75. Arroyo, Dry Season, and a Re-do of an older one

8x10 oil/panel

This little arroyo is one that we cross frequently in our "winter training grounds".  These trails are lower in elevation than our house, and not that far away, so when we're socked in with snow everywhere, we can drive down a bit and reach dry trails.   Everytime we cross this wash, I think "I want to paint that".  So I did remember to snap a photo one day, and working from that, and alot from memory, I painted today's work. This took about 2 hours I'd say - had to simplify alot of things...

Backlit scenes are fun, and reflected light is so exciting to paint. This one was a real exercise in color temperature and reflected light and color. Sorry there's a bit of glare in the upper left I couldn't seem to avoid.

One of these days I'll get a photo box... maybe.

Next is a re-do of another daily.  It accidentally got smeared, and it's been sitting in the studio waiting for me to fix it, but I decided to change it up a bit.  The original looked like this:

I liked the feather alot.. it was fun to do.  but I felt it was too crowded, so I changed the foreground and here's the result. That is a Santa Clara pueblo seed pot, and my turquoise necklace and cross.

So, which do you like better?