So my mom has been asking for a piece for a while now. I haven’t been ignoring her request, but my mother and I have very different taste in art. She likes Thomas Kinkade. I personally can’t stand his stuff. I’m more into modern/abstract art. So I’ve been struggling with how to do a piece for my mother that 1. I don’t despise 2. I could enjoy doing and if I’m really lucky 3. reflects who I am as a painter. One sunday after conquering La Plata Peak (14, 336ft) I felt especially inspired and decided that painting a mountain peak could at least fulfill two of those requirements.

Gathering up the colors to paint some Colorado autumn trees.

After a few weeks of marathon painting and numerous glasses of Malbec I managed to cover the canvass.

 How do people keep track of their paintbrushes without a ponytail? A vast majority of the painting was done with maybe 4 different brushes. Rather than having them rolling around on the floor, getting lost, I’d stick them in my ponytail.

 A close up of the Aspen trees in the lower right hand corner, where I also always sign my name once the piece is entirely finished. After an immense amount of time and frustration, I finally felt it was complete the night of July 18, 2013 (paint hit the canvass on June 30th).

Fall beneath the Peaks. 2013.  Acrylic on Canvass. 20×24