East Grand Wash Capital Reef

This is a painting inspired from our month long trip to Southern Utah last year in which we hiked all five national parks. It is a very large studio painting 56"x72" from a small color study and a digital photo. I like to paint alla prima and I also like to work all over the canvas at the same time so that I can see color and value relationships and adjust as I go. So, instead of working in sections I added small amounts of slow drying oils such as poppy seed oil and stand oil to my medium. I got lots of sleep beforehand and worked in 12 hour shifts for a week long marathon. I also kept the studio quite cold and placed my pallet in the freezer at night as well as squeezing fresh paint often. I used pallet knife and brush about 50-50. I painted the sky in broken color, lemon yellow and cobalt blue with a #5 brush. It glows although it may be hard to see from the photo. For large pieces I tend to let the viewer choose the focal point but I place the choices away from the edge or center and direct the eye to all of these. I also used a harmonic symmetry grid. I also darkened some of the distant shadows to create more contrast and a stronger focal point there to balance the right side of the painting a little. Artistic liberty and composition over atmospheric perspective. However I did keep the midtones and highlights cool enough that it drops back in space. My goal was to create a window into the landscape that makes you want to grab a backpack and from what I've been told, it does that!