August 17, 2009
Over the weekend I executed lots of mini-cloud studies, taken directly from my sketchbook, while they were still fresh in my memory bank:

I was especially enamored with a butte I saw west of Magdalena with the top of it shrouded in a heavy rain cloud (bottom, right). Also noodled a variety of other heavy clouds I witnessed:

I also got on an Ed-Mell-Landscape kick and studied some of his color and shape techniques:

Then went back to my cloud memories from the Lincoln road trip:

I especially like the middle panorama of the massive cloud bank angling up off the desert floor. This is from a study I did just west of Socorro on the way home. Did a specific cloud study based on the huge cloud banks I witnessed:

Shifted gears on Saturday and started a series of cover studies for our next cover: "Capturing Billy the Kid Country". Here are the contenders (notice how the shrouded butte shows up in two of them):

Looming Billy Number 1:

Looming Billy Number 2:

Looming Billy Number 3:

Which one do you think is the strongest cover? As for me, I see things I like in each and there are things, in each, that I hate. Gee, I wonder what ol' Henri has to say about this?

"Blunder ahead with your own personal view."
—Robert Henri