Sacrifice Cliff

Sacrifice Cliff

acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

24" x 36"

Available for purchase directly from the artist

(contact)

Sacrifice Cliff, part of the sandstone Rimrocks, overlooks the Yellowstone River in Billings, MT. It was a sacred place for the Crow Indians. Legend has it that two Crow youths found that their village had been destroyed by smallpox; distraught, the boys then rode their horses off the cliff.

Work in progress 5

(wip1 / wip 2 / wip 3 / wip 4)

These are the last two work-in-progress photos. I added more washes to the river, put in the little islets & foregrounds with palette knives, and brightened the details with brushwork.

Work in progress 4

(wip 1 / wip 2 / wip 3)

Here's the river! I layered a glossy gel on top of the paint and followed that up with a matte gel wash to soften the gloss a bit - but it still gives off a shimmery effect underneath the matte wash. The yellowish paint has more of that fun iridescent gold paint mixed in, too. The river looks a bit goofy at the moment because I still need to paint the bank in the foreground and an isthmus in the middle.

Chick-a-dees!

We brought home 6 baby chicks a few weeks ago, and I wanted to share some pictures of them with everyone! They've been way too much fun. We have to keep them in a box in the house at night, but now that they're bigger, we're able to put them outside in a moveable coop. These pictures were taken when the chicks were still fluffy and adorable...they've now entered into the awkward adolescent stage, which is a particularly awkward time for chickens. They're very dinosaur-like.

Work in progress 3

(backtrack to: wip 1 / wip 2)

The cliffs are no longer bald! I've added trees and shrubs, some of which are still floating out in the ether, but they'll be grounded soon. I painted some of the shrubs by loading a palette knife with paint and scraping it against the textured "rock" - the texture broke the green paint up into natural-looking foliage.

I also brightened the cliff faces with more color washes. The subtle iridescent gold paint that I mixed in with the other colors doesn't want to show up in photos - but in the right light, it gives a little bit of glimmer to the sandstone cliffs.

In other news, I've started a Facebook business page for my art...if you're a member of Facebook, you should join as a fan to follow updates! :)