Isolation - Humphreys Peak

The theme for the past month or so has been one of isolation and social distancing in an effort to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. So, I figured I'd paint a scene related to that theme based upon a photo taken on my most recent trip out west in last June. Here, we see Humphreys Peak in the distance - the tallest mountain in Arizona - from somewhere in the desolate, empty lands between Antelope Canyon and the Grand Canyon. While the mountain and the city of Flagstaff are both around 100 miles away in this view, there is basically nothing around us; it's about as "socially distant" as one can get. This painting was both challenging and easy to paint for the same reason - there's essentially nothing in the scene aside from crumbling desert rocks, some brush, and the distant mountains under floating clouds and a blue sky.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

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)

Grand Canyon overlook pines

In early June of this year, I went on a fun, guided tour through gAdventures and National Geographic (their "Discover American Canyonlands" tour), and we got to see: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Antelope Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. Inevitably, this led me to try to paint what I saw, which is no easy task. In the west, the landscapes are beautiful, but unforgiving to paint.

This particularly painting started out with a beautiful sky, but quickly turned to disaster. I had made the cardinal error of trying to paint a scene with the light behind me, as was in the reference photo I took. Normally, such a lighting choice is just a bad idea, but when painting canyons, it turns the landscape into a maze of impossible to define shapes – a tangle of light and shadow that easily turns into gibberish when painted. Humbled by the created mess, I painted over nearly the entire canyon with the purple-grey shadow color, and went off to the internet to do some research. There, I found paintings from people with impossible levels of skill who could actually paint the Grand Canyon with the light over their shoulder and with every rock defined, but I needed some ideas more to my skill level. Eventually, I turned to a classic technique and swung the light around to the left and lower in the sky. This allowed me to define each mesa and butte with simple light and shadow while at the same time provided some more interesting colors to the scene.

In the end, I think this painting turned out reasonably well, but it’s hard to say for sure. The Grand Canyon is so large, complex, and challenging to paint – I came up with something decent after plenty of mistakes, but I’ll have to revisit this place in a future painting to see what I else I can do with it.

Acrylic painting: 14” x 17”