Eclipse Day Climber

Here is my new oil painting “Eclipse Day Climber.”

I absolutely love the effect of the textured paint giving the mountains a rocky feel.

I created this effect with the use of cold wax medium. When mixed with oil paints, it gives the paint a stiff, whipped texture like frosting. I painted the mountains only with palette knives.

The textured mountains are contrasted against the flat, smooth sky, which glows golden.

I imagine the person’s trek to this vantage point was filled with challenge and peril, and worth every moment.

The lone climber is treated to a spectacular view of the solar eclipse during the moment of totality. The sun’s corona is a blinding sliver of white light around the flat circle that is the moon. The mountainous landscape spreads out below in a gradation of color from nearly black in the foreground, to brown, red, orange and finally gold at the horizon.

This painting is especially beautiful and inspiring because of its scale. At 30″ x 30″, it fills the whole room with its warm glow.

Here you can see “Eclipse Day Climber” displayed alongside my earlier painting “Corona.” Both paintings have a similar color scheme, similar rocky landscapes and warm glowing skies. Both feature a lone human figure interacting with a solar eclipse.

But you can see how I’m playing around with point of view, distances and the scale of the human figure in relation to the rest of the scene.

The painting continues around the very deep edges of the canvas, including the contrasting textures of the sky and the mountains.

The wrap-around effect of the textured paint adds even more boldness to this original painting!

Cedar Lee in studio with Eclipse paintings. Left: “Eclipse Day Climber” Right: “A Dream of Joy and Sorrow”