Rocky Mountain Champagne

North Clear Creek Falls in Southern Colorado
Walking in the crisp mountain air of early morning, hearing water rushing off this cliff at North Clear Creek Falls in Southern Colorado reminded me of sipping champagne, and in the west, water is more valued than even the best bottle of bubbly. The rocks intrigued me, but it was the unexpected torrent of water that begged me to paint this Rocky Mountain landscape.

I did most of this painting in my studio, from photo references, then completed it in a pastel painting workshop to show my students how I use warm and cool colors to create interesting plays of light and shadow in rocks such as these. The toothy pastelbord surface allowed me to paint many, many layers of color in the rocks. Layering color upon color makes for a much more interesting pastel painting than using gray for rock color would.

framed under UV protective fine art acrylic
archival Pastelbord