Pictures from painting in Zion National Park.

PAINTING ZION NATIONAL PARK

Many of you know I ride a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and take many of my plein air trips on it. My riding buddies and I had been long planning a tour of the Southwest on our bikes, and this was the time. The tour was 9 days and left practically no time to paint. I decided to bring my mini plein air kit, as we had scheduled a full day in Zion National Park and I might have time to knock out a few paintings.

After visiting Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, we arrived at Zion. I like to call Zion "The Yosemite of the desert". Zion National Park's 229 square miles is a spectacular cliff-and-canyon landscape. The Virgin River has cut through sandstone to create the incredible scenery. The towering walls plunge thousands of feet, sometimes down to just the width of the river.

I finally did have time to bring out the paints. I spent most of the day painting in various locations. My first stop was at the end of the road in what is called the Temple of Sinawava. A rock formation, called The Pulpit was the center of attention. I later panted along the river walk to the narrows, the Great White Throne, and Big Bend. It was hot, but worth it! I don't get to paint Zion often!

After Zion, our motorcycle group headed to Bryce Canyon, Salt Lake City, and home. No more time to paint, but a great trip!

Brian Blood painting Big Sur.

Randal Sexton at Point Lobos.

CARMEL ART FESTIVAL

Carmel, California is one of the art centers of the United States. With over 90 art galleries, it is a mecca for artists and collectors alike. Each year they hold a plein air festival.

I didn't have time to visit the main events of the festival, but decided to take a motorcycle trip down on Friday to watch the participants painting, and maybe catch up with some artist friends.

After driving down to the area, and looking around, there were no artists to be seen! Finally, I found one lone artist at Rocky Point along the Big Sur coastline. I did not realize, they had changed the rules of the art competition, and all painting had been done the previous day.

After touring around some more, I did run into Brian Blood, who I had taken a workshop from several years back. I also ran into Randy Sexton, Larry Moore, and a few others. The contest was over...they were just out painting and doin' their thing!

Pictures from painting along the Truckee River.

Pictures from painting along the Truckee River.

TRUCKEE SPRING DAY 3

It was the last day of my trip, and I wanted to do one more painting prior to dropping them all off at the gallery.

I headed back out to the Truckee, and an old dead tree which stood sentinel over the river caught my eye, so I decided to paint the scene with the tree as the focal point. As you can see from the photos, I slightly enlarged the tree and added a lot of color for it to stand out.

Later in the day, I stopped by the gallery, James Harold Galleries, and dropped off 12 paintings. They promised to put the entire series on a prominent wall within a couple days.

Pictures from painting along the Truckee River.

Pictures from painting along the Truckee River.

Pictures from painting along the Truckee River.

TRUCKEE SPRING DAY 2

On the second day of this excursion, I headed right back out to the Truckee. It was a great morning, and the river couldn't have looked better. I did a small painting, and then headed to a spot I had painted on a prior trip when there was more snow.

I had been wanting for some time to put a plein air oil demonstration on my web site to accompany the acrylic demo. Today would be the day to record everything for the demo.

I chose a spot where the snow had melted enough to reveal the grass underneath. The differences in textures, colors, and patterns made for quite an interesting scene. The painting came off quite well, and you can see the complete demo here.

Along Squaw Creek.

Pictures from painting along the Truckee River.

TRUCKEE SPRING DAY 1

I had been working on a series of paintings over the winter dubbed "Bridges Over the Truckee". I decided to make one more trip to paint more, and then drop all the works off at my gallery in Tahoe City, James Harold Galleries.

You can read about prior Truckee painting adventures in prior blogs. Back then, the Truckee was virtually snowed over. Now, spring was coming and much of the ice and snow had at least melted from the river.

It was a wonderful time to paint! The patterns of sky, mountains, river, snow, grass, and trees made for a wonderfully dizzying array of subjects. I decided to do most of the work from the same spots I had painted just a month or so before.

After an early rise, I left San Jose and made it to Tahoe in the late morning. I didn't want to paint the Truckee yet, as at mid-day the light was not as I wanted. So, I found an intimate little scene along Squaw Creek which showed the mid-day sun well.

I checked into my motel, then headed back out to the Truckee. I did a couple more works as the sun went lower and lower producing more and more shadows, and more and more interest in the painting.