Colors of the West

The material for this painting is from several trips to the area surrounding Zion National Park.  I have always been in awe of this view and have painted it a couple of times, and never been fully satisfied.

I started the painting below and realized I had made a mistake in composition and size of the mountain. So I just painted over parts and increased the height of the mountain, trying to get the proportions correct.

After playing around with the above painting I used a small 5x7 canvas and just painted in basic shapes to see if the proportions were now working correctly.

I made a few more adjustments and then created the piece below.  Sometimes it takes a while to be satisfied with your own work.  The challenge here is to make the distant mountain the focal point and keep it in the background at the same time.

"Colors of the West"

Oil on Belgian Linen

16" X 14"

$990

Oil Painting Demo at Mesa Gallery Store

During the recent Mesa Art Festival I painted this as a demo, while working in the Gallery Store at the Mesa Arts Center.  Many people stopped by to view the painting.  ( The Store has mercury lights which are hard to paint under.)

The next day I did a few small things to the painting.

"Beware"

Oil on Belgian Linen

11" X 14"

$450

I titled it "Beware" as it seems that you cannot get within five feet of a cholla cactus without get thorns.

Plein Air to Studio

Recently I spent some time out at Usery Mountain Regional Park, east of Phoenix.  I arrived before the sunlight had touched the ground at the Park.  Once the sun had touched the Cholla Cactus, I know what I was going to paint.

Here is my set-up at the Park with the cluster of Cholla.

Here is the finished plein air piece.

Using my plein air piece and photos, I created a much larger studio piece

This painting is 16" X 20" and can be purchased at On The Edge Gallery in Scottsdale AZ ($1090)