My husband and I recently visited our oldest son in his new home on Whidbey Island in Washington State. I painted this from a not-so-great, out-the-car-window photo as we drove by on the first morning. I was really taken by the beautiful sites in the area and I have many more pictures to paint from.In case you are curious about the ' a not-so-great, out-the-car-window photo', here it is (p.s. I added the cows from another photo taken from the car):
In hindsight.... I think that the fact that the photo isn't that great -- not that clear since it was taken through a window of a moving car -- that the so-so photo reference actually 'freed' me to compose my painting more on my own. Sounds strange.... but that is how it feels after the fact. 