Friday, October 17, 2008

Lake McDonald West Glacier

8 X 7 Oil on flat canvas $125
Includes shipping and insurance
Here's my 2nd attempt to get this landscape right. I widened the view, added more trees, and hopefully made that distant peninsula look farther away. Also, since it's done on canvas, the edges are softer, which I prefer. I think that once I am through all my little gessoed Masonite panels I will cease to use them. They impart a different texture than canvas, and are great for really detailed work (if they are sanded smooth enough), but since I use them strictly for daily quickies, that's not important to me.
I am really liking just cutting a piece of canvas to suit the size I need. So often a painting needs to be an odd size and not the standard 4 to 5, 5 to 6, or 3 to 4 ratio. Like this one. And the advantage of flat canvas is that they can be mounted and framed in a variety of ways, including under glass with a mat. I am also experimenting with canvas mounted (glued) on board. I have a wonderful glue that is water based, archival and non-warping. I had a piece of pre-fabricated shelving left over from a project and glued a square of canvas onto it and it looks very good. I may paint on it today.
Back to this landscape - I don't think I told you where I saw it. It's on the Going to the Sun Road that winds around Lake McDonald at West Glacier, Montana. If you have been on that road, you have seen this vista. And that road, by the way, is one incredible journey. It winds 50 miles through Glacier Park's wild interior with the pinnacle being Logan's Pass at the Continental Divide. The road was 75 years old this year and is really an engineering marvel. But I suggest you don't drive it yourself and instead take one of the Park buses like we did. If you drive it, you won't be able to enjoy the incredible views - you'll be too busy trying NOT to fall off a mountain!
I am going to paint this scene one more time - on a big canvas. I think I may get it right then.
Don't forget the big sale starting November 1!
Matthew 10:10
take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.
(This same parable, by the way, is in three books of the New Testament...worth looking up.)

1 comment:

Diana Moses Botkin said...

I'm enjoying your blog, Debbie. Thanks for sharing your work, your thoughts and God's word.

Next time you are getting up to Glacier, let me know, in case you'd like to meet up and do some plein air painting. We live about 3 hours away, in north Idaho.

Blessings, Diana