I had a cloudy start to the day. Sometimes with these clouds, the sun will play hide-and-seek with the hills and play havoc with your painting. Fortunately, the lighting stayed consistent. The middle ground stayed sunlit while the nearby red cliff and the distant blue mesa stayed in near-shadow. I painted this first piece from 300 paces up the trail to Doe Mesa.
"Road to Mingus"12x16, oil
Later in the day, I caught up with Bill Cramer of Prescott. We drove out on the Vultree Arch road. This is a rough Forest Service road, and Bill kindly offered to drive in with his Honda CRV. We hit bottom a couple of times and ran into brush more than once, giving the CRV what Bill calls "Arizona pinstripes." (See Bill's site at www.billcramerpaintings.com.) Bill has rigged up the CRV with a platform on top that he can paint from. This allows him to get a view over the tree tops. How does he get up there? Bill's a rock climber, and it poses no problem for him. Here's Bill painting his scene.
I painted a slightly different view, since I had to keep both my feet on the ground. The light got better and better as the afternoon wore on. On the way home, near sunset, we stopped several times to gawk at the amazing light on the rocks.
"Secret Canyon"12x16, oil
Just as a reminder, tomorrow is my oil demonstration at the Sedona Arts Center from 11-1. See you there!
