DESCRIPTION:
 
This was going to be a straightforward painting of the lodgepole pines seen through the smoke from the British Columbia forest fires against the Canadian Rockies ... until I wet the canvas with water (lately always my first step). Lo and behold almost half the canvas starting in the bottom right corner and arcing up to the center top was considerably darker than the rest. Since I hadn't seen it when the canvas was dry, I hoped it would disappear when my painting was dry. The eternal optimist, I started blocking in the distant mountains and the green foliage. When that dried, there was still a dark line in the middle along the arc. Aargh. The lodgepole pines I had been planning on painting wouldn't have covered it up. So I did the only thing possible at that point, I painted one of the trees along the line ... and then painted the rest of the trees to match. Lots of adjustments to the foliage later, I let the painting dry. The painting named itself.
 
2018     Acrylic on raw canvas     Size: 24"x18"