Blanketed for Winters Return

Blanketed for Winter's Return
Oil on linen
32 x 47

To date this is my biggest painting. I've had the canvas stretched sitting in the
corner of the house for about 1 yr and everytime i'd look over at it, it would just taunt me and laugh at me. Sort of like a competion to see if I could accomplish something so big and idea oriented. I had the idea, and thanks to Jen for the challenge, of getting it out and throwing some paint around. I put it up on the easel and the easel is way tooo small for this size! It was asking me why i was doing a painting so big on it. I had to anchor it down with bungies.

To the painting... It was really fun to "get into" the painting. getting into refers to a painting this size you can really get into the painting almost like stepping into it and feeling like your really there almost like a dreamscape. I have noticed a lot of nature is a challenge to get right, that alot of times, so many values are so close to other values that it's almost forcing us painters to lean more to tonalist paintings instead of doing something that you know is pleasing to the eye, pleasing my eye is testing myself to see how close i can achieve a more tonalist approach here and using temps to speak to the eye and tell you what's a tree and what's sage, etc. etc.

I have painted this scene countless times, it's one of my favorite in Jackson, partly because it's from the Gros Ventre Junction which you take this road to get to my old cabin in Kelly. I usually set up here many eves after work just waiting for the right light and then rush to get accurate colors. Hurry up and wait kind of thing. This scene and Jackson peak were my two most painted scene's other than my dailies of the teton's.

The stuggle for this one again was the more tonalist approach for the fg and mid ground. when the light is in that position, it forces everything below to be in shadow. So it forces me to think more in color temp and asking warmer/cooler.
Overall i think the painting was a success and it felt so good to be inside a painting for a couple of days until i called this one finished.

Thanks for looking,
Tom
p.s. your comments and critique's always help!!