Raven in progress

At my new studio, located at the Manheim Gallery in Cottonwood,  I'm working on a new abstract -- but not really that abstract --  painting ---  but its more of a mixed media painting with charcoal --work of art.
Right now, it is very much in the work in progress stage, but here is the progress so far...

Stage one -- Find inspiration..

A few weeks ago, I visited the area around Sunset Crater (near Flagstaff) in hopes to do a little plein air painting of the lava rocks. 
Because I defiantly ignored the weather warnings of 20% rain -- it down poured... soaking any possibility to paint. However, the stormy afternoon opened up into a beautiful stormy sky to photograph.  So we sat in the car, keeping dry and eating our snacks, and every so often snapping a few incredible moments of double rainbows....

Smoky stormy clouds...

and Ravens flying through...

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Stage two -- start painting

So this past week or so, I couldn't get the image of the raven flying out of my head. Or the colors of that day. So I had an idea, I would paint the landscape from memory. First I would try to remember three colors that stuck out to me.. the grayish blueish sky, the sage green, and the yellow ochre -- then go all Mark Rothko, and plot in the landscape with the three colors...

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Stage three -  add some charcoal... who doesn't love charcoal and getting messy?

Then, after the background was plotted in, I decided I would draw the raven large in the foreground, using charcoal.. I chose to add a raven flying left to right, similar to a flying raven I took a picture of last summer in my backyard as it was creating a nest. 

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Stage four -- add color, texture, some more paint, more charcoal...
​ and maybe the kitchen sink too...

After I added my exaggerated raven in the foreground.. I then started adding in some blue, green, and other colors that I just felt were necessary -- taking the painting on a little tangent away from my original inspiration.. 

So that's where I am - in the middle of a work in progress. It's a refreshing feeling, starring at a painting that has millions of possibilities and directions, but it feels scary too. The final stage is far from near. And hard to see, especially now when it looks more like a messy thought than a cohesive work of art.