Several years ago, I moved to Colorado from the east coast. I soon fell in love with the red rocks here. As a matter of fact, l now live in Roxborough Park where I see red rocks every day, everywhere, all at once.
I have been experimenting with different ways to capture the beauty of these rocks in my paintings. This particular painting is a combination of realism and abstraction. It was done using rice (xuan) paper, Chinese ink, brushes and pigments. I wanted to focus more on feeling, rather than specific forms or colors. In this painting, the main subjects, the red rocks, are at the top with rough outline and heavy strokes. They are contrasted by trees and houses at the bottom with more details. I then applied ink, color and water freely all over the paper to create clouds and a more poetic and dreamlike atmosphere. And finally, as rice paper is very thin, I mounted the finished painting on heavier paper before framing.
Thank you for stopping by my painting!