Road Cut, Costa Rica

I'm lucky enough to have friends in Costa Rica that I can go pester from time to time. To be honest, I find the landscape there completely overwhelming. Everything is very different from the New England landscape that seems to have gotten into my fingers. The air is a different color, the vegetation has a different texture and color, the sky is different, the land undulates weirdly....

I've tried some ambitious paintings already, with mixed results--other people like them as I did too, at first, but now they make me cringe. This is the first that's got me thinking i can maybe do this. Mostly, I think I understand the vegetable textures now. The only way I was able to do it was by limiting my approach to a small subject: in this case a roadside somewhere. I don't know where, because I just shot photos out the car window whenever we drove anywhere.

I like the idea of approaching landscape painting like that. As artists, we're supposed to bring something of ourselves to the subject, but I tend to think that if the subject is too grand, it's more than a little overwhelming. Does my opinion of Yosemite Valley really matter? I don't know that my opinion of this roadside matters much, either, but I thought it had a certain rugged charm.