Kate Withers - 'Painting Space'

 Remembering my time at Dead Horse State Park .. smoldering red sunset .. last glow over an immense landscape.  This was an experiment to see if I could accomplish a tonal painting .. colors that are similar and close in values .. using restraint. Plus I wanted to use some of my many red and violet oils without doing flowers ..the usual way to use lots of reds. Here is my impression from that famous viewpoint ..  acquire at Gallery 24 - Torrey Utah

**Update .. repainted this piece .. improved the composition from too linear .. more broken areas .. bigger trees and road .. increased color .. added ravens ..  compare and see what you think :) 30x30 oil     gallery-wrapped canvas     - view at the Rim Rock Restaurant in Torrey Utah - Previous version: And in it's polished wood frame:

If you have ever visited Capitol Reef National Park.. you know there are many different reef formations in the region.  This painting was inspired by the moonlike landscape found just outside the east side of the Park.  Clay and old ancient sand dunes with hardly any plants growing.. afternoon light on the Reef. 8x10     oil on canvas View at the Rim Rock Restaurant in Torrey Utah

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!

Here are the first layers of color... mainly ultramarine blue, manganese thalo, cadmium red deep, cadmium red light and a little naples yellow. I will be expanding this limited palette somewhat.. but this piece is based on a blue/red concept. You can see the shapes are taking on a life of their own already. Long ways to go....

Started a new painting from one of my photos taken in early fall... the Paria River Canyon area.. 24x24 oil .. one of my favorite areas.. a relatively unknown vast high desert region of the Grand Staircase NM.. just on the border between Arizona and Utah. A painter could spend a lifetime in that wonderland. Here are two versions of the structure.. the initial layin.. a de-saturated version and the drawing I did on the canvas with my brush... prussian blue over a dried flesh-colored acrylic wash.. just to seal the canvas and cut the white glare. I find this the only good use for any 'flesh' named paint.. the earth as corporeal. Onwards!

24x24     oil on canvas I decided on a major change... now there is a larger juniper tree in the foreground and more bushes on the slopes. I needed to break-up the orange shape on the right.. it was too much and was competing with the main focus.. the towering citadel of stone. I also needed to balance the dark masses ..more of an entrance feeling. So don't be afraid to go for it.

Finished!.. [well except for a couple more strokes of paint]. On to the next project.. I'm thinking skies. The early spring skies have been amazing here in southern Nevada.. and I feel I want to do something more abstract and not as detailed. I need a break!

About 7/8 done.. getting closer. These large paintings are fun but can take a long time to complete.. probably a couple more days [weeks] in the studio. You can compare this version to the earlier underpainting post and see how it has evolved. Colors used are a fairly limited palette... naples yellow, cad orange, two earths [light red and terra rosa], two blues [prussian and ultramarine].. and a violet. 24x24 oil on gallery-wrapped canvas. Onwards.

Slow going on this piece... getting the values and lighting right is a challenge. There is something about this that I am not happy with.. haven't been able to put my finger on it yet.. but I will. The halfway mark is usually the most difficult part of the painting. Each piece 'wants' to come to fruition and needs me to concentrate and be open.. it's a synergistic process. The next post will be the finished piece [maybe].. and I expect it will be quite different than this image [like what happened to the "Queen of Spades Range']. So back to the easel!

Last night I quickly did the color underpainting for this piece.. prussian blue, cadmium red light, and an earthy light red. I was able to do this so fast because the drawing I did earlier was easy to follow [one reason why drawing is important]. Of course there are always areas of a composition that are problematic.. but eventually they will be designed to belong. The concept has to do with the awe one feels when driving into Zion Canyon.. intimate yet grand.

The concept for this piece is based on a b&w photo I took while working in Zion Canyon last summer.   From that.. I drew with a brush and some muddy oil paint I had on my palette diluted with lots of thinner... just a rough sketch on the canvas.  This is only a guide.. the painting will evolve as it will when I add colors. Stay tuned!

8x10     oil on canvas panel     SOLD Moonrise over the West.. an experience of the mystic as the full moon majestically rises over the silent desert.. an experience that I have always found to be one of the best reasons to be alive. This piece is a study in contrasts.. the intense saturated orange of a mesa at last light with the cooler darker violet colors of the foreground already in shadow... the simple moon in a pearly sky contrasted with the earth's wonderful complexity and texture. Purple and orange.. a favorite pair.

8x10    oil on canvas panel    SOLD The redrock landscapes arouind Moab - Utah are some of my favorites in the entire West.. an artist's dream of form and color. This is a study of warm pottery -colored earth contrasted with the wonderful cool silvery blue-green sage lining an impromptu trail ... hiking in the beautiful Mill Creek Canyon area.. just one of many spectacular pockets in this part of the country.. best visited in late October or November after the crowds.

8x10     oil on canvas panel     SOLD This plein-air oil painting is from a dayhike into a lesser-known area of Great Basin National Park.. one of the most remote regions of the West. Mining was a large part of the old economy before the turn of the century.. and this road was made and used by those long gone gold miners. Just up the road is a dugout.. not the baseball kind.. but a dwelling built into the hillside as shelter from the cold bitter winds of Nevada. But on this bright June day.. the past melted into the present.. perfect.