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How I
came to paint "Zion Dawn"
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 on the 3rd of December, spent a day and a half hiking around
snapping pictures, making notes and freezing my fanny off!
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 4 or 5 very
under-exposed sunrise shots, I set about to create this painting
finishing it on January 27th. The only way I could have done
this and maintained acceptable detail and quality was by painting a
small (11 x 11") piece. Amazingly, I also managed to
paint another small piece before the end of January entitled "Spires of
Zion" -a real cliff hanger (pardon the pun)! In the
immortal word of the Terminator "I'll be back!"
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