This is a work in progress. I’m almost finished, but for now I wanted to post what I have so far. I call this piece “Meditation Mountain”, aptly named for the visualization I have while meditating. (I wrote about this on my writing blog.) I painted this very similar to the shape of the landscape I saw during these meditations except that I added more vivid colors.

Today I opened up a book by Ted Andrews called “Nature Speak” to page 194. Its subtitle was “Beaches and Dunes.” On the page is a photo of the same mountain/beach that I have seen in my meditation. Is this an incredible coincidence or an insignificant miracle? I’m going to say the latter, because I believe that coincidences happen for a reason.

"Meditation Mountain" - work in progress by Shannon Hart Hudnell

"Meditation Mountain" - work in progress by Shannon Hart Hudnell

"Meditation Mountain" - work in progress by Shannon Hart Hudnell

At this point I realized that I wanted to add a moon, so the red had to go. I also wanted some of the red to show through the blue.

"Meditation Mountain" - work in progress by Shannon Hart Hudnell

I wasn’t happy with the way the mountains look. Believe it or not, mountains are difficult to paint because of their terrain. So I did what I do best and added more color.

"Meditation Mountain" - work in progress by Shannon Hart Hudnell

The moon was a huge task alone. Drawing a circle is easy with the right tools, but painting a circle can be very tricky. One slip-up and you have to start over. Since the moon is not bright white, adding the right amount of grey was a challenge. In fact, I am still working on the moon, which is why I haven’t finished this piece yet.

"Meditation Mountain" - work in progress by Shannon Hart Hudnell

In my mind, the moon didn’t look the way it did on canvas. I decided that in order to balance this piece out, it needed a little bit of cloud coverage. Colorful ones, of course!

"Meditation Mountain" work in progress by Shannon Hart Hudnell

This is Salem. He likes to be an assistant to everything I do, even though he’s not exactly helpful leaving blue paint paw prints on my chair.

"Meditation Mountain" work in progress by Shannon Hart Hudnell