The Vermilion Cliffs - FC-CP series

Finally completed is #30 in the road trip series.  This is all about the essence of the cliffs themselves:  angles, curves, edges, details and of course, the colors.  At this point, Hwy 89 runs right next to them and their size and grandeur can be fully appreciated.   The Chinle formation is particularly prominent here; it forms slopes and contours in all directions, and surprise splashes of colors - blues and deep roses - peek out here and there amongst the pale green-grays and pinks.

The Vermilion Cliffs

9x12 

oil on canvas panel

[some glare from wet paint as I took the photo indoors, and it's a bit on the warm side despite selecting the proper WB]

For this, I made some changes in the palette after pulling out some of my paints and doing a color mixing sheet.   I don't know if everyone does this, but I certainly find it useful.  

Getting tired of the same ultramarine-cerulean blue skies, I used thio green to give a rich turquoise sky.  Thio green is a transparent pigment, but it tints wonderfully, probably due to its intensity.  I also eliminated the alizarin crimson and replaced it with one of my favorite reds - cadmium red deep, which is a cool, opaque red.  I used to mix it with burnt sienna and white to make the perfect equine "nose pink", but with less white and some cad. orange, it makes great Navajo sandstone.  

I also added purple lake, which mixes to form a less intense purple-gray for distal cliffs and a nice chromatic black when mixed with burnt sienna and ultramarine blue.  

I also threw in the other two greens in my collection:  sap and chromatic green.  There were also touches of some other colors I was experimenting with:  brown madder and cadmium red medium.  

Here is what the underpainting/first layer of oils looked like for #30:

#30 underpainting

And, finally - this evening's sunset.  This is the product of a cold front that was predicted to drop some snow.  There were flurries earlier in the afternoon, but no accumulation in town.  And, it's cold!  This is what a snow cumulonimbus looks like:  

Prelude

Evolution

By the time the sun was completely set, this entire cloud had vanished, literally, into thin air.  Amazing.

Transition - #28 in FC-CP series

A good thing I didn't post both of the completed paintings yesterday, since today I have been taking care of  "administrative" issues that I have been putting off for a while, which managed to keep me from getting any painting done today as I'd planned.

Next in the Roadtrip Series is this piece, shown earlier in-progress.  Thus far, it has been the most difficult of all the oil paintings.  The combination of trying to balance the level of detail included, while going for accuracy with the shapes, values and temperature of the various elements...whew.   It would be easy to spend many more sessions adjusting and tweaking the painting, but that's not my goal with this series.  Perhaps later, on a bigger canvas, after many more paintings under my belt.

Titled "Transition" because it represents an overlap of the two geological features:  the Echo Cliffs in the distance continuing on their south-north orientation, and the base of what soon becomes the Vermillion Cliffs as we begin heading west along Hwy 89.  The proximal cliff-slope formation is warmer in color and deeper in shadow, owing both to atmospheric perspective and the colors of the rock layers themselves.  Small debris slides from lighter eroded sandstone cliffs form in the shallow troughs of the base red sandstone and mudstone slope.   

Transition

9x12 - oil on canvas

As with #27, the clouds were what was happening outside my window yesterday at the time I was ready to work on the sky.  Cirrus re-shaped to angled streaks, and in the same orientation as the cliffs, which I felt worked here.  

Incidentally, this post makes #200 for my blog.  Another blogging milestone, doubled since early May.  

And, a few more photos.  Last night's sunset, and a few from the Hidden Valley trail we hiked near Moab on Thursday.

Halloween sky

At the trailhead.  The trail heads towards the slope and rises about 650' in elevation along the left side

Looking back at the LaSals from Hidden Valley, above and south of Moab.

Where the valley ends.  The trail continues west towards the distal slickrock areas to meet with another double-track trail and eventually the Colorado River.  

Further down the trail, looking back at the notch pictured above.

Backlit grasses along the trail

Another view of the LaSals and Moab area from a high point along the trail on the way back.

Towards Vermillion Cliffs - #26 in Four Corners series

Productive day in the studio - two paintings finished.  I'll post #27 tomorrow, but here is #26, titled "Towards Vermillion Cliffs".

The Vermillion Cliffs are without a doubt my favorite of the geological features along the drive to the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  They mark the second step in the Grand Staircase - a geological sequencing of rock layers beginning with those within the Grand Canyon ("chocolate cliffs"), and ending with the youngest rocks that form Bryce Canyon to the north.  Composed of the same layers as the Echo Cliffs - the Glen Canyon group - these cliffs are decidedly different in appearance and character than the Echo Cliffs.  They form the southern edge of the Paria Plateau and are not inclined.  As with the Echo cliffs, these also overly Chinle formation slopes.

The late afternoon sun on these cliffs is what gives them their name - it is by far the best time to see them.  Not getting direct east/west sun, they positively glow with warm, earthy reds, cool purple-mauves and pale pink-yellows of the Navajo sandstone, and their rough, angular facade creates stunning shadows.

These are all the features that make this a painter's dream.  I have no doubt I will come back to paint these cliffs from life at some point.

Towards Vermillion Cliffs

9x12 - oil on canvas

This went a bit easier for the second layer.  I learned some things from this painting that I applied to #27, hopefully to better effect.  The sky - thick, cross-directional cirrus - is what was happening out my studio window...does it count as "plein air" if I don't go outside?  

And, here are a couple of photos from our drive to Moab on Thursday:

La Sal Mtns. with red rocks and snow

This is unmistakably Utah:  sandstone canyon country and volcanic mountains in the same view.

Cottonwood in yellow spendor

Beautiful cottonwoods were at a rest stop about 20 miles south of Moab, and I made Wayne stop so I could take photos.

Red rock and a range of colors

The beautiful sculpted rock of Navajo sandstone forms the backdrop for this group of cottonwoods that are clearly marching to the beat of their own personal drummers as far as commencing fall colors go.

Four Corners series: Echo Cliffs

Here is #24 of the Four Corners roadtrip series, finished today.    As the drive continues north, the landscape changes yet again - the Echo Cliff monocline rises , running in a north-south direction. The Chinle formation fades away, soon only visible as the pink-gray bottom layer of the monocline here.  The Echo Cliffs are one of my favorite parts of this drive.  They were named by one of the members of the Powell Expedition (the 2nd, I believe), who, while standing on the edge of Marble Canyon, noticed that his yell produced an echo.

The Glen Canyon group [Wingate, Kayenta and Navajo sandstones] make up the portion of the monocline above the painted desert rock, from bottom to top.  To the left of the highway, the earth rises to the west, obscuring for the time being the narrow section of the Grand Canyon known as Marble Canyon, or Colorado River Gorge.

Echo Cliffs

9x12 - oil on canvas

It ended up taking more time to finish than I thought it would, and was deceptively more challenging to paint than I originally thought.  The main reason for this, I think, was trying to resolve the debris slopes vs. cliffs on the upper part; they are identical in value and so-so close in hue, with very subtle shadows separating them.  Even looking at the photo, I see that the aerial perspective of the distal edge of the monocline isn't quite right.

I also finished #25 this evening, but am not altogether happy with it.  It presented even more issues, namely a very complex cliff face, so it took some thought to figure out how much detail to include to make it look convincing without being over-worked.  I may end up adding an additional layer to it.

Today's sky - a storm from the Pacific has dropped the temperature and produced lots of rain over the past few days, and has the look of a winter storm:

And, it has added some snow to the highest peaks of the La Platas, as seen yesterday morning:

Painted Desert #2

Today's painting - the completed "Painted Desert #2".   Painted with Alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and titanium white, which gives a wonderful muted palette of cool and warm grays.  Working on an underpainting that is essentially the same as the finished piece works well for me; it's how I painted for years doing mixed media equine sculpture.

I also detailed this out a bit more than the other paintings, both because the canvas is bigger, and because some detail, specifically in the small rock piles and caps, helps draw the eye around and unifies it a bit [at least this was my thought when painting it].

Painted Desert #2

9x12 - oil on canvas

Feeling ambitious, I did underpaintings for the next two in the series.  The first is loosely color-based; the second was a simple monochromatic using all the paint mixed to a earthy gray.  I can see modification (more sky) that needs to be made for the final painting, which is an easy fix.

#24 underpainting

#25 underpainting

And, finally, here are some photos taken on a walk I took down the Animas River Trail this morning, which is a fantastic multi-use trail that is probably close to 10 miles in length.  The Animas runs through town, adding to the reasons Durango is such a wonderful town to live in.

Cottonwood color close-up

Quartet of lady mallards

Not the best photo, but who can resist ducks - they always seem so happy!

Fall colors on the Animas

Late bloomer