Diamonds on the River

This is the Elbow River near Bragg Creek, Alberta. On the other side of the trees to the right is a stunningly beautiful pond as well. I paint out here as often as I can manage. There is a painting every way you look. This piece was created in the studio from a plein air piece I did two summers ago. I coulnd't get it out of my mind and finally made the time to paint it at a larger scale. The high key light on the river was way more challenging than I thought it would be when I was on location. It really pushed me. So trying to recreate it on a larger scale was an opportunity to really cement the lessons learned from the plein air piece. That's often the main motivation for me when doing a larger studio piece - it's all about the learning.