Grand Canyon Light

"Grand Canyon Light", 8 x 10 In, Oil, 2021

Years ago I went three times on painting trips down the Grand Canyon. Every once in a while I go "back" to those days.
NFS. Please contact me if you have questions.

Grand Canyon, End of Day

3/12/15 "Grand Canyon, End of Day", 6 x 6, Oil on Museum Board, Framed

There were two "6x6" shows over the holidays.  All the paintings I submitted for these shows were of the Grand Canyon. Some of the paintings came back, nicely framed, and this is one of them.

Purchase this framed painting.
Contact me if you would like to purchase the painting unframed.

Grand Canyon Rapids

"Grand Canyon Rapids", 6 x 6 In, Oil on Museum Board

This was one of the paintings that went to one of the 6 x 6 In shows over the holidays.

Contact me if you have questions.

Grand Canyon Sky - NFS

"Grand Canyon Sky", 6 x 6 In, Oil on Museum Board, NFS
This is one of the small 6" squared paintings I did for the Holiday Show at the Southwind Gallery in Kansas. I have been on the 200 miles rafting/painting trips three times down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon. There is nothing like this 8 day trip.

Grand Canyon Sketch 9

Grand Canyon Sketch 9, 6 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This is another of my paintings from my trip down the Colorado in the Grand Canyon in May, 2013. I have not done much studio painting in the last few months, but the trips in the open air are still very important to me--they definitely take me outside of myself and as you can see, I'm painting with more abandon than ever.

Purchase this unframed painting.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Grand Canyon Sketch 3 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 3", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
We painted early morning and late afternoon. Deep in the Canyon the sun goes down quickly. All these paintings were fast and loose with the brush and I felt a wonderful sense of both focus and freedom painting them.

Grand Canyon Sketch 6 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 6", 9 x 9 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was the last painting I did on the trip, as the sun was going down behind the walls of the canyon and most everybody was partying down by the river. I wanted to do this last painting but I also wanted to hang out with the group, so this was a quick painting--maybe 30 minutes. Its hard to describe what its like being in the canyon on the river--it is a world apart. One of my favorite things is that because the canyon is in an uplift zone, the rock in the Inner Gorge is vischu schist. Here is a photo I found on the web of the vishnu schist. I've got some of my own photos--just haven't managed to go through them yet.

Here's a close up photo of the schist with pink granite.

Grand Canyon Sketch 5

"Grand Canyon Sketch 5", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was a second painting one morning before our departure on the river, so not much time--loose and abstract.

Purchase this unframed painting.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Grand Canyon Sketch 2

"Grand Canyon Sketch 2", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
The painting is fast in the Grand Canyon. We are up at 5 am breaking camp, then breakfast, then paint, then load the raft and leave by 9:30 am. I never painted for more than an hour on any particular painting and sometimes less if I did two paintings. So like the river, these are fast and swift. We were able to paint again after setting up camp late in the afternoon.

Purchase this unframed painting.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Grand Canyon Sketch 1 - NFS

"Grand Canyon Sketch 1", 6 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
My third painting trip down the Grand Canyon was as welcome as any trip I have been on. There is just nothing like it.

Canyon Walls - NFS

"Canyon Walls", 11 x 14 In, Oil on Museum Board
From my trip to the Grand Canyon in 2007. What an amazing place!

NFS

Grand Canyon - Sketch - NFS

"Grand Canyon - Sketch", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
For some reason I've always liked the abstract quality of this sketch, done on site during my first artist trip down the Grand Canyon back in 2005. This is a once in a life-time trip and I've been twice and planning for a third with a group of artists. There is nothing like it--to travel down the river from Lee's Ferry as the uplift of the Canyon walls are at their maximum in the Inner Gorge and you are traveling through the Vishnu Schist, formed 1.75 billion to 1.73 billion years ago.

NFS

Grand Canyon - Sold

"Grand Canyon", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
The Grand Canyon always holds a fascination for me. It is one thing to see the breadth of the Canyon from the rim, but another thing to go back in time by traveling through the Canyon on the Colorado.  As you go down from Lee's Ferry, travel on the river is through an uplift, so to the Inner Gorge, the rocks are older and older until you reach the schist that is like black marble in some places.

Canyon Walls

"Canyon Walls", 10 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board
This is another view of the canyon walls and I hope it gives the idea of just how high the walls are from the Colorado.

Purchase this unframed painting.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Grand Canyon Light

"Grand Canyon Light", 10 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board
This scene is so typical of the Grand Canyon, with deep shadow on one side and blinding light on the other. It was from a photo and  I wanted to make it abstract, so I turned the painting and the photo upside down to finish it.

I also want to let everyone know that by the time you see this I should be in Sydney, Australia, on my way to Perth to visit my sister.  I've posted ahead with odds and ends from the last couple of months--some experiments--well, you'll see! If you write a comment and I don't respond, I'm either not in range of a wifi or I'm off in the wilds of New Zealand--next stop on the journey.

Purchase this unframed painting.
Contact me if you would like to purchase a plein air frame.

Grand Canyon Sketch 9 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 9", 4 x 6, Oil on Museum Board
This is my last small Grand Canyon sketch for now. Doing this series in the early part of December got me through the holiday postings, a time I never find easy. I've done many more paintings since, and they've been all over the map. It has been two years since I started the "daily" blog. I do paint almost every day but a few months ago decided to post only every two days so I'd have paintings to post during trips and so I could be more experimental, which sometimes means failure! But if failure is success in trying something new, it is well worth it. I wish you all a wonderful New Year!

Grand Canyon Sketch 8 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 8", 4 x 6 In, Oil on Museum Board
In my 20's I hiked down the Bright Angel trail and across the Tonto Platform to Hermit. The feeling of being alone with the immensity of the rock walls was almost overwhelming.

Grand Canyon Sketch 7 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 7", 4 x 6 In, Oil on Museum Board
Downstream from the Inner Gorge, the canyon becomes more open again.

Grand Canyon Sketch 5 - NFS

"Grand Canyon Sketch 5", 4 x 6 In, Oil on Museum Board SOLD
Between the rapids on the Colorado, the water is like glass. The first indication of the coming rapids is the inimitable sound coming from ahead.

Grand Canyon Sketch 4 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 4", 5 x 7 In, Oil on Museum Board
It can be cold on the river, and there's another thing--you have to be careful where you pitch your tent because they release more or less water from the dam.