Artist: LC Neill
Title: “Pedernal Study”
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 9″x12″
I’m just back from a recent trip to New Mexico. Wow the light there is so much different when you don’t have that humidity to deal with. All the colors are bright, crisp and clear. I shipped my paints out, and for a few days my friends and I painted en plein air. Painting outside is a completely different experience than painting in your studio. You have to work much faster as the light changes rapidly, and because you just “do it” without a lot of thought the painting style is looser and free. I loved it!
We took a day trip to Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu. I have never been there before and had little knowledge of it. It was really wonderful! It’s a bit of an artists getaway in the wilderness. They offer an abundance of classes with room and meals.
The 360 degree views are breathtaking. My fellow painters all chose a spot to paint. I selected a mountain scene, primarily because it also had a lake in the valley which I could see a sliver of. Clouds thickly dotted the sky. We painted for only a couple of hours but I could tell in that short time; you could see this place day after day and it would never be exactly the same.
While we were visiting, there were several mentions of Georgia O’Keefe. I learned she lived in and traversed this area and painted many paintings of the land. Later that day we came across her painting of the same mountain I had just painted. This caused me to do a little research and to find the images of Pedernal and see her interpretation of the mountain on the day(s) she painted it.
Here is what I found.
Artist: Georgia O’Keeffe
Title: “Pedernal 1942″
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Artist: Georgia O’Keeffe
Title: “Pedernal”
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Artist: Georgia O’Keeffe
Title: “Deers Skull with Pedernal”
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Artist: Georgia O’Keeffe
Title: “Pelvis with Pedernal”
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Very interesting! All very different. Hope you enjoyed.
