I think I'm catching on...you live out west some where, right? 8p Seriously, this is what I'm expecting from you- great piece after great piece. I can tell just by looking at the thumb it is one of yours. I've got to learn to do skys like you. and did you really sit for 4 hours doing one piece?

wow, the detail in the stones and sky...omg dba. i agree thug, awesome piece after awesome piece...you are just rockin socks all over the place ;p

<melts> Excuse me, I'm moving into your pictures. At least when I'm having dental work... ...I have favourite mental places I go when they're working on my teeth (I don't tolerate local anaesthetics, so I *have* to use those sorts of techniques...), and your pictures have now become the first paintings (by *any* artist) to make the list. You may take that as the high compliment that it is, and well-earned, at that, Cindy. <smiles with sincere admiration>

I've never looked out from the Mesa Verde ruins at sunset (those ladders are scary enough in daytime, and that's BEFORE I became acrophobic), but this looks just like the kind of thing I'd expect to see, so you've got the feel you describe, dead on, with this picture. *impressed smile*

I hope there are more pieces of this type coming... ...and at this rate, I may have to ask you if I can save some to my hard drive, as I'm not sure I can stand to part with them! *wistful grin*

On the useful suggestion side of things, I thought you might like to think about using a glow similar to the one you used on the horse and cowboy, to edge the ruins (should you work on this further locally, or do more pieces like this, since I see that this one is marked as "finished"), and give an indication of the light pouring up and over their edge, from the sunset, because I think it would have that same almost magical effect that it did in the cowboy picture.

And, as an extremely minor detail, there's a stone that appears to be sticking out toward us, about 3 rows below the bottom of the window on the viewer's left, beneath the middle of the window, which gives me the feeling that it's about to pop right out of the wall toward me, and cause the window to cave in. It could be intentional, it might not, and it's perfectly believable either way, but it gives me a loss of the feeling of tranquility that this piece otherwise conveys, and instead creates a sense of dramatic tension, as though something in me is waiting for the remainder of the wall and window arch to collapse. I thought you might want to play with that, in future works, since your paintings tend to have a very emotional impact on the viewer (to judge from my own response and that of others), making that emotional effect into one more tool in your palette, so to speak.

P.S. to thug: Cindy is not alone in putting in 3-5 hours at a stretch on a single piece of artwork; I do it too, (and though I don't compare my work to hers, so do many of the *other* artists whose work I like) and that's not allowing for interruptions. How did you think that her pieces got so good, anyway? *grin* Good artists aren't *necessarily* speed demons (though they can be); what makes a good artist, IMHO, is that they're just good at being expressive, whatever their medium of choice, regardless of how long it takes them -- which is reassuring to those of us who take longer on our own pieces, even when we aren't at Cindy's skill level. :)

I hope this comment has been useful, and not *too* long, this time... *worried look* I tried to cut out anything not directly related to *this* picture. I don't see anything left I can leave out.

About 5 hrs in one sitting is an avg. for me here... some I worked on for 8 or more at once, because they usually take up so much space that I can't get back in to edit w/out asking for more space.

Gee, thanks alwayslearning... maybe you should have a job as a writer? lol And yeah, the rocks that appear to be about to come out are intentional... these things are barely standing as it is and crumbling as we speak. I'm so glad that someone recieves the feeling I try to impart when I paint (or draw). That's what makes it satisfying. This place has inspired me to bust my real paint out again.

you always do the coolest skies. :)