Fremont River Morning

"Fremont River Morning", 8 x 10 In, Oil, 2021

Fremont River in Capitol Reef National Park.

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Fremont River

"Fremont River", 6 x 9 In, Oil, 2021

This is one of my favorite painting spots--the Fremont River--in a beautiful canyon that cuts through the north south ridge of Capitol Reef National Park in Utah.


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Teasdale Road

"Teasdale Road", 8 x 10 in, Oil, 2021

This was painted just west of Capitol Reef outside the Airbnb where we were staying in May.

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Fremont River Rapids

"Fremont River Rapids", 9 x 12 In, Oil, 2021

NFS

Capitol Reef Sketch

"Capitol Reef Sketch", 5 x 9 In, Oil on Museum Board, Unframed

A couple of months ago I started on a new path, and with anything new, there are rough edges. But in part, "rough edges" are part of the plan. The goal is to paint small, abstract palette knife sketches with a "devil may care" reckless finish. This is working well for me, except for that annoyingly petty voice of anxiety that comes along when I actually decide to post one of these works of artistry. I would much rather be painting them than posting them. When painting there is more or less a clear start, middle, finish and go on to the next one.

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Capitol Reef Color

"Capitol Reef Color", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This is were we would be right not if not for the current stay-at-home restrictions. We had also made a reservation in Escalante and the hotel wrote us saying that nothing was open in the town and the grocery store was only selling to local residents. I especially love to paint along the Fremont River that runs through Capitol Reef and on the back side of the reef off of Notom Road. In Escalante and Bears Ears you can drive on back roads and never see another car.

Last Light Fremont River

"Last Light Fremont River"
I am still experimenting with palette knife, partly because it is the direction my muse is taking me and partly because it would be so much easier to travel without mineral spirits. There is a different mentality to it--one that is more abstract.

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Colors of the Reef

"Colors of the Reef", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

Have I said before that I keep going back to Capitol Reef? And that the backside of the Reef is a different world? I looked at this painting when I got back from Utah and thought, "Did I paint that? Do I dare show this?" And I think now, yes, it was visceral and visual--one with the brush.

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Utah Light

"Utah Light", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
Here in the rain of the Northwest, I am thinking about Utah and the warm colors of Escalante and Capitol Reef which I'm picturing in my April of this year.

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Gray Day Capitol Reef

"Gray Day Capitol Reef", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
Why am I so taken with Capitol Reef? Bryce and Zion get all the glory, but Capitol Reef, especially the back side, is a place with mystery and color. Every place has feel. The Waterpocket Fold defines Capitol Reef National Park. A nearly 100-mile-long warp in the earth's crust, the fold is a classic monocline: a regional fold with one very steep side in an area of otherwise nearly horizontal rock layers.

Capitol Reef Dome

"Capitol Reef Dome", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board

According to the National Park website, (https://www.nps.gov/care/faqs.htm) Capitol Reef got its name this way:

"Early settlers noted that the white domes of Navajo Sandstone resemble the dome of the Capitol building in Washington, DC. Prospectors visiting the area (many with nautical backgrounds) referred to the Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile long ridge in the earth's crust, as a reef, since it was a formidable barrier to transportation."

This painting is of one of the "domes" the first day I was there on the eastern side of the park. It was, like every other day that week, raining in between breaks in the clouds, a windy and dramatic day--lost my umbrella at one point.

Capitol Reef Stormy Day

"Capitol Reef Stormy Day", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
I expected to go to Utah and find cloudless skies. Instead a storm swirled around Capitol Reef and Canyonlands National Parks the entire week! No drizzle, like the Northwest, but black clouds followed by cerulean skies. On this first painting, the wind was fierce and my umbrella snapped in half, but oh well--minutes later the sun was shining. But you can tell--it was a fast painting!

Back Side of the Reef - SOLD

"Backside of the Reef, 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was painted some years ago on a trip to Utah. Capital Reef is not a well known National Park, but it is amazing. The main sites in the Park are on the western side, but this is the eastern side--the backside.

Utah Backroad

"Utah Backroad", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
Just like the Alaska photos, sometimes I like to pull out the photos from our Utah trip a couple of years ago. I painted every day driving through south central Utah and my favorite areas were the Grand Staircase Escalante and Capitol Reef National Park, both without the tourist buses of Bryce. The Esclante is vast and we rented a jeep from a local guy that had a GPS device with locations of Indian ruins--and the GPS was also in case we got lost! Capitol Reef is an amazing 100 mile long waterpocket fold in the earth running north and south.

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Capitol Reef

"Capitol Reef", 14 x 18 In, Oil on Panel
I like to do landscapes all year round but since it rains in my town so much I sometimes do them from photographs. It is a chance to use my own imagination about how I want to paint the scene. Such was this one--many things were changed from the actual photo. Its also from an area that I found astonishingly beautiful--Capitol Reef National Park in Utah.

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Capitol Reef Cliffs

"Capitol Reef Cliffs", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Panel
I'm transitioning to doing more still lifes, but I still have a couple more Utah paintings. This is from the west side of the Waterpocket Fold near the park headquarters, an area blazing with color. It is an exercise in high key values. I had broken my foot a week before we left for the trip, but by the end was taking some fairly long walks in these areas in my "boot."

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Fremont River - NFS

"Fremont River", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Panel - NFS
The Fremont River runs east cutting through the Waterpocket Fold that runs north and south through Capitol Reef National Park in Southwest Utah. The multi-layers of rock are amazingly colorful. According to Wikipedia, "The area was named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, each of which looks somewhat like the United States Capitol building, that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold. The local word reef referred to any rocky barrier to travel.^[2]

Capitol Reef Backroad - SOLD

"Capitol Reef Backroad", 8" x 10", Oil on Panel
Of all the places we went last fall in Southwestern Utah, the little known Capitol Reef National Park was my favorite.  Capitol Reef has multiple layers of rock from pink to green and the light in the canyons is amazingly luminous.  This is the western side of the monocline, called the Waterpocket Fold.  We drove down to Lake Powell on the eastern side on the road shown on the national park link, meeting only a few cars and a park ranger who was on the look out for big game hunters coming illegally within the park boundaries.