Kate Withers - 'Painting Space'

12x12         oil on canvas         Sold An impression of the late afternoon light... stylized Grand Canyon formations as seen from the Tonto... some of the best views can be found on this vast plateau... halfway down to banks of the mighty Colorado River.  Magical times. ** Update:  This painting no longer exists .. it has evolved into a much bluer version.. see it here .

8x10    oil on canvas panel    SOLD Available Paintings ..  Gallery 24 - Torrey - Utah This is from a series of studies I did of the last light on a particular Canyon formation..one that millions of tourists see from the South Rim.  My focus in these studies was the contrast of complementary colors ... and the drama it affords.  The beautiful weathered shapes catching the warm golden rays of the sun amid pools of cool cobalt blue.  Great fun to paint!

Okay... after procrastinating and generally goofing off... I am back in front of the easel. The above image is of a large 30x40 canvas I have been working on seemingly forever... on and off for a couple years anyway.. an intimate view just below the rim of the Grand Canyon. I will try to finish it so I can start another big beautiful painting.. this time of one of my favorite places in the Southwest.. Lake Powell. I am focusing on large work now...small paintings are good to practice a technique or try out an aspect of color theory.. but the real thrill is in painting big.

8x10      oil on canvas panel      SOLD Navajo Highway 6 runs north from Holbrook - Arizona .. one of the many paved trails on the Reservation.. trails because hardly anyone travels these great old roads.. you might see Native Americans in U.S.-made pickups and a few intrepid [or lost] tourists. Love cruising these lonely beautiful highways.. nostalgia for the late great days of Arizona.

8x10     oil on canvas panel     $425 Gallery 24 - Torrey Utah A typical slice of a desert landscape.. an intimate perspective.. creosote bushes and trees surrounded by luminous golden grasses.. garden islands in a swirling sea of gravel and sand.. lavender silvery light falling from the sky.. the last light of the setting sun.

8x10     oil on canvas panel     SOLD The beginning of a new series of highway/road oil paintings gleaned from my extensive travels.. based on one of the hundreds of road photos in my collection. The title of this piece is from a famous book detailing impressions of the less-travelled regions of the U.S.. written by William Least Heat-Moon. And the asphalt really is blue in the mid-day sun. I love the open highways in the Outback regions of the West.. no traffic.. just light and space.. plenty of time to soak-in the countryside.. cruising .. the good life.

5x7  oil on canvas panel  SOLD Many artists fear using orange.. but it is an useful color on my palette.. maybe because much of the land in the Southwest deserts is naked... barren of the cover of plants... beautifully designed... baked by the intense unrelenting sun.... burnt orange.

This is a page from one of my sketch books.. an idea for a large oil painting of water as it hits the submerged rocks in the Colorado River.. the force and beauty of the spray as it catches the light.. the backdrop a stylized version of the desert along the river. The main design to work out is the pattern of the spray and also to try to capture the translucent nature and weight of the water as it rolls by.   And all this action is lit by the late morning light.. refracting.. a feeling of diamonds throw in the air.. liquid magic.

6x6      oil on canvas     SOLD This little study is painted in an old fashioned style.. strong frontal light the subject.. lots of color. This intense lighting was one of the trademarks that made the impressionist movement so different from the preceding art styles.. and also what angered the critics. It was considered too raw.. too ugly.. and in the high years of this movement.. was best seen in Monet. Soon this type of lighting  foreshadowed the post-impressionism of Gauguin and Cezanne.. the flat colors and the strong influence of eastern design leading the way to 'modern art'.  When I teach I encourage all my students to study art history.. the past masters have influence to this day. Closely surveying their work will reveal how each art period evolved into the next. One wonders what.. from this ancient spectrum..  we are in the process of manifesting.

5x7      oil on canvas panel      SOLD A different reality.. the night world rises and orange merges into the blue.. opposites of the color spectrum. How is this possible? We take this kind of ordinary magic for granted.. but it is really incredible when contemplated.  As an observer... what does the boundary of these two worlds look like.. feel like... and what color is it? How can this magic realm be translated into paint? A common art principle explanation is that the half-tone [color change area] is a darker and redder shade of the color in the light and the leading edge of the shadowed area is a tad darker shade of itself. But I feel there is more to this.. there must be a rainbow of colors represented between day and night.. the warm to cool transition. Perhaps a micro view of this limbo land would be very beautiful in a larger painting.. and would certainly be a real challenge.

5x7   oil on canvas panel   Sold One of my more imaginative paintings.. the personification of the canyon formations.. the swirling colors of the Colorado River... mid-morning light. These small oils have a monumental quality that can translate well to a larger canvas... a fairytale come to life.

5x7 oil on canvas panel I know this looks a bit strange... almost abstract... an impression of the bright yellow color of the morning sun on the rock formations.. far above the Tonto platform of the Grand Canyon. Maybe a bird flying around would have clarified things.. it is what it is... a small study of light.

8x10 oil on canvas panel Here are examples of paintings in progress. The image above is fairly well along...  think it is perhaps 75% finished... three hours into it. The subject is the earth colors and oranges that one finds in the low reaches of the Grand Canyon where the Colorado River passes through desert.. the Lee's Ferry area.. saturated in the impressionist style.. strong light coming from behind my left shoulder... hardly any shadows on the forms. The water is least developed and I am undecided how much reflection I want to show. I don't usually paint in this manner.. preferring the drama of backlit subjects.. but the flat design of the shapes and challenge of depicting space through mostly color changes was irresistible. Below is an example of how I might lay-in a quick impression... about 20 minutes worth. Now comes the real work on this piece... back to the easel. 8x10 oil on canvas panel

30x40   oil on canvas Here is the revised version.. about 98% finished. I am still tweaking the colors and I think I want to do something different to the water.  It was a muddy color [as the river generally is].. but perhaps I could deepen the effect. You can see the waterline comes down further into the picture plane than before.. and the rocky cliffs on the left are larger. The farthest Canyon formation is shades of magenta and different blues.. it is very tricky to get just the right shade there. I will also probably paint some of this area over a tad as well.. I think it is too blue. I will post version 3 soon ... the continuing saga.

30x40 oil on canvas I am posting a painting which no longer exists.. it has been reworked with major revisions and several months of work had to be painted over. There are many layers in this work.. and I will post the revised version with many more layers on top of these.. the canvas is considerably heavier than a blank one. Why did I have to rework it??  Because I did not do a drawing before I started this large piece.. only a small thumbnail with some shapes. This subject should have had a detailed drawing done before picking up a brush.. not to scale but at least a large sketchbook study.  The Grand Canyon is not a landscape for impatient painters!  All the many parts must follow the law of perspective when doing contemporary realism. Usually I can draw well.. I spent many years only drawing as an art form and not painting.. but on this.. I did not do my homework and I paid for it. I could have had another two large paintings done in the time I spe...

5x7    oil on panel    SOLD This is a piece I completed last summer... an inspiration from a stroll on the wonderful South Rim Trail of the Grand Canyon. The desert monsoon season... the swirling mists rising on the hot air currents from far below to the high cool elevation of the Rim. You will be amazed at how fast the weather can change.. if you visit.. be prepared! Km Withers website

6x6        oil on canvas       SOLD Arizona was a territory when Lee operated a ferry across the Colorado River on the Arizona/Utah border.. the only easy way across the river until a bridge was built.  Here is an impression of the timeless sandstone formations of the Vermillion Cliffs that assuredly look the same today as in those historical days. This is the view from the boat launch where the rafts put in.. the official start of the Grand Canyon.. no turning back from here. Km Withers website