Painting 1.11, Fin arch in the maze. First, a quick lesson in how arches like this are formed. Once an area of stone has been reduced to tall fin-like pillars of sandstone there are a couple of ways that arches may be formed from these fins. One way is the seepage of water from precipitation into small cracks in the rock. When temperatures are cold enough, this water will freeze, expanding and putting pressure on the surrounding rock until pieces break off. If a fin is strong or weak in all the right places we might be able to temporarily see an arch form shortly (geologically) before the fin collapses entirely. Because arches form as a result of large chunks of rock breaking off rather that being worn down by wind, the features of an arch are usually jagged. In the case of this arch, most of the features have been smoothed by the passage of time. This makes it hard to pick an absolute point where shadows fade into light. As a result, looking at this now, I feel like some of the locations of dark shadows seem a bit arbitrary and do not lend the painting any depth. I plan to revisit this subject again to see if I can approach it in a different way.
