Painting the Red Rocks of Southern Utah again

On Memorial Day Weekend I had a chance to paint some quick watercolor sketches during rest breaks while canoeing on the Colorado River (11 miles) and hiking in Arches and Canyonlands (8 miles) National Parks! Amazing scenery and fantastic exercise.

Colorado River between Arches and Canyonlands

Open rangeland near Moab, Utah.  

Red Rock Towers on the Squaw Creek loop in Canyonlands

Cynthia, Debra, Me (Brad) and Alan at the boat launch in Moab

I'm told there's no fashion show on the trail.

Utah/Idaho scenes

Near Zion

Southern Utah Mesa 

Canyon Garden - Idaho

Alpine Crest - Utah

Watercolors in Winter

Haven't had much chance to paint outdoors. Here are four small (6"x 8.5") watercolors of Utah from photos.

Big scene and a close up

Two paintings, started outdoors in Southern Utah and finished indoors. One, the big picture, the other a detail.

Spring! and painting again!

Had a great weekend in St. George! 3rd annual "Creative Accountability Group" Plein Air outing. The other painters are oil painters so as the odd-man-out in watercolor, I had the goal of painting large, fast, loose, and colorful. Last fall I tended to paint smaller and more realistic and decided to go big on this trip. The first image "toward Zion" 7"x 9" was a 45 minute warm up sketch on Friday evening to get ready for the paint-out on Saturday. The other two are larger, 16"x 22", painted in the morning hours and evening hours about a half mile apart.