Man on Horse

Trying out a new bit of software with my new M4 Mac Mini. It is sketching software called Krita. It seems very nice. This is my very first attempt at using it. Just learning the tools. Building up an image. Showing three stages in a very brief sketching process.

For some reason I started with this strange down stroke for everything. The last one cleans the shapes up slightly. Still prefer that the image is really about light and areas of color/darkness.

This is an impressionistic digital artwork that captures an autumn scene in Taos. The composition features a person riding a light-colored Paint through an aspen grove. The rider is wearing a light-colored jacket/blanket with a blue-green shirt underneath.

The fall colors are particularly observed, with a warm palette of yellows and oranges both in the aspen leaves and in the ground cover. The vertical lines of the aspen trunks, characteristic with their white bark, create a natural frame around the central figure. The style is loose and atmospheric, with soft brush strokes that give the scene a dreamy, almost ethereal quality.

The way the light filters through the aspen grove creates a golden atmosphere that’s characteristic of autumn in New Mexico.

A local riff on Western art

Taos holds a place in Western art history, particularly in the early 20th century. The story begins around 1898 when artists Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips had a fortuitous wagon wheel break near Taos. Upon discovering the striking landscape and rich Native American and Hispanic cultures, they were immediately captivated and helped establish what would become known as the Taos Society of Artists in 1915.

The region offered artists several unique elements that couldn’t be found elsewhere:

• First, there was the extraordinary quality of light – the high altitude (7,000 feet) and clear mountain air created a crystalline clarity that painters found mesmerizing. This special light quality allowed artists to capture colors with unprecedented vibrancy, particularly in depicting the dramatic seasonal changes.
• Second, Taos provided a remarkable confluence of cultures. The thousand-year-old Taos Pueblo, Spanish colonial heritage, and Anglo American influences created a rich cultural tapestry that artists found endlessly inspiring. The traditional ways of life, particularly of the Pueblo people, offered artists subjects that seemed untouched by industrialization.