Sierra Textures

This is painted from a photo snapped sometime in the past in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  There's something about the trees sort of hanging on the edge of the rock fall that appealed to me.  The painting was a nice challenge.  Finding a balance of loose painting with the need to catch the scraggly sentinals at the top and the texture of the rocks below was interesting.  I tried hard to keep from rendering every pebble, yet capture the texture of the rugged Sierra Nevada range.  Values was very important here as well.  It was easy to let the shadows in the rocks become too prominent, and I had to revisit them again and again to bring them back into the correct value range.  I'm not sure that I ever did get it right, but I'm satisfied that is is close.

On the Edge  Oil on Canvas Panel  12" x 9"

This is 12" x 9" oil on raymar panel.  It is painted entirely with flat and bright (chisel edged) brushes of only about three sizes....maybe four.  Total time about three to four hours. 

UPDATE:  Painting DONATED to the Sacramento Fine Arts Center "Ars Gratia Arts" fund raiser, November 2012.