THE TRACKS IN THE FIELDS

                                              Watermarks    Pastel |  9x12

Here in Sacramento, we are surrounded by rice fields; in fact, most of the rice eaten in Japan comes from right around here.  Currently, the fields lie unsown till spring as the stubble breaks down.  The recent rains are filling them up with water, leaving the combine tracks visible.  Every day that I drive west over the Yolo Causeway, this scene of the clump of trees and the patterns of the field beckons to me to paint it. Finally, I got to be the passenger and fire off some quick photoshop references to create this.

Painting notes:  This winter gray day scene needed some liveliness in it so my choice of substrate was Orange Art Spectrum I got from last year's IAPS convention. I blued up the sky a bit more too and added additional color to the trees and the furrows. No blending except with another pastel. Always hard for me to keep my hands off!