Heading Down

Here's a painting I did this weekend of a place in the foothills about 8 miles away. The foothills are layers of red sandstone sediment that were pushed up millions of years ago by the uplift of the Rocky Mountains. The mountains are pretty abrupt here. The plains abut right up to the mountains with these sandstone cliffs and hills where they meet. While hiking around in the foothills at one of these places (many have been designated as open space/county parks) the trail passes this place where you can look down one of the stream courses toward the plains. It's relatively dry and the vegetation likes to grow where the water goes. It's one of my favorite views in this particular park. I painted it once before a couple years ago and things have changed a bit so I decided to try it again. I really liked the different colors of the shrubs and grasses.  Heading Down, 9 x 12.

Also I updated the photos for the pitcher and the curved road in recent posts. I was finally able to scan them, so the picture colors should look a little more accurate now.