Winter's Gift

A fresh start to a beautiful New Year

Continued from December 14th, Time To Paint Winter:
Distant trees were added,  they help define the layers of ridges

The foreground is a wet in wet wash of violets and yellows using very little pigment

A small tree done in greens and blues, then shadows.
 I used a damp, stiff bristled brush to slightly fade out
the mountains.  Resolve to do more painting!

"With winter comes a time to reflect on days gone by
To draw our friends and family close,
To touch a stranger's life.

From the chaos of preparation
Evolves the joy of sharing
And winter's gift of quiet."


Happy New Year!

Seasons Greetings

Portland Mine Road in Winter

Ironton's Winter Glow

Winter on Black Bear

Shivering Sisters

Winter's Light on Mount Abrams

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous,

leading to the most amazing view.

May your mountains rise into and above the clouds."

Edward Abbey

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Winter's Wonderland

Let's paint winter

Here is my sketch using the above photo.  I have used Aureolin
working wet in wet for the glow in the right corner of the sky area.
For the remainder of the sky, still working wet in wet, I dropped in some cobalt blue and a little
permanent rose

After the sky was dry,  I wet the main mountain slightly, then used ultramarine blue
and cobalt, leaving white areas.  As we move away, the mountains must be less
in focus.  For the mountain on the far left, I used a light wash of june bug (blue green),
The next 2 mountains in the distance are of a light wash of rose and cobalt.  

The small. very distant mountain is a light wash of cobalt.
Moving forward,  The mountain on the right is catching the winter light.
The slope on the left is a wash of june bug.  Different effects are possible with water and pigment
as demonstrated by the area behind and to the right of the trees.  To be continued... 

Finishing the Angels Landing Painting

Angels Landing, Zion NP

This is where I left off last time

Details have been added to the rock formation 

First wash on the sky using ultramarine and cobalt blues 

After several wet on dry washes on the sky, I used a paper towel to wipe some pigment away
using an upward motion to give the effect of pale, moving clouds

Thanksgiving in Zion

Zion's West Temple

Desert Varnish in Zion

The Colors of Zion

Zion Narrows

Crescent Moon Over Zion

Angels' Landing

Angels' Landing in Zion National Park

Capturing the glow of the colorful monoliths found in Zion National Park is a difficult challenge.

The light in the canyon changes moment to moment, so that sometimes even a camera

can not record the mood and color as we see and experience it.

This is not a very good photo, but I have made a rough sketch and done a wet in wet
wash of pale yellow and cadmium orange over most of the paper.

Excuse the shadows, here I have added another wash with more cad orange on
the rocks and more yellows and some oranges in the mid ground, where the trees are.

Oops, several steps have gone by because I forget to record them.
More details everywhere,  keeping the mountains in the background faded since they are in the distance,
and gradually adding more detail as we move forward, with darker areas around the edges
of the trees to make them more defined and to indicated that they are in front of the mountains.

Here I have added some detail to the focal point which is Angels' Landing, and the trees in the mid ground.

Next the foreground grasses and bushes were added.
There is still work to be done on the focal point, Angels' Landing, as well as deciding what I want to do with the sky. 

Solo Hike

A little piece of Paradise that is not easy to find

Thanks to Jim and Gayle, we found Red Cliffs recreation area.  We have been coming to SW Utah for
close to 30 years and we never knew about this place.  There are very few signs so you must know where you
are going before hand.  And we hardly ever know where we are going. :-)

Once you find the correct interstate exit and the access road,  there are two small tunnels to negotiate

Goldie had to "suck it in"

A picturesque campground with just 12 sites
sits at the base of the cliffs

Mark wanted to work on his blog post, so I did a solo hike up Quail Creek on the Red Reef Trail

It was not always a trail

An oasis in the desert

This part looked interesting

Coming up was easy 

I soon ran into a tangle of boulders and vegetation blocking my way

Going back down was spooky.
A pleasant afternoon of exploration 

Ode to the Cottonwood

Fremont Cottonwood in Horseshoe Canyon

I love Cottonwood trees, they are like old friends, sheltering, steadfast, adaptable.  They may start out smooth and pale, but with age comes deepening furrows and darker complexions.

curvy

Groovy

Adaptable

This cottonwood had a large limb that stretched out from the trunk.  The limb reached the rock and started sending out tentacle like smaller limbs to find the way around the rock .  See another view below...

tenacious