Buffalo Jump Hills

Still playing with oils a bit.  This is a second go at this acrylic painting I did two years ago.  It's kind of recognizeable as hills now.

There's a few good things going with this picture, and a few other things I really ought to change.  Maybe I still will.  One can futz around with oils pretty much indefinitely if that's what floats one's biscuit.

Dry Island Buffalo Jump 2

2 years ago I went on my first plein-air painting trip out to the Drumheller area. I have some very fond memories of that trip, and also some highly questionable artwork and lots of reference photos and studies.

When I got a set of oil paints and a vague clue about how to use them, I decided to revisit this scene. I have learned a lot about landscape painting since that trip, and I was curious whether I could apply it to oils as well as improving an old painting. I think that I'm happy with the result.

For comparison, here's the first version, painted on location.

Oils on hardboard, 9x12".

Badlands

Desert scenery. From a photo I took while I was in the Badlands for a painting workshop last year. I think this is the area surrounding the Royal Tyrell Museum near Drumheller.

(If you're at all interested in dinosaurs, btw, and are ever in the area, the Royal Tyrell is totally worth checking out. Convince your parents/friends. Take your kids. Do it.)

Pen & ink, 4.5x6.5".

Dorothy

We had a late start the next day so that people could wander around town and sleep after the cookout at Dry Island. After lunch we drove out to Dorothy, which is a little ghost town near the Hoodoos. It has one of the few grain elevators still standing in Alberta, a little church and schoolhouse, some shacks and chickens. I didn't quite have time to finish this painting onsite, I did the bottom third back in the studio with the help of photo reference.

I was plagued by bugs all day and it was stupidly hot as usual (better than raining, though) but I think I'd go back and paint there again.

I think my next car is going to be a hatchback. I notice that a number of people paint out of the back of their vehicle and being able to have a canopy that doesn't blow away sounds pretty good. (Although I don't know -- you'd think that the subjects available near roads and parking lots would have been done to death already.)

Dry Island Buffalo Jump 2

In the afternoon we drove down into the valley looking for shade. Some of us waded in the river for a while cooling our feet, then we reassembled to watch a demo. I wanted to do something a little less literal than the morning's effort, something a little more graphical and cartoony:

I had some thoughts about doing the hills with a heavy black outline but I think I'd like to save that for another subject.

Dry Island Buffalo Jump

Well, the fields surrounding it anyway. The light wasn't right for painting the valley as it took us about an hour and a half to get out there.

The first acrylic I did at the workshop. The colours are maybe a bit too strong? I like the brilliant sky and clouds (although I muffed up the bottom bit while trying to soften the horizon). Otherwise it's not too bad considering I haven't played with the acrylics for more than a year.

Anyway, it was a lovely (if scorching) day out, and we sat near the valley drop-off listening to the hum of bees and watching hawks soar out of the valley and hang maybe 20 feet above us, riding the air currents. It was my favourite day and I really would like to go back there next summer for some hiking and painting (and if I can convince Neil someday, some canoeing too.)

Horseshoe Canyon 3

This was the last thing I did in Horseshoe Canyon, a quick exercise in composition. Just to be able to show something for the day that wasn't a total mess.

Horseshoe Canyon

The next day we were out early at Horseshoe Canyon. Well, other people were out early. I can't manage to get anywhere before 09:00 and that's only if I manage to get going before noon at all.

The shadows were going by the time the instructor's demo ended and I wanted to get them down. Unfortunately I think they're the weakest point of the picture. I did another one in the afternoon and that was even worse. The two things I keep wanting to capture, the dark shadows and the stripes on the hills, keep turning out poorly. I'm kinda looking forward to maybe going back next year (probably not with the group, just by myself or with Neil) and giving them another go with acrylics.