Aspens Autumn I by Mary Ellis LaGarde, oil on canvas, 36 x 60″

Mary is working on a series of aspen tree paintings she calls “The Four Seasons”.  She hikes Echo Mountain near Evergreen, Colorado every three months to collect possible subjects for her Aspen paintings.
 She started painting the first of a planned series of four large canvases using the same Venetian-style painting techniques she uses for her Renaissance portraits.  It is a slow and intense process involving at least 12 layers of paint.  She often spends an entire day working to get a shadow just right. Here is the first painting which is oil on canvas and 36 inches by 60 inches. The painting is hanging in the living room of her lake house/studio in Colorado.