Double Arch II

1.68 Double Arch II

Cedar Arch

1.67 Cedar Arch. Back to a more easily discernible depiction. I tried again to dull the sky to avoid that "popping" blue sky that is a dead giveaway that the subject is a landscape. Although the inclusion of trees undermines any efforts to conceal this fact.

Spiderweb Arch II

1.66 Spiderweb Arch II. I think that I've finally reached the point where the painting would not be recognized immediately as a depiction of a natural arch if the viewer was not told so. This is a good exercise because my goal is to create paintings where the viewer's interest in the composition is independent of his ability to recognize the subject. I'm not sure if this is interesting yet, but I'm at least able to decouple the composition in my head from the actual object that I'm trying to depict.

Skyline Arch

1.65 Skyline Arch. Three colors and simpler shapes. One effect that I like here is the way that the black underpainting shows through the light color used for the stone. I feel like it gives the stone a feeling of rough texture. I intentionally chose a drab color for the sky so that it wouldn't compete so much with the orange-red of the stone. I'm trying to continue simplifying the shapes depicting the arch and eliminating unnecessary details.

Landscape Arch II

1.65 Landscape Arch II. Alright, enough efforts to convey realism. I want to get back to focusing on the basic shapes of my subjects. The subject in this painting is the morning twilight sky as seen through landscape arch. When you hike just before the sun rises you can't tell how close or large the forms around you are, just their shape against the sky. It's fun to sit in a place and wait for the sun to come up to compare the actual arrangement of the features around you to the arrangement that you constructed from the limited data available in the dark.

Kachina Natural Bridge

1.64 Kachina Natural Bridge. I saved my favorite for last. Kachina Bridge is deep in a canyon, shielded by trees such that you don't see it until you come around a mound in the riverbed just in front of the bridge. The span of this bridge is very thick such that when you stand under it you feel like you are in the atrium of a large building.

This painting combines a lot of the things that I've been trying to figure out over the course of the time that I've been painting; trees, desert varnish and that glowing effect in shaded areas that comes from red light reflected by the sandstone in the sun. I'm happy with how far those things have come in the time that I've been working on painting this landscape.

Owachomo Natural Bridge

1.63 Owachomo Natural Bridge. I struggled to find a view of Owachomo Bridge that was interesting and made it look like more than just a thin stone connection between two masses of sandstone. I looked back through all the pictures I took when I was there and noticed this ledge that protruded out at the base of the bridge like some large bench. I also wanted to emphasize the greenery around the bridge. I am happy with how the bushes shown in silhouette under the bridge turned out.