Quickie from Labor Day Camping Trip

Hi Everybody,

I've been busier than a cricket in a chicken coop these last few weeks, so, taking a long Labor Day weekend camping trip with friends to Lake Powell was a welcome relief. I did manage to take 45 minutes to paint this 6X8 of Castle Rock at sunset. When you do a small study like this with an end of day light effect, you really have concentrate on simple shapes, blocking in the shadows to lock them down. Once the shadow shapes are down, don't touch them. The easiest way to fail on one of these, is to keep adjusting the quick moving shadows, trying to keep up with what you see. Put down the big puzzle piece shapes, working as fast and as accurate as you can be.

Earlier in the day we had gone out kayaking and had strong winds and white caps kick up on our way back.... we weren't sure we were going to make it back to the harbor, being the land lubbers we are. But, since I'm here writing about it, we made it. Of course, when we made it back to the marina, we couldn't help but sing the theme song to Gilligans Island..... "a three hour tour, a three hour tour".

I've been working on some larger paintings which I hope to post for you soon, and haven't been able to post some of the paintings from the recent Grand Canyon paintout, but plan on doing that one of these days. Painting the Canyon was quite the challenge for me, and I found myself failing more than I succeeded, but by the end, I was producing some work I was happy with.

So, here is a quickie to hold you over till the next post....

Castle Rock Sunset_Lake Powell, 6X8

This is a photo of Bill Cramer, one of the painters at the Outdoor Painters Society Grand Canyon paintout. Bill is a wonderful painter, even if he is a little extravagant. Here's a photo of him looking for a place to set up his easel to paint. Come to think of it, I didn't see him after he painted from this spot....hmmmmm.