Spirit Cave

Spirit Cave

Painting No. 1-F-13

8"x 8" oil on canvas

A few weeks ago a local painter, Tony Lema, took me south of Moab about 40 miles to the Needles overlook road where we painted in the back country for a few hours. Since then I've gone back 3 times including today.
As the late afternoon sun pushed across the western sky I noticed this cave as I drove through a meadow and up a canyon towards an old cow camp. There's something particular about this place; I had the feeling of being watched as I painted. Afterwards I hiked a few side canyons looking for petroglyphs but didn't spot any.

Spring Color: Indian Paintbrush

Spring Color

Painting No. 7-E-12

9"x 12" oil on canvas panel

The recent Spring rains have left the hillsides full of wildflowers. My favorite is the Indian Paintbrush. I love the vibrancy of the color and the way it grows in small colonies, almost like bouquets in the desert.

Saturday Night, Moab, Utah

Saturday Night

Painting No. 4-D-13

12"x 24" oil on canvas panel

Moab, Utah at night

Arches National Park: Balanced Rock

Balanced Rock

Painting No. 2-D-13

12"x 12" oil on canvas panel

 

Last Saturday morning I was in Arches National Park visiting Sarah Hamingson, the current Community Artist in the Parks pastel artist. I had intended to paint en plein air at the Balanced Rock parking lot but I forgot my mineral spirits and resorted to sketching several versions of Balanced Rock before deciding that I liked this angle the best. It's a tough subject to paint, the subject is awkward and impossibly balanced.

 

This is the usual view of the rock, which is kinda ugly to work with from an artistic perspective. The angle of my painting is at the far right side of the photo, and from the base looking up. Essentially my painting is a study of warm shadow contrasts in a typically cool environment.

 

Evening Light over Utah

Desert Sunset Study 1

8" x 10" oil on canvas

 

Last night, after I closed the gallery, I drove to the high desert north of Moab and painted a couple sky studies. The quality of light in the evening sky is just as varied and stunning as the atmosphere that falls against the Navajo sandstone. At this location looking west across the Utah desert, on a clear day I can see 80-100 miles. This long-distance view only accentuates the cloud-sky colors and patterns. After painting I drove to the Monitor and Merrimac Buttes to watch the last purples fade from the spring sky.  

Desert Sunset Study 2

8"x 8" oil on canvas

Best Plein Air Day Ever......so far

Today was some of the best plein air painting that I've experienced since arriving in Moab. The day started at the Red Rock Bakery of course with the owner, Howard, pouring coffee and talking Utah politics with the tourists.....always worth listening in.
Next, I'm making arrangements with my friend Phil Wagner; oil painter, poet and renaissance man, to paint in Arches National Park at 10 A.M. When I finally arrive this is what I see on the side of the road (photo to the left). Phil has framed and attached make-shift wooden legs to a 32" x 40" piece of plywood, constructing a tabletop-like paint surface for his newest (and largest) plein air painting. Looking very-much like a giant robot spider, I'm waiting for it to start walking around at anytime now.
Phil paints a bright base coat of yellow paint which immediately gets the visitors attention and the cars start pulling over.

This is exactly why I love working with Phil; he is always experimenting with something new. He is either studying dead painters, fiddling with art chemicals or stretching the limits of whats possibly in the field.

I setup my small plein air kit close to him, it looks like a pack of cigarettes next to his rig. During the day we stop and talk to the park visitors, honestly, we posed for probably 10 photos and were captured many more times by the folks in cars who were too busy to talk.
We paint until 3 P.M. at which time Robin Straub, Phil's wife and another great plein air painter arrives to load the contraption into her 4-Runner.
Afterwards I drove out to Wolfe Ranch and hiked to the Delicate Arch Overlook. It's a short hike with the addition of a slickrock rim that rises to the east and adds an additional 1/4 mile to a point that most visitors wont ever see. I stayed on the rocks for probably another 2 hours.
It was warm and peaceful, nearly poetic in-nature.
I saw the first lizard of the year.
I saw Indian Paintbrush blooming.
I took the time to talk to some friendly looking cactus,
and I watched as silent forms of tiny people raced back and forth under the Delicate Arch, so far away that I couldn't hear their chattering.........something of Ed Abbey in all of this.

Castle Valley

Castle Valley Study

Painting No. 3-C-13

8" x 8" oil on canvas panel

 

Sunday afternoon I painted out on Hwy 128, along the Colorado River. This is Parriott Mesa, another wonderful example of the plein air painting opportunities that abound in this part of the world. This is a typical morning study.

The Perfect Day in Moab Utah

How do you describe a near perfect day in Moab, Utah?
Here's how....

• 7:30 am - Go to the gym and run for 30 minutes on the treadmill. I usually run for 40 minutes but I was afraid of being late for breakfast. On the IPod? Everclear. 
• 9:00 am - Meet a friend at the Rock Rock Bakery and Internet Cafe for coffee and bagels. As you know this is my favorite morning hangout location; it's always a cozy and relaxing atmosphere.
• 11:00am - Drive to Arches National Park with my breakfast friend and slowly drive through the park, stopping at the Garden of Eden. Hike up to North Arch, South Arch and Turret Arch. It was windy today but still a pleasant time with only a few tourists.
• 1:00pm - Lunch at Fiesta Mexicana with my breakfast friend. This is a great restaurant; the service is quick, the food great and the prices are very reasonable.
• 2:30pm - Back to Arches NP to paint en plein air (painting outdoors) with 2 of my new local friends Phil Wagner and Robin Struab. We painted for nearly 3 hours at Ham Rock, which is just southeast of balanced Rock. It was windy and cool, but we had a great time of being in close proximity to one another.
• 5:30pm - At Phil and Robin's place for wine and a serious discussion of art topics.
• 8:00pm - Home for dinner and blogging.

Moab plein air painters Phil Wagner and Robin Struab working

through the afternoon at Ham Rock in Arches National Park.

 

Three Gossips in Winter

The Afternoon Gossips

Painting No. 8-B-13

8"x 8" oil on canvas panel

 

On Monday, the afternoon skies over the Canyonlands cleared and Phil Wagner, a local painter-poet, and I decided to paint in Arches National Park. With it's majestic rock formations and the La Sal Mountains as a backdrop this is one of the most scenic places in America.
The air was cool but clear as we pulled into the parking area across from what's known as The Three Gossips. The statuesque sandstone formation is iconic to this National Park and is featured in the movie: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
The name suggests 3 prominent gossips but my eye always sees the forth as she leans into the ear of the central figure, (which makes the news just a little juicier).

We had almost no company today; a few people from Boise and a couple from Texas. The great thing about painting in the National Parks is that people are friendly. They are excited to be on vacation, awed by the size and beauty of the place and always curious to see an artist at work. Last October I posed for 100 or more photos while I was painting in the Parks.

Phil Wagner painting plein air near the Three Gossips.

Shadow Study

Shadow Study
Painting No. 6-B-13
8" x 10"
Oil on canvas panel

This afternoon I ventured outside for a few hours of painting on location. I settled on this shadow study of the Rabbit Brush and boulders along the Colorado River. It's a classic example of my head not being totally focused on the compositional qualities of the painting. Never-the-less, after repainting the Rabbit brush 3 times I finally got some shadow color that I liked. This painting will be used as a color reference for a larger studio painting, but wont be hung for sale.



Things to consider:
Only 1 in 30 plein air paintings are really the quality to be shown in a gallery.
Do you, as an artist, hold onto your studies for future reference?
How many plein air paintings to you produce each year?


Shadow Land

Shadow Land
Painting No. 4-B-13
8" x 10"
oil on canvas board

Early evening light plays across the talus slopes and cliff face of Mat Martin Point just north of Big Bend Campground on the Colorado River. This shadow land holds the heart and imagination of all travelers who come here seeking an escape from the city and a visual feast for the soul.

Where do you go to escape from the normal?
Where do you find yourself leaving the road and entering the wild?
What inspires you as a traveler or painter?
I'd like to hear from you.

Hiking the Slickrock Trail

This evening I hiked the fabled Slickrock Trail just east of Moab, Utah.
I had heard from locals about how great it was to hike the practice loop (3 miles round trip) during the winter when the bikes are few and the locals rule the place. I tried during New Year's weekend to hike the trail with a local artists but the snow was deep enough that we got off track and she fell on her rear-end a few times due to the icy conditions...not a good day.
But today was special. I started out from the parking lot at 5 PM, the sun still hanging in the west, no wind, temperatures in the high 40's, no people for miles. Imagine a place where you can hike for miles across twisting and turning sandstone trails that lead you past some of the most coveted views of the American west. It's really something to see, with 200 foot vertical gorges at your feet and the towering La Sal Mountains draped in fresh snow as a backdrop. The trail is marked with a white stripe every 30 feet which is a good thing because there are at least 2 opportunities on the practice loop to miss a critical turn and ride your bike into eternity. I love the wildness of this place.


Tarte Roja (Afternoon Red)

Tarde Roja
Painting No. 2-B-13
8"x 8", oil on canvas

Late afternoon light slips along the canyon walls and brings the red rock of the Canyonlands to a blazing finale as I quickly set up my plein air equipment and capture the moment. 
How beautiful the fading light is here along the Colorado River, finer that most places I believe. Perhaps it's because of the clean air, I'm not sure, but the unique quality of light is hard to describe in adequate terms.  
 

Frozen Colorado: Big Bend Campground

Frozen Colorado
Painting No.  6-A-13
8" x 8" oil on canvas

The weather finally broke today and I was able to sneak out of the gallery for a couple of hours and paint this scene.
Along the Colorado River, just northeast of Moab is Big Bend Campground and on the east side of the highway are these wonderful rock formations that reflect the warm glow of the sun, even if the temperature is close to freezing. I enjoy this stretch of river, the afternoon light is special and I'm thankful to be the only painter on the river.

Developing Large Paintings from Plein Air Sketches #2

Picking up from the last blog; this image shows the early block-in of color on a 16" x 20" canvas. Notice first that I chose a warm color for the initial wash. I don't like painting on a white canvas. It seems that when I have painted on white, I'm continuously fighting the surface to make sure that the white doesn't show through. When you lay down an initial wash, it eliminates that problem and creates a background color that can easily show through in several spots to tie the rest of the colors together; creating a color harmony. This image shows the block-in of colors in the shadow areas of the painting which includes the back rock wall with rocky tiers and snow piled on each tier. Also the willow bushes get their block-in of color. You can see that the base color for the willows is purple; not black, brown, green or yellow ochre. As I mentioned in the last blog, the color mixing for all studio paintings is subject to the color as seen in person and captured in plein air paintings...DO NOT TRUST PHOTOGRAPHS. One more thing; I took the willow block-in color and used it in the shadows of the rocks and bushes on the right side of the painting. This helps to create a color unity throughout the entire work.

This image is the finished painting with possibly a few minor tweaks to the stones in the shadows along the frozen river bank, (the 4 stones are too evenly spaced), I'll probably add some variation in the studio on Tuesday.  Notice the open water in the river; it's darker than the rear wall. Also notice the bush reflections are darker. The base color for the snow is a warmed-up reddish white (never use pure white....never). The sun lit bush closest to the river and the ice next to it are the brightest parts of the painting. This is intentional, it becomes the focal point. I designed this painting so that your eye leads in by following the open water, (left to right whenever possible). Then the eye travels up the background snow to the left, then right to the upper right corner, then follows the sunny rock wall down to the bushes in a clockwise fashion, then loops again.

Do you have comments, suggestions, questions? Let me know and I'll do my best to answer them. 

Making the Local Paper

Moab Sun News

January 16, 2013

 

So I've been in town 8 days and already I have a mention in the local paper, "Artist James McKew will be teaching two six week classes February through March: pencil drawing on Tuesdays and oil painting on Thursdays."

I'm grateful; the people of Moab have been really open and generous to me. Today a local artist came by the gallery to show me his work, then he took me to lunch at Pantele's Desert Deli, I know I've mentioned it, but the daily soup is always excellent. Today it was Clam Chowder...ahhhh....on a cold day it's to die for! Later in the afternoon a local that I met at a holiday party stopped in to check me out. Nice guy from Castle Valley that appreciates art, I hope to see more folks from that area stop by.