This evening I was talking with friends from the wind-blown mountains where we met, at the edge of the high plains snug up against a mountain range where 50 mph winds are status quo. Where from the same spot you can watch the sun set over the mountains in the west and the moon come up over the plains from the east. No buildings or houses — or anything — to obstruct the view.
How I loved the feeling of freedom the invigorating wind evoked as it rushed through the grasses, projecting tumbleweeds like cannonballs. The land is semi-arid and for lack of water few folks live there. It’s so bare. So elemental. There’s a purity in wilderness, in wild landscapes. The wilder, the free-er.
One lazy day, moseying about in a bookstore, I happened upon a copy of Painting Greeting Cards in Watercolor. Inside, I discovered miniature painting sketch exercises, which I thought were perfect to warm me up for painting something larger. The exercises are terrific for days when we need immediate, simple, creative gratification.
One of the miniature sketch exercises reminded me of that fantastic landscape where the high plains and the water-less mountains meet. Talking with my friends tonight reminded me I’d painted it so I dug it out of the corner of a bureau drawer to share here (posted at actual size of the painting sketch). It’s a crudite. A little appetizer whetting my desire to paint that windswept land.
