The inspiration for this oil painting was its direction. There’s always a sense of relief after having reached your destination and finally hiking down. Some may see this painting as a hike up, but the small glimpse you get at the right edge tells the tale. You’re looking down at the tops of the trees.

Since much of the scene has the same value, the painting challenge was to make the different surfaces read right. I accomplished this by adding things in and taking other things out so that the pictured elements helped define the scene. This is also the time I use glazes to unify an area’s color temperature. In this painting some of the foliage got blue glazes while others received yellow glazes. This helped define the plant species as well.