Painting, Finally

I just completed this oil painting that I have titled "Gunfight".  I had it mostly finished in June, before I left on my roadtrip.  It didn't take much time to add in color for the grass the four girls are standing on.  I started with cadmium yellow light and permanent green plus some titanium white.  I added in cobalt blue to make the grass more blue than yellow, then I added the blue to create the shadow.  The shadows weren't dark enough, so I added some cobalt violet.  To round out the coloration of the grass, I also worked in a bit of cadmium red. The grass brings in some of the warmer tones found in the red pants plus it creates a contrast between the ground and the empty space beyond.

Gunfight has become the companion to this earlier painting, "Rodeo Day Circa 1963" that I painted in April of this year.  I purposely painted the backgrounds in a similar style, that becomes a strong link between the two.  Bothe were painted from photographs that my mom took of me and my sisters when we were much younger.