Sabino Canyon, Bear Canyon Trail.

I haven't posted as frequently as I had intended to lately, that doesn't mean I haven't been painting. I plan to post more regularly in the future. This is a new painting completed a few weeks ago, depicting the Bear Canyon Trail that leads to Seven Falls in Sabino Canyon, Tucson, Arizona.

 

When hiking I typically walk about 7 steps, stop, take a photo, hike another 7 or 8 steps and take another photo and so on, until the memory card in my camera is full. Consequently I spend tons of time studying reference and concept images for a painting. Many of the concepts show promise but are never realized as a finished oil painting. Case in point, this photo (and many similar ones 7 steps apart) was intriguing because of the low warm morning light, and long cool cast shadows. I also wanted to include the natural look of the desert plants in the various stages of growth and decay. Much of the decay has great character and interest (to be explored more in future paintings). As I was working through ideas my thinking was side tracked by the memory of hiking up and down the rocks, and this image didn't convey the elevation change.

Here is a digital color study based on the above photo reference, along with other photos of the rocky cliffs and bluffs. The concept became too busy. I was trying to paint too many concepts at once.  Morning light, decayed and non decayed vegetation, the magnificent peaks and jagged rocks...

Magnificent peaks and jagged rocks. Are they not magnificent?! I should do a painting with them as the focus.

Another worthy subject to add to the list of concepts, crazy variations in the shape of the saguaro.

I also wanted to emphasize the canyon. We hiked up between two giant ridges of rock, it was an amazing day.

More crazy saguaro cactus. If I paint the actual specific shape will it look too fancy-full, and not believable?

So I decided to try to create a paining with crazy cactus, and warm low morning light, magnificent rocky peaks, that tells the story of hiking up the canyon. This is an early digital concept. I felt the foreground was too busy.

Better, but the color is too...dramatic?

Closer?

 

Better.

 

In the end did I choose to combine too much? Was I able to bring the concepts together, and create a harmonizing painting?  Most of my paintings are about light, shadow and atmospheric depth. These subconsciously create a foundation that the other concepts can play upon.

 

Here's the finish. 18" x 24" Bear Canyon Trail.

 

Sedona Teapot Rock

Teapot rock in Sedona. Oil painting 18 x 30.

Photo reference from Sedona and the Grand Canyon South Rim.

This painting is about atmospheric perspective and depth. I wanted to balance rich saturated color with the visual space that a person experiences looking across the vistas in Sedona, Arizona. I don't always start concepts digitally, but in this case it was an advantage to play with numerous variations. Often times is difficult to nail down the right combination that captures the mood.  After all the digital experimenting I still need to paint an oil study.  Sometimes I find the study isn't inspiring enough to go on to a bigger final.  Other times the study spawns a new idea that I move onto, while still intending to comeback and at some point and paint a larger final.

This is the oil study.

The first stage working on the final, drawing and under painting in acrylic paint.

About 20 stages later, the painting is close to being final. At this stage I see design elements that can be improved.  The foreground tree shape lacks the abstract design quality originally intended.  The foreground in general appears too clean.  Although I have plenty of photo reference of places where there are large areas of bare exposed rock, it appears unnatural here. As if someone picked up all the fallen sticks and debris.

The final painting.

Sedona Cathedral Rock

Color study of Cathedral Rock.

Working on multiple paintings with similar subject, allows me to investigate and refine the color, design, drawing, and other elements that go into creating a painting. You'll see in the photo reference for this piece that I don't have any images with the color and mood taken on site, that I was trying to capture. Most of our hiking was late morning till late afternoon. Even if I managed to be at the right place at dawn or dusk there is no guarantee that I would see dramatic light. Besides that, photos can't reproduce the vast amount of visual information that we can see. But digital cameras allow the artist to see a small image of a photo instantly, so I'm able to analyze the photo and the reality at the same time. I then make notes of what I observe and what the camera reproduces.  What I note is not reality, but my interpretation of reality.  I'm not trying to copy the scene, I'm certainly not capable of that.  The painting is a personal representation.

 OK, so where does the mood and color idea originate?  Below are photos of dramatic light.  When I shot these I was able to study and note what I observed vs what the camera reproduced.  The exposure needed to capture the rich color in a lit sky will render the ground elements mostly black. But that's not what we see.

All of these photos were taken either on the front porch, or the back deck, of our home in Wisconsin.

Here are 2 of the digital color sketches I created as I was investigating the concept.

The final painting of Cathedral Rock in Sedona Arizona.  I now have completed 6 paintings, so far, with the similar concepts of dramatic light, and atmosphere, based on the incredible vistas of Sedona.