Summer Sand Dunes 22x28

This was painted entirely in the studio, using 12x16 plein air painting as my reference. My goal was to keep it as abstract as I could, playing colors, shapes and edges one against the other, yet still create depth and interest in the sand dunes as I remembered them.

In order to make the sky luminous, even tho it is a deep yellow, I kept the ground area in a basically neutral color and value, even tho there are a lot of rich colors, they are all very close in value, thus giving the sky area the full power of the light it represents!

I could not have invented this much color! I merely grab the feeling I have when watching a sunset, and hope that the paint I mix can even begin to express the energy or luminosity of the scene. And making it this large was a joy, loading my brush and delivering that much paint into an almost abstract statement, keeping the paint thick, juicy and flowing!