Painting from Memory

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. It was around midnight when I decided I wanted to do another painting in my series of aspen trees in all four seasons. I thought about my friend, a magnificent artist who died to young. He always encouraged me to paint from memory and from my mind so that is what I decided to do. Without any photo references or preliminary studies I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to capture in paint. I decided on what it is like to walk in an aspen forest in the Spring. I thought about Rabbit Ears Pass, Buffalo Pass and that splendid trail that leads through the forest to the hot springs. These are all memorable places where I used to live in Steamboat Springs Colorado.

First I drew a few vertical lines to represent trees then started painting. For the shadow side I mixed cobalt violet, cerulean blue, and yellow ochre and the dark markings are burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue. I was careful to leave unpainted white paper for the sun struck side. The leaves are combinations of lemon yellow, cerulean blue and olive green. Pine trees grow among the aspens and rather than paint them in detail I simply represented their color with perylene green and olive. I remembered how when walking among the aspens and looking up, the trunks, branches, and leaves seemed to get lost against the soft blue sky. To create this effect, I placed bits of color next to bits of color while weaving a light wash of cerulean blue in between.

Some people could think that the dark branches at the top of the biggest tree, or the branch full of leaves that crosses that trunk are focal points but honestly I had no intention of a focal point. While painting I thought of one of my favorite quotes "if you want to capture nature in paint you must allow yourself to dream in natures presence" by artist Paul Gauguin. In my quest to become a direct painter, I thought carefully about getting the color, value, shape, and edges exactly the way I wanted with each stroke or mark of paint not allowing myself to go back and "correct" anything. In this process the hardest thing for me is getting the values right so that is where I was the most careful.

When I thought I might be finished I placed the painting on an easel and sat back to take a look. After studying for a long time I decided it was finished. It was now 3:30 am so I slipped of to bed and slept for 11 hours straight. On July 25, 26, and 27, I will be teaching a plein air workshop in Steamboat Springs and I would be delighted if you would join me. For further information contact the Steamboat Art Museum oe send me an email to pendletonstudio@gmail.com. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton