Hello All,

First painting of the year! I have been working on this one since before going to Canada in December. For those of you who check out the blog occasionally, you may recognize the scene as a pretty literal interpretation of a previous photo taken this fall. We were hiking in Braunwald, Kanton Glarus. The sun was getting low and the children tired. There was some question as well as to where exactly we were going as the signage was not clear. Then we turned a forested corner and this is what we saw. It made me want to say “see ya” to my family and follow the stream bed toward the mountain… Then again, in the opposite direction was a high alpine farm with a gasthaus, and that was also enticing.

This painting is also following a theme explored in an earlier painting “Flumserberg – the long way down” in expressing scale and movement using brightly coloured and often outlined striations. This is a method that I like for grand and simple mountains scenes and I would really like to try it out on a very large painting… Of course, it also calls for a lot of detail, building of colour layers, and re-doing of sloppynesses. If I could just get it right the first time, the whole process would be so much quicker and less frustrating.

Now on to a commission of painting a copy of an earlier painting for a lovely lady who is moving to the US and wants a nice regional remembrance of her time in Switzerland. Should be a challenge that shows me just how much I am “winging it”. Also, I am hoping to get out there for some winter hiking and winter material… Pictures of that to follow, of course.

Thanks for popping by! – HD