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”

Reflecting on Spring

This painting was an interesting challenge since there's technically no sky in it. Instead, we see a grassy riverbank with some trees next to the water, with the sky reflected above. Pink flowers are mirrored in the water, with petals floating by on the slow current as spring passes.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Sunlit Sequoia Duo

High in the Sierra Nevadas, the sunlight gleams through ancient sequoias that stretch skywards, seemingly forever. This was a challenging painting for several reasons. The unusual perspective with the trees sweeping up overhead, the typical difficulties in painting a forest interior scene without it feeling confining and cluttered, and finally the tricky nature of depicting sequoias themselves. Their bark has an unusual mix of red in it without being overtly red, and their crowns, furrows, and burn scars are very distinctive to the species. While this was not an easy painting, I think the end result was worth the effort.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17" (framed)

DC Cherries at Dawn

As the land warms and the days grow longer, the cherry trees begin to flower. A rite of spring in Maryland and DC each year, the cherry blossoms draw crowds to enjoy their stunning colors in defiance of winter. Here, we see the sunrise, back-lighting a trio of old cherry trees somewhere near the waters of Washington DC.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Swampy Winter Sunset

Today was snowy, so I decided to paint something appropriate to the weather. Somewhere far from the big cities, the sun sets in fiery colors beyond a soggy marshland, the reflected light the only real warmth on this cold day.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Aurora in Winter

I decided to go with something unusual for this painting - a scene in the frozen north, near the point where the trees fade away, of the aurora borealis in winter. It was an interesting challenge to paint since it's a nocturne with strangely colored, glowing ribbons across the sky, but I think it turned out reasonably well given the challenges.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"