Ribbon

Ribbon
11 x 14, Bristol

From the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River is only visible in small bits, like a cut ribbon. Now docile and dammed, this river once cut and carved and raged its way through the sandstone to form what is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

Maybe it is possible that something wondrous can come from what looks now to be devastation. To consider this is to entertain hope.

Grand Canyon National Park and Picasso

February Snow, Grand Canyon
18 x 24

Looking In
18 x 24

"It's going very badly," Picasso says at one point in the 1956 film, The Mystery of Picasso (directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot).

Two days of trying to paint the Grand Canyon and I want to quote Picasso. It's going very badly, indeed.

Somehow, though, I am not discouraged. I feel like I am fumbling my way to where I will eventually discover how to paint not only what I see when I am at the Grand Canyon, but also my feeling that I will burst from wonder and awe. I am far from that today. In fact, today it's going very badly!

Home again

It's been an eventful trip and now I am home again. Dorothy was right, there's no place like home. There's no place like home.

Travel allows change. It shakes me from the normal things that make up my life at home, and it forces me to pay attention. My senses are all tuned to a new frequency and I see, hear, smell, touch, and taste with more awareness and consciousness. My perspectives change. New thoughts are born and begin to grow.

In the midst of this trip, an art workshop that nourished my artist soul. My father's illness that broke my heart and continues to grind and twist. Time with loved ones. And glorious views of our beautiful country.

I am home. There's no place like home. But, I am changed. That's how travel works. Like magic.

Grand Canyon and Monument Valley

I think that it would be wonderful to be an Artist in Residence at one of the National Parks, don't you? The Grand Canyon or Yellowstone would be my top two choices. Where would you choose?

While wandering through the Verkamp's Visitor's Center at the south rim of the Grand Canyon, I found a wonderful book of art with the Grand Canyon as the subject. I feel the stirrings of a studio project featuring the Grand Canyon...

Just pen in my sketchbook for the last several days. All of the sketches you see above started with a single blind contour line. After the first line, I sketched by looking up and back at my drawing. But that first line, I wanted it to be the result from my eyes caressing the side of the rock, my mind focused and sharp to every nuance of form, my hand and arm moving in synch in a slow dance across the page. What a treat!

Grand Canyon plein air

South rim view of Grand Canyon, near Kolb Studio

The wind started to pick up and was cold!
Enough is not too bad.

I stood off the cleared path, on a bit of snow and still
had at least 50 people walk behind me to look.
Attractive nuisance. Sheesh.

For the last three years, since I've been painting en plein air, I have dreamed of painting at the rim of the Grand Canyon. Today, my dream came true!

Well, sort of. I pictured it a little warmer. And with fewer people milling around, climbing onto the snow behind me to get a look at the painting and then commenting (or not ... I'm not sure which is more distracting!).

Minor details. I get a thrill when I see the signs that I am nearing the National Park. The names conjure the beauty and mystery and danger of the place: Yavasupai observation station, Kaibab National Forest, Havasupai trail, Bright Angel Lodge, Hopi House, and the El Tovar Hotel. As I was unpacking my gear, the train from Williams, Arizona blew its whistle to signal "All aboard!"

And now, I have joined ranks with other artists who have sat at the same rim, and looked down in wonder at the splendor of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. And tried to capture its beauty in even a small way.

Life is good!

Today sun. Tomorrow, a chance of snow. I still hope to paint!