Wilderness Studio 2018: Chaco and Bandelier

Monday, May 29, 2017

Sandia Crest Adventure: Molly Zimmer

Molly Zimmer's "Choose Your Own Adventure"

Day 2 Painting Setup

I chose to do two whole day excursions to the east side of the Sandia Crest with my portable painting setup. On the first day, I stopped and Tree Springs Trailhead and hiked in about half a mile to do two 16" x 20" paintings on canvas. On the second day, I stopped at the 10k Trailhead and sat at the edge of a meadow overlooking the landscape looking toward Santa Fe. I worked on two approximately 22" x 28" paintings on gessoed paper.

I found myself engaged with the newly leafed out Aspen trees with their lemon green color accentuated by the Conifer trees behind them in the dense forest. There were also many dead trees standing and fallen over in this area.

Each painting took about 2.5-3 hours and I focused on trying to capture the energy of the place present in the repetition of form of tree trunks, and overlapping foliage in contrast to the sky.

I experimented with different underpainting tones, to see how that might influence the final painting.

Here are my images of me painting and the works done on location.

DAY 1: Tree Springs Trail (Sandi Crest)

Day 1 Painting Setup

Painting of Aspens and Dead Tree In Progress, 20"x 16", canvas

Afternoon Painting with Dead Tree, 20" x 16, canvas

Day 1 Painting Setup

DAY 2: 10 K Trail (Sandia Crest)

Aspen Grove Painting with Purple Background, 22" x 28", gessoed paper

Aspen Sunset with Rose Background, 20"x 28", gessoed paper

Additionally, for my other small paintings, I chose to do these in the evening light in the Sandia Foothills capturing the way that color and light changes drastically from light tones to earthy and pink tones. These paintings ranged in size from 5" x 7" to 10"x 12" and I spent 2 evenings outside painting. Photographs of these coming soon.