Palette Knife Painting st Silver Lake

Bathed in sunshine and mosquito repellent, we took our easels and palette knives and set up en plein air to paint at Silver Lake. Located at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains north of Salt Lake City, Utah, Silver Lake is nestled at the base of several mountain peaks surrounded by a grassy meadow.

Here's a shot of Linda and me. We arrived in the morning just in time to see three adult moose (one male and two females). The meadow was full of small birds, Uintah ground squirrels and other critters.

We roughed in our compositions and rendered 4-color value studies first before moving 

on to paint the same view in full-color. This forced us to simplify our paintings and leave out the detail.  Just because you can see every leaf and blade of grass,

 doesn't mean you should paint them on your canvas. It proved to be a challenge!

Here's a morning's worth of work:

Our adventure was a lot of fun and certainly worth the effort!

Downtown - Where The Action Is!

Saturday, July 19, Judi Alder and I held an illustrated Journal Workshop in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. The weather couldn't have been any better and the students were excited to begin their work!

Planting ourselves on the corner of Main Street and Market, we began our sketches. We learned about perspective, angles, light and shadow and a host of other art principles, but mainly we just had fun!

 

 

 

The rhythmic clanging of the TRAX train and the hum of car engines 

reminded us of our urban environment. The scent of garlic bread 

wafted from Maxwell's (the restaurant across the street).

 

 

 

Halfway through the workshop, we broke for lunch at Maxwell's East Coast Eatery.  As we entered the building, we noticed water dripping from several stories above us. There were three window washers suspended from ropes cleaning the windows of the Boston Building.

 

 

 

Staying focused outside in weather that was 100 degrees Fahrenheit made us thirsty and hungry. We LOVED taking a break in the air conditioned restaurant!

 

 

More work after lunch...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed our day in downtown Salt Lake City.