Up The Coulee

Sometimes inspiration springs from more than one source.

Such was the case with this painting titled, Up The Coulee.

I worked on this during a recent Watercolor Workshop taught by landscape artist, Alison Montgomery.

Alison’s work inspired me to try some big sky clouds.

I stumbled across the inspiration for the sky (with the bonus of a really colorful rock outcropping) in a photo shared by Jamie Angus in the Saskatchewan Scenery group on Facebook.

I was also drawn to the beauty of the rolling hills and fall foliage of the Slade Ranch in southwestern Saskatchewan.

The ranch is featured in this image posted by my friends, Brenda Baker and Art Slade.

I played around with combinations that would partner the two inspirations in a combined sketch. See the black and white rough shown on the right.

It seemed to work. And so I dove right in with paintbrush and color!

You still have a few days to see Up The Coulee in real life along with a couple of my ink and watercolor abstracts created in a class with Anne McElroy.

All three pieces – along with the work of other workshop participants – are on display in The Workshop Show at Hues Art Supply (1818 Lorne Avenue in Saskatoon) until the end of January.