Gamblin FastMatte Alkyd Colors

"Red Cliffs" 9x12, oil

Over the winter, I've had the pleasure of being a "beta tester" for Gamblin Artists Colors. I've been testing a new line of alkyd oil paints, which Gamblin will be releasing in the next few weeks under the FastMatte brand. Studio painters will like them because underpaintings and glazes dry quickly, allowing the painter to get back to work sooner. As a plein air painter, I like them because the paint "sets" quickly, letting me put down paint on top of paint without worrying about stirring up those first layers. This is especially useful when layering complementary colors or applying impressionist techniques. And of course, if you're travelling, the paintings will dry in a day.

Anytime I've referred to alkyds, I've been talking about the FastMatte paints. The palette I was given is somewhat different from my usual split-primary. It's close, but you'll note a few changes. I've enjoyed working with these colors, and found this palette worked well in the landscape. The painting above was done with them. The colors are:

Hansa Yellow Medium
Napthol Scarlet
Quinacridone Red
Transparent Earth Red
Ultramarine Blue
Phthalo Green
Titanium White
Chromatic Black

Snow in the Mountains

"Santa Clara Snow" 5x7, oil - sold!

Down here in Kayenta at 3400 feet, there's no snow to speak of. In fact, they get rain if anything. But go 36 miles out of town up to Pine Valley (6600 feet), which is where we drove yesterday to explore, and you'll find snow. I thought I was done with it, now that it is April!

Drifts of snow two feet deep hugged the banks of the Santa Clara River, which winds out of the hills and down into town. Elsewhere, the ground is bare. I worked my way to the water and out of the wind to do a quick 5x7 study. I worked about 30 minutes on it. I could have painted longer, but I'd wasted some time taking photos and I knew that Trina, who had gone off on a walk with Saba, would be back soon. Both of us had had a light mid-morning meal and were getting a little hungry. I don't like to paint when I'm hungry, but I had the opportunity, so I took it. When Trina came back, I was just getting set up. Then I hurried, because both of us knew the Branding Iron Steakhouse was waiting for us.

Because I had little time, I kept this piece very abstract. I was aiming to capture a sense of light and shadow, rich color and dull, rather than to get the shapes precise. Once back at home, I spent about 5 minutes cleaning up the edge of snow over the water and deepening the shadow right beneath it.

At the top is the painting; below is a photo I took of the scene.

Lanelle's Garden

"Lanelle's Garden" 8x10, oil, en plein air

Our guesthouse in Kayenta has a great view of mountains and desert. Kayenta, a planned "green" community," prides itself on low-profile homes that blend in with the landscape. From our guesthouse, we can see very few neighbors, and it's easy to gaze past them to the beautiful views. No three-story McMansions with ostentatious walled gardens and parapets here!

There's a pathway that goes from our place to our host's. It winds through a garden of native desert plants - something very appropriate for a "green" community. There's nothing like an early morning walk through it. Your only companions are the quail, chasing one another with thoughts of spring.

Utah: Art Sale

"Art Sale" 9x12, oil

Earlier this week while exploring, I stopped by Blue Raven Studio at Coyote Gulch Art Village in the center of Kayenta. Blue Raven is hosting my week-long plein air workshop starting April 12th. While visiting, my workshop host invited me to paint Saturday afternoon on the patio with some of the other artists connected with Blue Raven. Coyote Gulch is a complex of studio galleries, and a good bit of traffic comes in to visit the painters, potters and sculptors at work. Blue Raven makes the patio painting session a weekly event to take advantage of the traffic.

I set up with a view of the umbrellas and some of the artwork for sale. I don't often paint this kind of scene - I am here, after all, to paint the landscape! - but since I was working with alkyds, something else I don't do very often, I thought I'd just go for it. I enjoyed the alkyds because they allowed me to lay in a colorful, thin underpainting that dried very quickly. I was able to overpaint this with more "real" color without stirring up the wild color and muddying the paint. A good deal of the underpainting still shows through, making for some very exciting color.

Utah: Snow Canyon

We managed to get from Sedona to Ivins, Utah, in advance of a predicted storm. While the wind whipped across southern Utah and the top of Arizona, we toured through some beautiful country: Glen Canyon and nearby Page, Kanab and the edge of Escalante National Monument, and finally right through the center of Zion National Park. The wet weather held off, but not long after we checked into our guest cottage, the rain rushed in on a gale. So, we hunkered down for the evening and studied our maps and guidebooks. (I say "we" because Trina helps immensely with this initial research.)

This part of Utah is new to us, and since I'm teaching a plein air workshop here in a little over a week, we've got research to do! Well, we've found many choices for painting spots. But how good are they? I'll have ten students, and that requires restrooms and plenty of parking. Also, I need to get a handle on "time of day" issues - how the shadows will work, and this requires me to do some advance painting. Morning dawned clear and cold, promising a good day to check out the closest and most obvious choice: Snow Canyon State Park. It's a rich location. One could easily bite off more geology than one can paint, so I decided to do just one morsel, an outcrop of Kayenta sandstone.

By the way, I am painting this week with some new alkyds. For the workshop, I'll switch back to traditional oils.

"Snow Canyon Sketch I" 5x7, oil