Rocky Red and Greens

The monumental quality of the red rocks throughout the southwest are fascinating, and the natural contrast of red rock and green trees against a blue sky is just stunning. As much as I enjoyed the light and shadow on the rocks, it was the sky that I had the most fun with on this one. It's painted on Bristol paper, which is so hard that the paint stays atop the surface, so for this sky I really rolled on some water and let the blue paint run down as I dabbed in thick white clouds. Whatever happened was fine with me (with only a little urging here and there.) 

Red Cliff-

I love the towering red cliffs we see around here in New Mexico. They're such a delightful contrast with the surrounding greens and the blue sky. It took me a while to recognize that to get the striations in the layered rocks to read correctly I needed to paint them in perspective, but it's not stringent the way architecture is, just gently receding into space.

ROCK FACE

MESA--sold

FIERY ROCKS--sold