Lofty perspectives

This is the view uphill from our retreat in the central mountains of Costa Rica. Every night we got to watch the sunset on this neverending series of edges, moving further and further into lighter values as they recede. We all enjoyed the one prominent tree, silhouetted against further mountains. You can't see it, but from where I am, there is a lovely garden right below me. There are many Royal Palm trees here. The Royal, is tall, and fans out each palm like fingers of a hand.
In my painting of same, I focused on undulating value & colours of each layer of mountain, and how it was affected by light. Like everywhere else I go, I have many more compositions I would have loved to try.

My view here is just a little back from the photo, allowing you to see some of those Royal Palms. I had fun playing with value, and colour in the background, playing between some deep cherry colours, and other cool pinks, and a series of Turquoise to blues, and lighter tints of those two colours. That's the thing about pastel. In pastel, we mix right on the page. By layering many colours, you build a beautiful luminosity you can't replicate in any other medium. Because the refraction of light between layers makes for a magic effect, only available to you in pastel. Love that!