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.

Grand Canyon Sketch 2 - NFS

"Grand Canyon Sketch 2", 4 x 6, Oil on Museum Board

This painting was given in the painting gift exchange of our local plein air painters group, Plein Air Washington--a wonderful and talented group of people. All the small paintings in this series were painted in 30 minutes. I find doing timed paintings one of the best ways to reconnect with inspiration and motivation.

Dana Passage Clouds #6

5/10/10 "Dana Passage Clouds #6", 4" x 6", Oil
Today was the typical overcast day and I am tired of the blue--blue gray sky, blue distant islands, blue everything.  I wanted to start from a different color premise.  So after one painting done in the old way of thinking, I decided to do a series of quick sketches that were just experiments.  I scraped two and I kept two.  This is the one I like the best - very simple, just a few strokes in about 10-15 minutes time.