I am an accounting professional with a pastel painting hobby, avid hiker, frequent backpacker, and taking ongoing pastel workshops. I paint with soft pastels.
I am beginning to think painting has become as much a part of my backpacking as nature itself. I take pictures on my treks, and then when I return, and after a while, I paint the ones I think capture the feeling I had when I took them.
To me, painting must convey an emotion, an experience...it needs to make the viewer feel as the artist. If I don't look at my painting and think, "Yes, this is what I felt like when I took this picture," then I have failed, although the viewer may love it.
Someday, I would like to paint and have the viewer say, "Yes...I feel as the artist must have when she took this picture."