Ulm Pushkin Mesa, Montana Commission Painting

Ulm Pushkin Mesa, Montana

24x30cm Oil on MDF canvas panel
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This was a commission painting for someone who wanted a present for her husband. She sent me a few photos of Ulm pushkin and with those and some images I found on the net, I forged ahead. The difficulty was making the middle ground interesting and giving it a sense of distance.

While searching for photos I discovered this was in the First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park and the mesa was used to send buffalo over the edge to kill them. 

I sent her a photo of the work in progress to ensure I was heading in the right direction. I don't normally do this as my paintings don't usually make sense until finished and the colours change back and forth quite a bit during the process, but I needed to now if I was achieving what she wanted. She came back and asked for the mesa to be larger and there to be less orange in the middle ground.

Work in progress

I toned down the orange and increased the size of the mesa. I left it for a couple of days but wasn't satisfied with the overall looked. So I added more darks and gave it more of an early evening/late afternoon feel.