Zion Monolith

With luck, I'll be heading to Zion NP next weekend. Can't wait. I haven't been to Red Rock country in a while so I thought that I'd try to tune up a little with some practice.

Here's a quickie I did this afternoon to get in the mood. This is from a photo I took several years ago in Zion at the end of the road - just before the narrows trail. It's not the best photo but all I have today is my little digital point & shoot. 


   
9x12 pastel on Uart 400 paper

Here's some detail and the initial drawing after washing with some alcohol:

Tenaya Lake Hillside

I took a long weekend and drove up to the Eastern Sierras – around Mammoth Lakes. Saturday, on a whim, I decided to head up Tioga Pass and drop into Yosemite NP. I haven’t been there in years.

I didn’t really want to drive all the way down to the valley but I did spend some time in Tuolumne Meadows and Tenaya Lake. Beautiful!

After a nice lunch on the lakeshore, I took my kit down the shore to find something to paint but ended up facing the opposite way – enchanted by a granite hillside with a huge fissure running across the front.

9x12 pastel on Wallis paper

Detail:

China Cove

Got up and decided to go out and paint. Wait! It's Labor Day - In Southern California! After driving around trying to find a place to park - anywhere - I decided to just come back and paint in the studio.

So, here's one from a photo I took way-too-many years ago at Point Lobos. I’m still amazed at the color of the water in this cove.

 
11x14 pastel on Pastelbord

 

Here’s one of the thumbnail sketches that I did in preparation.

Hidden Lake

Last summer, while on a fishing trip to Mammoth Lakes, I took my camera on a hike up into the high country. Somewhere along the trail I stumbled on a small, gorgeous lake. I never did get out the map to find out the name of this little lake so I just like to refer to it as Hidden Lake.

I’m trying different under painting methods with the pastels. On this one I scratched in some local color with some hard pastels and then washed it in with mineral spirits. Next try… watercolors.

    
9x12 pastel on Wallis paper