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How I
came to paint the "Spires of Zion"
Having spent most of my red rock time near Moab, Utah, I
had never painted Zion National Park. I had
only driven through Zion National Park once, years earlier and had
nothing to work from. No photos, no sketches, nothing but fleeting
memories. I wanted a painting or two of Southwestern
Utah to round out my red rock portfolio. So, I zipped down to
Zion National Park on the 3rd of December, arriving at the park in
the late afternoon and went straight up the Zion Canyon road taking
pictures all the way up and down! WOW! Red rock is definitely not red rock!
Different formations, different colors and structures. Whereas
the Moab area reads (to me) as strongly horizontal as well as
vertical, with a lot of reds and oranges, Zion National Park, reads
mostly vertical and the colors are more tan than red. So much for
assumptions
I spent a day and a half hiking
around snapping pictures, making notes and freezing my fanny off!
It was so cold that I had to thaw out my fingers between shots.
There were traces of snow on the ground and wildlife, particularly
mule deer, in abundance. I raced home and went through my hundred or
so shots and in spite of being photographically challenged, found
that I had several likely candidates. Selecting and splicing several
under and over-exposed late afternoon shots, I set about to create
this painting finishing just after Christmas (or thinking I had). Realizing I may have
time to squeeze another painting out by the end of the month, I decided to go for it and paint
another one. The only way I could do this and maintain
acceptable detail and quality was by painting a small (15 x
11") piece. Amazingly, I finished this second piece entitled "
Zion Dawn" on January 27th.
In early April 2008, I decided to add significant detail to the
painting from what you see above. The "Upgrade" was completed
20th of April . 205 hours to paint. As of this writing I have not
photographed the result and thus you are looking at a view of the
painting that exists only as a digital memory of the original.
I will post the Upgrade ASAP.
I know one thing for sure, I am
going back to Zion National Park for some extensive
exploration!
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