Painting Challenge Day 4

I chose another Colorado scene for today's challenge study.  This is a spot on a walking path fairly close to home.  Last summer, the girls (daughter and daughter in laws) went on a weekly walk together mid-pandemic.  It was a wonderful chance to spend time together, masked and outdoors, after not having seen anyone for months.  Along one area, the vista opened up to the south with a view through the trees of fields .  I loved this spot and often stopped and took a photo.  

I started off with a value sketch.  Which I promptly ignored as I started painting. 

At 20 minutes into the painting, everything was looking somewhat flat and "not right".  So I revisited the value sketch and painted for another 10 minutes, resulting in the painting at the top.  Much better!  

Here's a look at the finished study along with the photo reference I painted from.  I do see a few things that I could improve upon, but I'm pretty happy with this one and think I'll try to paint a larger version in the future.  

Lessons learned today:  1 - trust your value sketch and stick to it!  2 - premixing paint really speeds things up! (I did some but not enough today and it slowed me down) 3 - Forget the clock and just have fun! Be surprised when the timer goes off!

#ArtWorkLivingChallenge