Great views can be just out the door. Splayed Shadow is a scene within walking distance of my studio and is a fine example of using what’s at hand. I chose this scene because the clean design of the various elements were perfect to showcase an exploration of green mixtures within the landscape.

What I liked about this scene was all the greens and their temperature and value differences. The greens ran the gamut from cool, dark green to electric, yellow green. I’ve learned through time at the easel and palette that green is easily mixed and used alone or with the addition of prepared greens from the tube such as viridian or phthalocyanine. Splayed Shadow had many similar mixtures that I used to define both the hill shadow areas and highlight areas.

I used manganese violet, ultramarine and raw umber to get the darker mixtures and used cadmium lemon, quinacridone gold and manganese blue for the light mixtures. Additionally, I used glazes to unify the different areas and augmented that with direct painting to achieve the look and mood I was after.

Available at Sugarman Peterson Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico.