fields, vampires and the Olympic Peninsula

So now I am on the Olympic Peninsula. Hard to believe by the painting, eh? The fact is I am overwhelmed by the differences in the beauty here. The light, the fog, the gigantic trees towering above; I didn't feel connected to it in a way that I could paint. Yet. So after a hike on the Hoh River trail I saw a field. Love at first site. I am a sucker for a field. I KNOW I need to be connected to my subject.

The goal in this was to paint only the negative spaces and let that tell the story for the positive. To explain more fully, I will use the tree as an example. I underpainted a gray violet dark up there. Next I used blue grays and slightly neutralized golds to make the shapes that carved out the tree. Later I added more light bouncing off in the form of blue, purple and green-gray.

Yes, that's me.

On another note entirely...when I made my reservations for this area I thought I chose an "out of the way place." No big hotels- only a few tiny places interspersed in fog. Much to my chagrin I noticed these signs when turning to drive down the dead end road to my place. After talking with the owner of the B&;B I learned that the movie Twilight was made here and that people are just vampire crazy. I have never seen the movie, but I am learning a lot about it just being here. People actually want to feel part the fictional vampire/werewolf story and do it by coming to the area of Forks and La Push. Just because of the movie. It's amazing how movies and books can affect our thoughts.