Three Alaska Landscape Paintings 2005-2007 | Painting 3 of 3

On the Little Susitna River, Summer
40 x 40 inches, oil on linen, 2006-07
Private Collection
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Painting 1 of 3 | Painting 2 of 3

Click on images below to see bigger pictures of progress and enlarged details. All work on location, working under a protective rain tarp when necessary.

	1) Though I wanted to do something along the river, I did not know what. So, I did several small sketches in different locations along the river, all with some view of the river through the trees. Of the five sketches, I kept coming back to sketch #3 at lower left.
	2) It rained nearly every day. The river is rising. After much indecision, I moved the tarp from an earlier-selected site downstream to this new location, where I had done sketch #3. The new worksite is about twenty feet from the river's edge. The river was now at flood stage, roaring along, taking trees with it and rearranging the river banks.
	3) The water level is still high, washing trees and debris downstream, building new gravel bars and rerouting waterflow. It was exciting to witness this flood and I worked as quickly as possible to get something on the canvas. Charcoal drawing was the first work on the canvas, August 2006.
	4) Early stage of development. By now, floodwaters are already subsiding.
	5) Detail or close up view of the left side. The light, almost white paint areas are high, silty water.
	6) Close up of the center-right of the canvas. At this point, the fast moving water has received the most attention. Other areas are "blocked-in" with thin, diluted paint. The tangle of foliage and tree branches make it difficult to see.
	7) At the end of August or early September, this section of the left side was the most fully developed. The water level has dropped.
	8) The right side was a problem. I was observing everything with difficulty, through a tangle of spruce, willow and alder. Binoculars helped. By this time I know this will be a more complicated painting than I anticipated, reminiscent of Tootoosahatchee and Herndon Swamp.
	9) The overall canvas looked like this at end of August or early September. In September 2006, with leaves falling and the screen of foliage clearing, I could see better for more structural drawing. Work was stopped in October, to be renewed in May 2007.
	10) May 2007. Spence at the worksite. Photo by April Bederman, of Spirit Mt. Artworks, Chitna, Alaska.
	11) Detail, July 1, 2007. Photo by artist Pat Shelton and her son, Austin Gardeline, aka "The Wizard."
	12) Detail, July 1, 2007. The profusion of spruce branches is the last part being painted, not yet complete. Photo by Pat Shelton and Austin Gardeline.
	13) Detail, July 1, 2007. To do the trees across the river, I set up a temporary worksite by the river, on the other side of the problem spruce branches, then moved back to the tarp site to work on the foreground spruce tree. Photo by Pat Shelton and Austin Gardeline.
	14) Work was completed in September 2007. Final detail, bottom left.
	15) Final detail, Sept. 2007, branches near top right.
	16) Final detail, Sept. 2007, near right side.
	17) Final detail, Sept. 2007, midway up the spruce tree trunk.

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