Colorado Landscape Series: Beavertail

This is another story of beauty on Interstate 70, between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs.

October 13th, my mom's 91st birthday, was a golden day. As my husband, Robert, drove east on the Western Slope, this is what we enjoyed just before we drove through Beavertail Mountain Tunnel along the Colorado River. The contrast of color and texture between the purple rock wall and the colorful foliage was my inspiration for this painting.

Beavertail
24 x 36", Oil on canvas
Rita Salazar Dickerson (c) 2014

Stage 1: Drawing in the composition with a thin wash of paint.

Stage 2:  Blocking in the rock wall. I really enjoyed the fact that instead of a blue or cloudy sky as the backdrop for this idyllic scene, there was this incredibly dramatic, canyon wall. A perfect color contrast for the foreground of trees, grass and bushes.

Stage 3: Using a palette knife to add the second layer of color and texture.

I looked at all the main colors on the wall and with a palette knife applied those colors on top of the wet paint I had just laid down.

Stage 4: Once all the colors were down, I used a brush to pull them together.

Stage 5: Blocking in the foliage.

Applying more flat color for my under painting.

Stage 6: Adding the thicker second layer of paint over the wet under painting.

Stage 7: Once again, using a brush and palette knife, I pulled all the colors and edges into each other. I also added details like the tree branches.

Stage 8: I chose this purple for my under painting of the water.

Stage 9: Letting some of the purple show through, I came in and added the reflected colors in the water. After letting it rest a week or so, I reworked the wall a bit more and added a few more touches of detail in the trees.

Colorado Landscape Series: Grand Valley

When the car you are riding in is zipping down Interstate 70 at 65 miles an hour and you yell to the driver, "Stop!", you have to have a very understanding driver. Fortunately, I did. My husband, Robert, gets it. He's a team player when it comes to my painting, supporting me above and beyond what would seem reasonable to others. And so, on this gorgeous October morning, he stepped on those brakes just in time for me to hop out of the car and capture this scene in the Grand Valley, a part of Colorado most people miss if they never venture west beyond Vail. Western Colorado in the fall, lovely.

Grand Valley
14 x 18", Oil on canvas
Rita Salazar Dickerson (c) 2014

Stage 1: The composition. After tinting the canvas with a wash of Transparent Earth Red and Ultramarine mixed with mineral spirits, I loosely painted in the lines of the composition before starting with the sky.

Stage 2: Painting the sky. I chose an earthy orange-rust for this under painting.

And then with a palette knife I began placing the shapes of the blue sky that appeared behind the clouds. With each stage of this painting I worked with the method of wet-on-wet paint. 

With my brush loaded with paint, I began to place the clouds. Once all of the colors were down, I wiped my brush and then started moving the paint around, blending and softening edges, then pulling the colors into each other. I left bits of the orange under painting showing.

Detail of the clouds.

Stage 3: Painting in the distant mountains.

Stage 4: Blocking in the middle ground of trees and bushes.

Stage 5: Adding texture, color and detail to the trees and bushes. I used a brush first and then the palette knife for this stage.

Stage 6: Painting the water.

After blocking in the water and then placing the second layers of color where I wanted them, I used a wide brush to drag the paint across the canvas to give it texture.

Stage 7: Blocking in the foreground.

Stage 8: Completing the painting. Once again, I used a brush to lay down the paint colors and then alternated with a brush and palette knife to get the effect I wanted for the grass.