This is the Thursday night class demo and I let them work on an exercise until about 8:00 then asked if they wanted a demo and flew in and got this done in a little over thirty minutes. They were cleaned up and ready to go by nine. These under the gun demos are actually kind of fun because it is a very intuitive way to paint. You really can't over think anything. Mix and apply.

The mountains you see there are in the Cumberland mountains on the Kentucky Tennessee border. I had gone up there to the Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area about three years ago to paint for a week. It is some of the roughest country I have been in both culturally and geographically. I actually knocked the exhaust out from under my truck on what they consider roads. They are these little coal company roads hanging on the sides of the mountains with these giant coal trucks coming and going.

While I was there I attempted to paint the scene you see in the post. I made a royal mess out of it. When I think back about that trip I don't know that I actually had one or two paintings that were decent and the rest just horrible. I keep telling my students about these moments you have in your career when you realize how far you have come and the things that you found so difficult a year or so ago you wade through now. However, it also seems the more I learn the more I realize how much more I have to learn. I actually hope I never loose that because ultimately it seems to be what keeps most of us coming back again, and again. No finish line.