For the Grand Canyon Celebration of the Arts, in addition to participating in the "Plein Air on the Rim" event, I am required to put a studio painting of the canyon in the exhibit. This week I had some time to begin work on that. Although the painting isn't finished yet, I thought I'd show you the in-progress painting and also a photo of the studio. It's a 16x20 oil, worked up from photos and a couple of plein air reference sketches. I'm really enjoying working on it in the afternoons while listening to my various Pandora Internet radio stations. (Pandora caters to my electic tastes; I've set up stations based on music by Laura Nyro, the Grateful Dead, Robin Trower, the B-52s, Black-eyed Peas and Sigur Rós, among others.)
The first photo was shot with my laptop camera, which required a bit of juggling, since I had to shoot over the shoulder to the painting behind me with the laptop in my palm. This also explains the mediocre quality of the shot. I shot the second and third with my Canon SD 780. You'll note the initial block-in has much more vivid color than the second stage. I am going for more accurate but still exciting color in the finished piece. We'll see how it develops.
It was cold - only 10 degrees at night and barely above freezing in the day! I was toasty in my studio, though.
