Karen Lynn Link Fine Art

I didn't set out to paint a sunrise.

The photograph I started with was taken during the day at Standley Lake, on a day when wildfire smoke had shifted the colors dramatically toward orange. The scene looked very different from the other photographs I had taken there.

At first, I intended to stay fairly faithful to the photograph. But as the painting developed, the orange light began to suggest something different. Because I was looking east, the scene started to feel like a sunrise.

There was a point when I realized I was at a painting crossroads. What was happening on the canvas was far from what I had originally intended. I could try to force the painting back toward my first idea, or I could follow what was actually happening. So I went for it.

The photograph had a cloudless sky, but that didn't feel right in the painting. I began adding clouds, using them to help move the eye down through the trees toward the sun peeking through the branches. With the trees largely backlit, the sky became another place of interest and an opportunity to explore more variety of color, as well as a lighter touch with the paint.

The clouds also brought back a memory. Many years ago, I was driving home from Independence Pass with my dad after a trip to see the aspen trees in fall. On the way back, at dusk, we passed beneath beautiful magenta clouds. I still remember how beautiful they were. It was a favorite memory of a time I got to spend with my dad.

When I painted the sky, I was thinking about those clouds. They weren't in the photograph, but I wanted something of that memory in the painting.

The painting wasn't easy. I had to come back to it several times, which felt like a lot for such a small painting. But it stretched my capabilities. I don't paint sunrises or sunsets very often, and this is only the second one I've painted.

I could probably keep working on it. There are things I could improve technically. But I think continuing would take some of the life out of it.

What I like about it now is the feeling. To me, it feels hopeful and optimistic, like a brand new, fresh day.

Maybe that's what came through in the end.

Coming Through

Acrylic on paper

Standley Lake, Colorado

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