Painting from Photos: Coulee Country

Coulee Cows, 5.5x7" oil

Farm in the Coulee 8x8" oil

Both of these little paintings were painted from photographs that I took a few years ago while traveling in western WI.  The are is known as Coulee country.  Coulee is defined by ravines and hills worn away by the glaciers.  The day we were traveling there was a kind of fuzzy natural smog hanging over everything.  It made colors sing and at the same time mellowed everything out.  I had not worked on these scenes before, did no preliminary sketches, just jumped in to painting.  And these little paintings came to life relatively easily.

Sometimes I come home from a photo trip and dive right into painting.  And sometimes it takes a while, even years, before I pick up the photos and paint.  There are a few reasons for that.  I tend to think about a painting and how I intend to work it.  Sometimes working on it in several versions, in my head, before I actually get out paint, etc. and start.  I also make lists of things I'd like to paint - often I have long lists and it takes awhile until I get to the painting.  And sometimes, I just forget about the photos, the subject matter for a while.

Then I dig out old photos, or files on my computer.  Grab a stack, do some small sketches.  Or cut the photos up and recombine with others.  Sometimes I put a few together that I need to reference a scene.  The whole painting cant be found in just one photo - this is not copying the photo, just using it to remember what it was about the view that inspired you....

So even though there were no sketches from the photos for these paintings, the idea of them had lingered in the back of my mind for a while.  I had looked at the photos at different times.  I remembered the ride we took, the way the sun was shining, the presence of the haze over the ravines.  In other words, the scenes had settled into my memory so that when I picked up the brush, they were already there, just waiting to be painted.

I advise students all the time to keep resource material of the things they love.  Call it a journal, a scrap book, an inspiration file, or a just a 'junk' box. It need not be fancy.  Just a place to file away photos, pages torn from a magazine, notes you have written.  Then the next time you are stuck; don't know what to paint, what to make for supper, how to perk up your home,  settle in and browse through your resources and see what can happen.