For those who don't know, I have a solo show in the Red Canyon Visitor Center that will be opening Easter weekend. I have decided to blog my thoughts and experiences as I create the body of work and hopefully make it a more interesting show because of it.
Today October thirteenth, I woke up early today and hit the road by seven A.M. My hope was to get to Red Canyon early enough to see the cliffs glowing with the morning light. I'm glad I arrived a little later than daybreak, because the ride over the mountain was equally as breathtaking. The light was unquestionably cool as hints of heat radiated off the frost coated landscape.
I was driving past a river and spotted these wonderful creatures, grazing peacefully on the morning ice. I had to stop and snap some photos but in tourist country such as this, one stopped car just invites others to pile around like sardines in a can. Needless to say the bison got spooked and took off through the river, but even that was a beautiful shot.
I made it to Red Canyon and it did not disappoint. The morning light was wonderful with the soft cool cast broken up by flaming heat of reflected light between the rock faces.
I drove through the canyon a while, just wanting to get a feel for the different formations and looking for interesting shadow shapes. I stopped off at a few places but nothing felt right. There was just so much of an overload of information. I am ashamed to say that though a southern Utah native, this was my first time I'd really stopped and walked around Red Canyon. Because of this I think I was a little awed by the craggy rock to just pick one spot. After a little while though, I got the stars out of my eyes and went back to the mouth of the canyon where a certain rock group had caught my eye. SIMPLIFY YOUR SUBJECT, was my motto and I picked something that could be simplified into a great composition.
Oh, yeah, while I was walking around looking for a composition, I saw this person flying a hang-glider or something like it over the canyon. How fun, beautiful, but not to mention terrifying would that be?
After the morning painting, I stopped by to see Richard Costigan at the Visitor center to talk about the exhibit space. It was informative talking to him, but I have to admit I'm getting a lot more ideas about the exhibit by just writing about it.
After a quick bite to eat I found a spot for an afternoon painting and did another work. This is me working on the last one. A friend of mine took the picture. (Note the Red Canyon shirt. Richard gave it to me and I felt it was only appropriate. When in Rome right?) I heard somewhere that the parks die the shirts with the red dirt. I'm not sure if that's true, but if so, that's pretty cool.
I have to say, both paintings turned out really well and It was tremendously fun experimenting with the colors of Red Canyon. To see the final images check back Easter weekend when I'll be posting the show, or better yet, come to Red Canyon and see for yourself.
Check back for more :)
