Horizon Line

102"x 156"

I was out in western South Dakota about four weeks ago digging dinosaurs on one of my paleontology dig trips. In addition to digging fossils I was also observing how the South Dakota horizon line appeared on a clear spring day. I made mental notes of the colors and intensity of the colors. The land masses faded to light blue just before I couldn't see any further. When teaching painting I always have the students imagine layers of very thin veiled light fabric hanging between them and the colors. The further away the land is to appear on the horizon the more layers of fabric they are looking through the achieve the proper color. Blah, blah, blah.......... Anyway, here are the intial steps I have taken to attain the illusion of distance on a flat piece on canvas inside my garage. There are three different planes of distance shown. The furthest two are very subtle in the differences in the color. It really feels like what I saw on my trip. (I have been working away on this thing. To be continued....next starting the mid distance land masses!)