Sunday, August 11, 2019

Grand Canyon - South Rim sunset


I said I'd face the challenge of painting the Grand Canyon again, and so I did. This painting, interestingly, went far easier than the previous one of the canyon. I think a more traditional lighting angle and careful placement of the canyon walls made a huge difference and avoided the tangled maze of cliffs that I ran into last time. I'm very happy with how this painting turned out - I think it captures the tremendous size and depth of the Grand Canyon as well can be done in an average size landscape. The blazing light of sunset adds to the drama, and while I didn't actually get to see sunset at the Grand Canyon, I did see it at Zion, so I can appreciate how those cliffs glow with light; dappling light and shadow spots on the cliffs with a bit of horizontal patterning to the spots seemed to help, too. It's never easy painting something like this, but the results were worth it, IMHO.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17" (framed)