Surprise!! More Grand Canyon images.

I had a little spare time to go through some photos I took last May from Shoshone Point.  I am looking forward to doing this more often, looking through my photos, editing them and thinking about sketching them for possible oil paintings.  I have been very busy lately writing my thesis, and I have just sent in my first draft to a couple readers for imput.  Cross you fingers nothing is drastically wrong with my writing.  I've spent so much time on it already and know I must still revise it to perfection by the end of November.  I anxiously await spending more time on my artwork and less time on schoolwork starting January 2011! 

Sketches

Cedar Ridge

From Hermit Trail

From Hermit Trail II

Kaibab Juniper

from Kaibab Trail

Here are the charcoal sketches I mentioned in my last post.  I worked from photographs, using about a one-inch piece of compressed charcoal.  Each drawing measures about 12x10 inches.  The idea behind doing this step is to extract the essence of the place from the photo.  A photo often shows too much to be used in a painting.  I've found a lot of my creativity is lost by working directly from a photo, losing myself in trying to copy exact colors and details.  A painting should be filtered through me, to become a landscape painting that communicates my perception of the place.   I then paint directly from these sketches, making up the color as I remembered seeing it in person.  The sketches serve as a value study and a place to experiment with different designs, like moving a tree slightly or darkening a certain area.  To me this is an exciting part of creativity where I can use my imagination!

Oil Studies

9x12, Hermit Trail Study

16x20, Kaibab Juniper Study

9x12, Kaibab Study

8x10 Cedar Ridge Study (Kaibab Trail)

These are oil studies that became part of my big painting posted earlier on this blog.  They are done from charcoal sketches from photographs I took on two different hikes last winter and spring.  I hiked the Kaibab and Bright Angel Trail the first weekend of March and the Hermit Trail during the first weekend of April.  The charcoal sketches I did served to extract from the photos the essence of the scene, not worrying about every detail.  I will post some of the sketches as part  of my next posting.  I took these sketches into my studio and used them as a direct source for these oil studies.  I made up the colors in these studies, not looking at the photos again.  I wanted to create a painting using more of my imagination, drawing from my experiences when I was hiking and thinking on how I remembered how it looked, not how the photograph looks.  I used a palette knife to paint these.  I painted five different scenes in 8x10, re-worked them in 9x12, and chose two to paint at 16x20 before I began the big painting. 

Getting Ready

I am getting ready for my thesis art exhibit coming up in mid November at Prescott College.  Here is a finished framed painting for the show.  The frame is made from alder and milled by my father-in-law.   I stained and finished the frame in a walnut color.  I love the grain of this wood and the outdoors character in brings to my painting.  The next two months of my final semester should fly by with so much going on and so much still to do.  Sorry if I appear to be in a different world, because I am...

One more time!

Here is a slightly better photograph of my big painting.  It was dry enough to bring it outside to take a better picture of it.  I think the title will be "The Grand Canyon Sublime." 

Big Painting!!

  

Here it is at long last!  So many hours I put into getting to this big painting and actually painting it.  Don't ask how many hours it took, because I seriously do not know.  I don't think hours make a painting.  Sometimes, everything falls into place and it seems I spend little time on a painting, then I struggle on the next one and it seems like it takes much too long.  My sarcastic answer to how long it took to paint this is 30 years.  My whole life has led to this current painting.  Each and every painting before this was also from many years/hours of practicing art; all time I spent devoted to making photographs, drawings, and paintings.  The most enjoyable part of making art is the process.  When I complete a painting, it is bittersweet.  My goal was to complete the painting but now it's done, what's next?  Luckily, I have so many ideas and if I don't have ideas, it only takes a hike to get inspired.  This painting is part of my thesis project for my master's degree.  I will be displaying this four by five foot painting along with the photos, drawings, and small studies I did to plan for this big painting.  I probably won't attempt a painting this big in a while, my studio is too small for this size.  The painting was a challenge but rewarding, I looked forward to the next block of time I could spend working on it.  Now, I will let it dry, spray it with damar retouch varnish and decide if it needs touch up.  Oh yeah, and autograph it.  This painting will be on display November 19th at Prescott College.  I will probably show it after that at my work, The Frame & I, when the dust settles from completing revising the rest of my thesis work, so much time and energy now to devote to writing and editing and writing some more.  Wish me luck!  Any ideas for a title?  I was thinking simply "The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River."  I could not get a good photo of the painting in my studio because of the size, I took two photos and stitched them together.  Once it is dry, I will take it outside where there is more space. 

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Details of Big Painting



Excited about my new Canon DSLR 50D

Here are a few fun photographs I took with my new Canon 50D.  I am excited about all the little ways I can creatively capture a picture, especially these sunset images.  My wife and I watched the sunset in Prescott Valley, looking over the Iron King Trail towards the Granite Dells.  Glassford Hill was on the left and Granite Mountain partly visible. 

Looking North, see Williams Mtn near the right bottom