Karnaprayag, Pindar River, India

My mum never ceases to surprise me. Some mums like knitting or doing crosswords. Well, my mum just came back from a motorbike trip in India. That's right. On a motorbike. On the rocky slopes of the Himalaya. I asked her what was the hardest part of this crazy adventure (was it the bad state of the roads? the cold and heat? the fatigue?). She replied "being stuck in the coach for the transfer"! She is the best!

She came back with wonderful photographs (she is a journalist and was doing a coverage of the trip). I fell in love with one the views over the valley and decided to take it to the studio to give it a try. Here is the result: 

Karnaprayag, Pindar River, India  12"x10" oil on board

This painting was actually painted on an old plein air painting I wasn't happy with. You can see below my setting at the beginning with the old painting. I applied a thin grey layer to try to make the old colours disappear a bit. Then I drew the main lines of the drawing on the top of it. It is a bit confusing at the start but quickly the new work is taking over.

Below you can see the new painting building up. I ended up keeping three areas of the original painting which were conveniently placed: a bit of the sky, the sand, and the signature!

Details of the final result:

Detail

Detail