teepee project

Teepee one 6"x6" pastel study

My husband's brother and his wife have a beautiful home in Big Sky MT. They asked if I would do some paintings for them…..wow!  They referred me to an artist, Tom Gilleon , who's work they love. After researching the work, I see why they liked it so much. The color and simplicity of his work was wonderful. I'm against trying to copy another artist"s work, but I thought I would give it a try. I could make these paintings my own. I researched photos of Indian teepees, new and old, and picked several photos to work from. Then I did some pen and watercolor sketches to see how I felt about them.

quick pen and watercolor sketches

Next I needed to decide on a palette. I wanted to use a variation of the palette in all the studies so they would work well together.

 My sister in law wasn't sure of the size of the space I would be putting them. So I talked about format and how we could put 2, 3 or 4 paintings together. Next we would have to decide size. I decided to do the studies in a square 6"x6" format. I worked the studies one at a time but kept them all up on my board so I could see how they would work together. 

teepee two 6"x6" pastel study

teepee three 6"x6" pastel study

teepee four 6"x6"pastel study

So I'm off to a start! We still have to work on adjusting the colors so the paintings will work well with their house decor and decide on size and how many paintings will fill the space. But I'm excited about doing the pieces. I love the simplicity of the sky and landscape…. my direction for my own work. And it will be fun to be expressive with the colors. I will post more when I start the final paintings.