plein air paint in that area, the Valley was particularly ‘socked in’. NOT what I had in my mind to paint. But that’s something plein air painting teaches you – flexibility. So I set up my easel and started really looking at the scene. The autumn colors had been transformed. What a calm, quiet, mysterious feeling the fog had created as it settled onto the landscape. No towering mountains, bright fall colors or blue sky to be seen. But then again, I’m not necessarily a ‘blue sky’ painter. I enjoy being out there in the messiness and capturing the subtle colors I find so beautiful on days like this. So I thoroughly enjoyed my day. I wanted to develop the study into a studio painting, playing on the shape of the Lamar River that I find so appealing, winding through the Valley. The feeling of the painting echoed the feeling I have of the elk during their autumn rut – mysterious, primeval. It seemed appropriate to intertwine the river bend with the curving shape of the elk being herded along, into the fog.
Summer ends and autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have a high tide always and a full moon every night.
Hal Borland ‘Sundial of the Seasons’
2 comments:
Shirl, this is lovely and inspiring. You have successfully painted the feel of an overcast day with feeling and subtle colors. What is so great is how you have made what I see as a depressing, gloomy, day into something very beautiful. You have also inspired me to go out, even though it is overcast and try to find all the wonderful colors, smells, and sounds and get that into a painting. Thank you for this!
Thanks, Donna. Hope you stayed dry out there today... or at least had a lot of fun painting!
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