Grand Canyon Morning

Grand Canyon Morning

Oil on canvas, 18x18

I wanted to try the Grand Canyon again, so I went back, on my way south from Monument Valley. 

The morning I set out to paint, it was 16 degrees when I woke up. It had climbed to 24 when I started this painting - and by the time I finished, I was hot. 

Yes, I did end up becoming a spectacle of sorts. Visitors came to this site in droves, and many of them sauntered over to watch me paint. 

I was struggling with perspective and distance and values, and I was getting lost in the layers and plateaus, and I don't really like struggling in public - but so it goes. 

And it was OK. Some people loved this painting, and others just turned away. 

One thing that has surprised me throughout this entire trip is how many of the visitors to the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley are not Americans. Foreigners come in droves to these places! So I implore you again to get out there and see them. 

Here's my painting in the vast landscape: 

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A GAS STATION outside of the Grand Canyon had a few really interesting displays, designed, I'm sure, to make drivers stop and look - and then buy something. And guess what? It worked! 

Here's a collection of beautiful older cars. My favorite is the police car.

And here are some statues outside the very same gas station: 

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 Some of the beautiful land just outside of the Grand Canyon. Love that twisted tree!

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On the road from the Grand Canyon to Monument Valley, you'll see lots of these Native American outdoor stores. They are mostly just shade frames with some tables, and many look like they haven't been used for years. This one, selling jewelry and jerky - buffalo jerky was all over their advertising boards - was pretty busy. 

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 My friend Heather was in California when this photo was taken. She's from Maine, and was totally flummoxed by February on the West Coast. No snow? What should she do????

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Randy Clough, who is Navajo, works at Goulding's, where I stayed in Monument Valley. He told me he really wants a dog - a husky - but Navajo tradition says he can't pay for one. He is keeping his eye out for the right dog to wander into his life. I suggested he visit Best Friends animal sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, and see if he could barter money for a rescue dog. 

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Dog of the Day

Here's Heather's husband Joe, with  Francis. Heather and Joe met him in San Clemente, Calif. Francis's owner thought he and Joe looked very much alike....

Along the Way - and Red Hills

Red Hills

Oil on canvas, 6x12

I believe I am the luckiest person in the world - and a large part of that good fortune is all of you. 

I was painting this morning in the Grand Canyon (today's paintings will come soon!) and I was telling someone about the trip, and all of you, and she said how fortunate I was to have such a reputation. 

I had to correct her. I am fortunate to have people who believe in me, and who love my paintings. It's not reputation, really. It is your trust in me, and your willingness to take a chance that during the course of this trip, I'll make a painting that you love. 

So thank you - for your support, for your trust in me, for your willingness to believe, and to come along for the journey. 

This newsletter will catch us up a little - introduce you to some of the paintings I've made that I haven't posted yet! 

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"Red Hills" I made on the road from Prescott to the Grand Canyon. In Prescott Valley, I found myself behind a really great truck with a great dog standing up in the back. I was behind the truck for a long, long way, and it finally turned left off the road. When I slowed down to let it turn, I saw the red hills off to the right.

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Here's a painting you haven't seen:"Windy Day in Sonoita," a 10x10. Below, the painting in the landscape. 

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Here's a larger one - "Evening in Patagonia," which is 20x20. 

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Here's a 10x10 from Madera Canyon, called "Ocotillo."

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These Nogales cows will show up in a painting soon.

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The Nogales International Airport. Whee! 

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Dog of the Day

This cute guy visited me during the Tubac show. He was just as happy as he looks! 

Monument Valley Sunset

Sunset, Monument Valley

Oil on canvas, 10x10

I spent two days in Monument Valley, and I tell you, it was hard to pull myself away on the third morning. 

My soul and spirit and eyes and heart sing with the red earth, the giant rocks, the huge open sky. I love the yellow grass at the edges of the road. The blue sage. The light green plants, I don't even know what they are. 

More and more, I find it is the everyday vistas that pull me. The stuff that people see when they're driving home. The empty space on the road just over there. The unprotected, overgrown land, the spots that have been left alone. 

It helps if they're in a place studded with amazing rock formations, yes, of course it does! But I'd rather paint in a ragged, unprotected place - the road into Monument Valley, for instance - than in a national or state park - even one as awe-inspiring as the Grand Canyon. 

I made this painting at the side of the road that runs through the Navajo reservation where I was staying. While I painted, at least five cars stopped to take photos of the sunset. It was just breathtaking. And free for all. 

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Here is another sunset and a sunrise

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This is part of the Combs range, which, according to an explanatory sign, caused great trouble for settlers to the region. They - Mormons - ended up following the San Juan River to make their way around the mountain range. 

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Above, the megalopolis of Mexican Hat, so named for the rock formation below: 

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Here are a couple more of the amazing sights I saw. The rock formation above was on the way from Mexican Hat to Monument Valley. The yellow and red rocks below were in the Valley of the Gods. 

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Dog of the Day

I saw lots of feral dogs on the trip, but this guy - in Mexican Hat - was not one of them. I watched him leave his house, stroll across the street (Main Street), pee on the telephone pole, then go to the gas station next door to see if anyone had handouts. 

Truly a Grand Grand Canyon

 Grand Canyon, South Rim

Oil on canvas, 10x10

"Grand" doesn't even begin to describe it. It is larger than Rhode Island. Yup, that's right. The Grand Canyon is 1,900 square miles; Rhode Island is 1,500. 

At the South Rim, near where I made this painting, the Canyon is a mile deep. 

The oldest rocks are 2,000 million years old, according to the National Parks Service. Along the course of the Colorado River, the Canyon is 277 miles long. 

You've seen photos, you've seen paintings, you've probably seen it in movies - but none of those begins to capture its amazing, astonishing, awesome beauty. 

If the only thing that comes from this trip is that I convince you to go see the Grand Canyon, the trip will have been a success. 

I stood at the rim, slack-jawed with wonder, and I stared and stared and stared and stared. It made me imagine the first Native Americans, camping and hunting in twilight along the river. It made me imagine the first white explorers to encounter it. It made me imagine the push and thrust of the Earth; the howling, twisting winds; the speed of the cutting river - the powers of the Earth that made this amazing place. 

It is that - it is so huge, so beautiful, so powerful that it transports you. And there is not much in this life that can do that. 

So go! Start making plans now! 

Here's my little painting in the giant landscape

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A hogan on the road from the Grand Canyon to the dinky town of Cameron.

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Look at the colors of the land! Amazing. 

I drove from the Grand Canyon to Monument Valley in an amazing dust storm. 

Elk sign and... elk! 

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These mules hike up and down the trails at the Grand Canyon every day.

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 The wind at the edge of the Grand Canyon has gnarled and stunted the trees there. 

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Tigers? 

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The hills on the way to Monument Valley were pink and yellow! 

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Dog of the Day

This serious-looking guy was working at the checkpoint near Tubac on the day I left to drive north. They look for illegal immigrants at the checkpoint, and, I imagine, drugs and who knows what else. I am not sure it's really legal  - but everyone stops, and this dog sniffs all the cars. 

Near Rain Valley Ranch - and Two Mountain Towns

Near Rain Valley Ranch

Oil on canvas, 10x10

When you are a painter, everyone has an idea about where you should go. I love hearing the ideas, and I almost always take people up on their ideas, if I can. 

This week, because people told me I should, I visited Bisbee and Jerome, small Arizona towns. Bisbee is somewhat near Tubac, and Jerome is sort of close to Sedona. 

I think that people sent me to these places not because they thought I'd like to paint them, but just because they thought I would enjoy seeing them. And I did. But in both cases, I was glad to leave. 

Maybe it was just me, maybe it's the effect of doing a lot of standing alone out in beautiful fields, or maybe it's just a mood, but Bisbee and Jerome both seemed just a little too cute for their own good. I had a similar - but much stronger - feeling about Key West. 

I was intrigued by the architecture of Bisbee and Jerome - and by the incredible challenges that builders must have found in those places, building houses up and down steep hillsides - and in the case of Jerome, frighteningly steep hillsides! 

Beyond that, both towns were so geared for tourism that it made me sort of sad. There were great stores in both towns, and excellent stuff for sale - but I felt the lack of "real town." It's a disheartening shift I know well, having watched Stonington Borough, in Connecticut, go from being a real town to being a tourist town. It's not that I don't like what's there - it's just that I miss what is no longer there. 

Also, it is sometimes difficult to remember, on these trips, that I am an artist - not a tourist! The pull to be a tourist is nearly overwhelming at times, especially in places like Bisbee and Jerome, where the focus is on Stuff to Buy. I am not here to visit and see and buy. I am here to paint, to see the soul of the place, the feel the bones of the earth, to find the rhythm of the heartbeat of the land. 

I made this painting on the way from Bisbee back to Tubac. There was a nice overcast to the day, which softened the shadows and enriched the deep colors of the grassland. The wind picked up just as I stopped painting. 

Here's my painting in the landscape

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In Bisbee, in addition to a few great trucks, houses are built up into the sides of the mountains. 

Downtown Bisbee has tons of shops, restaurants and galleries, galleries, galleries. The town was jammed when I was there, on Presidents Day. 

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Jerome is also built into the side of a mountain - a much steeper mountain. And the road to Jerome - and from Jerome to Prescott - is pretty terrifying. I liked both towns, and felt lucky to get out of them without spending all my money.  

Many of the homes in Jerome are perched on the edges of cliffs. I asked one woman if she was scared - and she said that after 11 years there, she'd gotten used to it. 

Fighting fires in Jerome must be quite a job. I saw the trash guys, and let me tell you, getting a big trash truck up and down those steep and narrow streets requires some real skills. 

There was still snow at the edges of the road from Jerome to Prescott! 

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One of you wonderful sponsors sent me to the Granite Dells - which looked like another planet! 

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Dog of the Day

I met this cutie in Bisbee. His human said he was half boxer and "half handsome stranger."