Kate Withers - 'Painting Space'

  9x12     oil on canvas panel    SOLD Sunset plein-air from just outside the boundary to Bryce National Park in Utah.. a wonderland of colors and shapes. Powell Point is the tallest landform in this area.. over 10,000' and home to a magnificent Bristlecone pine forest.

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!

Late summer afternoon on the shores of the high-elevation Lake Yellowstone.. typical scene while on a short stroll from the historic Lake Hotel to the quaint Yellowstone Store for an ice cream.  This was one of my favorite things to do.. beautiful colors and a treat at the end! 8x10      oil on canvas panel     $225 Purchase Info

8x10      oil on canvas panel     SOLD Not so long ago... all the roads into Arches National Park were gravel.. dusty and rutted. But the park became popular as people discovered this magnificent rock garden.. so the government paved the roads and even more people came. Today.. it is very crowded two thirds of the year. I will leave it to you to discover the other third when it can make all the difference in your experience of this sublime landscape.

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     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.

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.