The Process Story of “Ozark Rocks and Leaf”

This painting started out plein air. The grandkids were visiting and wanted to go splash around at Felkins creek. While they played, I began painting these stacked rocks with a sycamore leaf.

When it was time to leave, I wasn’t finished yet, so I snapped some photos and packed it all up to finish later.

Time passed

It took me a little while to get back around to working on it. I’ve learned from experience that my rendition of an in-situ scene isn’t going to look like the real thing in the end, so this time I didn’t worry about it.

My goal was to make a painting that looked good to my eye, even if it didn’t have a lot of resemblance to the actual thing in the end. So my rocks are different, and the leaf is, too.

But, I didn’t know how to make the sand look like sand, or how to put all the many little rocks in the sand. And at this point, I didn’t the painting much. It sat on the easel untouched for a couple of weeks.

Try Again

I pulled it back out to take with me to the gallery on my work day. Since I like to paint between customers while I’m there, I decided to try working on it some more, to see if I could get to a point where I could at least feel it had promise.

Magic Happened!

My efforts paid off. The stacked rocks might finally work out. The sand drifts looked more like sand, and the pebbles looked like pebbles. Or close enough, anyway.

So I worked on the leaf a little more.

Delayed Again

I had some things come up that caused a delay, but this time when I pulled my stacked rocks out again, I really liked it. I finished the leaf and added a few more details to the rocks and sand, and called it done.

Want a Stacked Rocks Print?

The original is for sale too. Email me about that if you’re interested. Unframed it is $250 and ships flat. Framed is $375. Prints are available through Fine Art America (linked below).