The End of Layton Landing Road

Last summer I was driving around in Westmoreland County, Virginia as part of my job assignments (home visits for clients). I got myself a little lost (overshot my turn) and came to the very end of Layton Landing Road which is, in reality, someone’s driveway. I got myself turned around and waved to the field workers harvesting something on my left and as I approached the curve to go back up the road I stopped. The scene in front of me just begged to be a painting. I hopped out of my car and took a quick snap with my cell phone.

Then back on my way. Got a few funny looks from the workers, but I wasn’t too worried. Today I decided it was time to tackle this project and pay special attention to “sky holes” in the trees. The tree on in the middle with the old tractor under it clearly had lots of sky holes, but the mass on the left had none. Artistic license demanded that I break up that mass of dark green.

This painting is on a small piece of Wallis paper (and for those of you who know, that means I pulled this precious piece of stuff out of my stash only for very special paintings.) I did an alcohol wash with bright complementary colors and the paper buckled on me for a minute, but finally settled in. I used more soft pastels than I normally use — a mix of Terry Ludwigs, Unisons and Blue Earth. I only used a few of my hard pastels this time.