Telescopic Viewer

My painting "Telescopic Viewer" is now finished. It is 24x48 inches and painted in acrylic.

 This is a painting that I have been wanting to create since moving from Madison to Austin. Moving across the country has been a thrilling, bittersweet, and sometimes lonely adventure. The landscape of Austin is dry and starved for water. It is hot, the roads are congested, and public transportation is minimal. It is vastly different from the land of one thousand lakes that I grew up in. Despite the differences, I am learning to love the arid landscape and noisy city of Austin with its thriving community of creators and entrepreneurs.

Here is a walk through my process of making this painting:

 It always starts with the blank canvas

 Then the drawing, followed by painting the most distant background details

 When the weather cooled down for a few days I painted outside on my back porch and added hills, trees, and elk to the foreground.

Elk in the forest, a fallen tree, fish, and lily pads in the water

The water has all different kinds of creatures and objects in it.

 

Sharks, stingrays, chairs, tires, stoves, and barrels

 

 Schools of fish, rooftops, and floating jellyfish

  

Across the water is a city

  

And farthest away are the rolling hills of farmlands

 

 Coffee to keep me going

And Maddie to keep me company

 A telescopic viewer at the end of the dock

  and a White Heron perched on the boat

To create this full panoramic