A Feast of Recent Pastels

My bag is packed, ready to go - but not on a jet plane, alas! Trina and I have loaded the car for an early departure tomorrow morning for Points East. But before we go, I thought I'd leave you with this feast of recent pastels. Bon apetit!

"Morning Cliffs" - SOLD

"Cathedral Light"

"Chimney II"

"Park Path" - SOLD

"By the Banks"

"Cliff View" - SOLD

"Oak Creek Secret" - SOLD

"Red Rock Panorama" - SOLD

Alkyds Again

"Kolob Canyon Snow" 12x24, oil

We are due to leave Sedona for Campobello Island this weekend, but I wanted to get one last painting in before cleaning up the studio and packing. I felt like doing a large studio piece that I could put in our new workshop space. Because the space will be open to the public this winter (read on!), the painting needed to be dry enough by the weekend to avoid being damaged - and that meant using alkyds. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am now using Gamblin's FastMatte colors.

The scene, by the way, is from the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park. I really liked that little triangle of snow between the cliffs, and I took many photos of it while we were there.

A moment ago, I promised to talk about the new workshop space. Pumphouse Studio Gallery (www.PumphouseStudioGallery.com) will be my winter studio and workshop space. What about summers? you ask. It'll be the studio of Gerry Quotskuyva, a noted Hopi sculptor. I'm very happy to have Gerry holding down the fort while we are gone! He's in major art collections across the country. The painting above will be at Pumphouse this summer, and Gerry will direct interested parties to Windrush Gallery down the street. Windrush represents me in the Southwest, so if you're interested in "Kolob Canyon Snow," please contact John there at 800-323-0115.

My next post will be from on the road. First stop, Santa Fe!

Clouds in Utah

"Utah Clouds" 9x12, oil

We're back from Utah now and home in Sedona for a bit. Toward the end of last week, we began to have a few clouds. We even had a downright cloudy day! Clouds are always fun to paint, so I did the following demonstration showing how to keep things simple but interesting.

On the day we had overcast skies, I decided to do something fun. Students are always trying to mix the exact color they need for a shape, and this desire always seems to cause a certain amount of anxiety. So, I showed them how to be fearless! I blocked in the following piece with pure primaries and secondaries. For the sky, I used out-of-the-tube Ultramarine Blue; for the mountain, out-of-the-tube Cadmium Red Light; and for the foreground, I used a raw green mixture of Cadmium Yellow Light and Ultramarine Blue. It looked like something a five-year-old might do with poster paints. But then I went in and adjusted the colors and values, dragging thicker paint over the underpainting. They were surprised how easy it was to adjust these colors. I think I even inspired a student or two. (I wish I'd taken a photo of the underpainting - if anyone out there did, send me a copy!)

"Kayenta Clouds" 9x12, oil

Snow Canyon: Shadow Temperature

"Snow Canyon Cliffs I" 9x12, oil - SOLD

We are back at Kayenta, near Ivins, Utah, teaching a workshop this week. Although we've had some weather the last two days that forced us in and out of the studio, today was ideal. Abundant sunshine ruled with pleasant temperatures and just the smallest of breezes.

We went out to Snow Canyon to focus on shadow temperature. Between the red rock walls and the strong, mid-day sun, we had some good warm shadows. Why? The light at mid-day tends to look cooler than it does during the earlier and later parts of the day. So, a cool light will invoke warm shadows - especially with red rock. On the demonstration above, you can see how the sunlit portions are a cool pink, while the shadows are a warm brown verging on orange.

The second piece (below), the light was shifting during the late afternoon and growing warmer. As the light warmed up, a cooler, red-violet worked its way into the shadows. Here you can see the warm, almost orange sunlit rock with the more violet shadows.

"Snow Canyon Cliffs II" 5x7, oil

Visiting Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

"Escalante Sun" 8x10, oil

Trina and I drove out this week to explore the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Designated such by President Clinton in 1996, it covers nearly 3000 square miles and has terrain that is about as varied as you can imagine: high plateaus thick with spruce and blanketed with snow; maze-like box canyons with walls of red rock; low desert with tumbledown hills; meandering creeks and stupendous waterfalls. This translates into several lifetimes of painting.

Of course, we only saw a fraction of the park. To really get a sense of it, you're best off with a horse or, on its few roads, with four-wheel-drive and high clearance. We didn't have a horse, and although our Subaru Outback could have met the challenge of most of the dirt roads, the car does have to get us back to Campobello Island! So, we stayed on the paved roads. It was a beautiful experience. During our one full day (we stayed two nights at a B&B in the village of Escalante), we hiked up Lower Calf Creek and then drove down into Long Canyon.

Lower Calf Creek, a 5.4-mile round trip hike, is probably one of the prettiest hikes I've ever done anywhere. At the end, we were rewarded by a 150-foot waterfall that dives off a cliff into a crystal-clear pool. Because it was a bit of a hike to tote my painting gear, I took just the camera. (I'll post a photo of the falls here.) In Long Canyon, on the Burr Trail road, plenty of signs warn you about falling rock, and sure enough, we had to keep our eyes open to steer around all the debris. We drove all the way down to the Wolverine Pass turnoff (about 19 miles in), and then came back so I could paint near the Gulch Trail trailhead.

By the way, each fall Escalante has an arts festival, which features a plein air component. Here is a link to the website: http://www.everettruessdays.org/