Outdoor painting @ Tres Pistoles Trail

 I joined a local group of plein air painters who goes to various locations around Albuquerque this past week.  

It gave me a chance to test out my LEDER EASEL

I bought this on Etsy, and it works pretty well, but you can save the maker the fees and buy it off his website



 Here's my set up at "Tres Pistoles" trailhead, or as the locals call it, "Three Gun".

 This is the scene I chose.  I love the path, I love paths and roads. I love the shadows. I love the Sandias in the background. 

 I set up my board, pre-toned with transparent red oxide, and blocked in the scene.  For the sky, I chose magnesium blue. It wasn't a good choice. It's too transparent on top of that red oxide. 

 After roughing it in, I took is back to my home to work on it. Here's the end of the first day.


Eventually, I felt like it was too "cool", including the sky, and decided I wanted to warm it up. I also felt it lacked some vibrancy, so I used some colors with higher chroma.  I also have noticed that for all its brilliance, morning highlights tend to be cooler than afternoon highlights.  At least, that's how it seems to me.  


Later, I put cerulean in the sky, and scumbled the brush around the sky again with unbleached titanium for the clouds.  

I think this is finished but I may add some more shadows back in on the trail. 


I decided to call it Tres Pistoles Uno, because I'm pretty sure there's going to be more than one Tres Pistoles painting. 

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