Kate Withers - 'Painting Space'

6x6    oil on canvas     SOLD A quick study from the Lee's Ferry area...here the Colorado River flows swiftly down from Lake Powell.  This is the only spot to launch a boat and enter the Grand Canyon.. a thrilling adventure.   There is a great campground nearby.. but you wouldn't want to be there in the summer.. 100˚plus.  Fisherman prize this stretch of the river.. and if you stay in one of the quaint lodges nearby.. you will be sharing the space with fishermen, avid hikers, intrepid travelers, photographers.. and painters! Go there.

8x10       oil on canvas panel        NFS A quick preliminary oil study for a much larger painting which took many months and constant re-painting to finish... after all that.. I actually like this small piece better. (There must be a moral somewhere in this :)

This is the kind of painting that one could re-paint many times. Since the basic composition is interesting.. I decided to experiment further.. more shape changes and increased the chroma ... a strong red orange light is being reflected from an unknown source on the left.. plus there is still the last rays of sunset on the top rocks. I will continue to refine this idea until it all comes together.  However.. since I have been working on this exclusively for so long now.. I am looking forward to the next project.. so this will be wrapped up soon. More color/ value adjustments on the rocks and then the final glistening effects on the water.

I decided on changing the shapes of the foreground rocks and tweaking the other forms somewhat. Also you can see the first layer of color on the water. I want to make it look like still dark water with a glossy foreground bow wake.. coming into 'sanctuary' for the night.

Here is where this painting stands today.. I decided to emphasize the reflected light coming into the cove from the left.. lightens the formations considerably.. but since there is a lot of light in the sky yet I think this will work. I added a few bushes on the slopes.. and adjusted values again [and again]. Rocks are about 90% done.. soon on to the water challenge!

Today's effort focused on painting the sky and cooling the formations as they turned from the reflected light. More work to do!

I am into the refinement stage on the rocks now... the water reflections won't be painted until the formations are 90% finished. Time to get out my mediums and start mixing with the oils for the final layers. I will be using a high-gloss mixture of spike solvent, varnish, stand oil and turps for the water.. and a dammar varnish, stand oil, wax/turps mix for the rocks and sky [a much more matte medium]... this will add to the sandstone texture instead of too glossy. I also might pull out the palette knife for a few thick pieces of paint on the foreground rocks. Since there is not a lot of depth in this composition.. I will use some texture for contrast.

I thought this painitng was going to be rather easy to do...no such luck. I am still working my way through the rock structures and trying to decide if I need to make it warmer or cooler. Slow going on this...here is the current version as of this evening. I am also in the middle of creating a new website from scratch...so my studio time has been usurped. Gotta be done tho!

Here is today's effort.. more painting on the rocks and the dark dark underpainting for the water. After this dries somewhat.. I will apply thin paint in lighter colors for the reflections.. but the rocks need to be mostly finished before attempting this.

Taking the underpainting from the previous post further... refined the drawing of the shapes and experimented with this uncommon limited palette: naples yellow, jaune brilliant, yellow ochre, orange ochre, mars violet, permanent madder, cobalt turquoise, cobalt blue and mineral violet... basically using the complementary pair.. yellows and purples. I can mix wonderful soothing colors from this combination.. the mood and light of this must be maintained by close values and subtle temperature changes within the shapes. Interesting!

Here is the initial underpainting of my current project.. cobalt turquoise and magenta only.. 20x30 canvas. This will be painted from a photo I took while working at Lake Powell one summer while on one of my many houseboat expeditions. The concept is on feeling.. the quiet hour at sunset looking for a good place to shelter the boat for the night. The water is usually calm then... the desert winds dying down... the massive rocks veiled in soft grayed colors. Peace reigns.

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.

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    SOLD It is a real challenge to portray rushing water.. the rocks magnified under the glass-like clear sheen of the surface .. the movement of the flow.. the turbulence of the waves.  And at the same time making sure to paint the reflection colors so they make sense. In actuality.. painting water is very abstract exercise. The edges and shapes generally should be clean for the best results... no blurry edges or fuzziness. This study is just that.. a study.. a foray into the magic of water.

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...

18x24    oil on canvas                private collection Here is a piece I finished recently ... an 18x24 oil on canvas. It was started years ago and although it was 90% completed.. it needed the detailed finish to be developed. Just goes to show that time can play a hand in your work :)