The Desert Rocks

I’m out here in the Anza-Borrego desert again for their annual Plein Air show. I thought I’d post one of my paintings just completed the other day in Glorietta Canyon. This 9x12 scene, “Morning Glorie” was begun around 8 am after an easy 15 minute off-road drive. I had to lug my gear over boulders and cacti to get this vantage point, but I thought the trek was well worth it once I saw this view out over the desert floor to Salton Sea in the hazy distance.

I was drawn to the incredible diversity of rock colors that were present in this canyon. The morning shadows created these vibrant blue and orange casts that complemented nicely with the frosty greens of bushes. With the compelling vista and atmospheric rock formations stepping back, how could you not want to capture this in paint!

I knew my center of interest would be the yellows of the main bush as the sun highlighted it’s rim. This contrasted well with the darker cools in the rocks creating an instant grab for your eye. I started by laying down much of the rock tones as quickly as possible. As the sun was rising, I was losing the harmony in the shadowed mass fast, so getting those color notes down gave me the information needed later as the sun brought them into full light. It was much easier to work the finishing details with my color notes already in place. Next, I began the closer ridge, distant bluffs and desert floor, painting those to completion to finalize my overall atmosphere. Then I went back into the main rock formation, fleshing out the details and nuances from my rough color dabs made earlier. I worked to keep these reading as one unified shape to offset the highlighted bush and flowers. Plus, these rocks ended up giving me weight to create the foundation of my painting.

Another goal this year was to punch more color into my desert scenes. Over the years, as I’ve looked at the exquisite paintings by Mark Kerckhoff, I’ve noticed the beautiful pigmentation and variety of color he is able to achieve in the desert. So for the above piece I pumped up the chroma a bit, but worked hard to not have it become too garish. This helped me avoid the trap of chalkiness that can ruin the beauty and subtle richness that is all around.

Now if I can just find more shady spots to paint, everything will be cool! Enjoy.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Just wrapping up the week here at the Sedona Plein Air Invitational in Arizona. We’ve had an unusual cold snap come through with some freezing painting temperatures. But all have managed to produce nice work despite our numb little fingers and frostbitten noses. Other than this weather anomaly, it’s truly a spectacular place to paint.

For growth as an artist, I feel you need to step out of the box and try something different to spur new ideas on a fairly frequent basis. Since painting is such a solo endeavor, I find this to be vital. No one is looking over my shoulder telling me to do this or that, so these little experiments have taught me a lot. Forcing me to open my eyes and look at things in a new way.

Driving around Sedona admiring these magnificent mountains, sculpted into a myriad of colorful peaks and spires. Their breathtaking beauty gets your mind swimming with ideas for paintings. I’m usually drawn to the shadows in scenes I end up painting, but here I was amazed at the color shifts in a fully lit mesa. Some of these flat lit expanses with very little shadow were intriguing and it got me thinking about color in a single value. I’ve always admired the work of Dan Pinkham. His understanding of color is far beyond most artists and yet his work is simply put in a subtly beautiful statement.

Which brought me to the painting above: could I paint a uniformly lit scene in one value step using only color to define depth and form. “Colorforms” above, was my 6x8 plein air attempt at that goal. For better or worse, I was amazed at the difficulty and could see how someone could spend a lifetime studying this approach. But I also gleaned a lot of useful information on how certain colors worked in adjacency to one another. I began with mixing one of the orange colors in the main bluff, trying to find a color that represented the form and yet sat in its place depth-wise. Then throughout the rest of the painting, it was a matter of mixing a color that worked but did not step up or down on the value scale of my original color note. I ended up being oddly pleased with my attempt and utilized some of the green combinations as a solution in my very next painting.

While I don’t think I’ll go in this direction as a painter, the study and change of pace was refreshing. I believe these exercises can pump new life in ones work. Color can be your friend, but you certainly need to work hard on that relationship. Enjoy!

A Day in the Desert ... Borrego Springs

Well, I'm finally up with the times! I now have a new blog ... so thanks for visiting. I'll be posting periodically as I get the hang of this. Hopefully more frequently than not.

Two weeks ago, I was out in the Anza Borrego desert painting for their 3rd annual plein air invitational. It was a fun event, and good to see all the returning artists again. After a week of painting for the show, I decided to do a small experimental series titled "A Day in the Desert". Each of these three 6x8 paintings were completed in the exact same spot at three different times of day: dawn, noon and about 4:30 pm. Anza Borrego has some amazing color shifts throughout the day, and seeing the finished series is a reminder of how beautiful the desert can be. 

After each painting was completed, it was put away until the series was complete, so not to be influenced by what I had painted hours earlier. Enjoy!