Painting on a plateau

I rode my bike up through the village Thoré la Rochette (Thoré the little rock) and up a gentle but long slope to get on top of a plateau to paint the vistas of this spot. This area gives the impression of empty space and I want to try and capture some of that in my paintings. The drawing is the study for the painting I posted yesterday of the view above Thoré and the painting is of the plateau near there. It was actually my Van Gogh moment. The wind was howling, trucks came roaring past me, the rain kept threatening, i had to hold the easel down when the wind picked up. Generally it was really cool. The painting is more finished than what is showing in this picture. When the weather is a bit better, I'll photograph it again. I've also painted a picture of what it looks like across the valley too. I really loved painting these wide open spaces. I'm having a ball figuring out how to use different pigments to get what I'm looking for and trying different ways of applying the paint as well. I'm using my hands a lot more than I had in the past and this gives a nice effect for the distant views.

On another note, I have recently finished "Art and Fear" which was given to me by Carolyn Stein and Rema Badwan. The book is fantastic in how it addresses what it means to be an artist, where our fears are, how to consider these fears and how one can proceed as an artist. I plan to reread the book very soon. It is a bit like Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" in that it tells you the "duh" stuff about being an artist. It sums up the ideas so well that you have a handle and can use it in your day to day.