Santa Fe Plein Air Painting Workshop with Niki Gulley

SANTA FE ART TREK:  
Day 1, afternoon location - Echo Canyon
12" x 9" textured oil by Niki Gulley

On Day 1 of our Santa Fe Art Trek, we headed north to Echo Canyon, a natural stone amphitheater with beautiful rugged surroundings. After painting the entire landscape in the morning, we decided to focus in on a vignette in the afternoon and isolate our focal point. Some of my students chose trees, others rocks, and I picked this lone, persistent conifer growing out the top of the sandstone formation. I liked the dramatic shadows, the texture in the rocks, and the strong will of this one scraggly pine tree. The sky was amazing with dynamic clouds sweeping into our view from distant showers, and I had to capture some of that movement and energy in this scene, too. Luckily the storms stayed away and we had a lovely afternoon!

Above: Niki Gulley helping one of her students with her pastels.

Visit nikigulley.com/artreks/ for upcoming Art Treks and Workshops or 

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See NikiGulley.com to see more of her contemporary landscape paintings.