Cozumel Surf #1
Some time this spring Rhonda and I are headed back to Cozumel. Last year when we went I did not expect to see the island with my artists eyes I thought I would see it with my tourist eyes. My first surprise was how beautiful the water was from the air and from the beach and finally through a snorkel. I was captivated by the experience of snorkeling above the reefs on the west side of the island. I have tried to imagine how I could paint something that could capture that undersea feeling. My efforts as a photographer may be how I express the snorkel experience.
Chub Express
The amazing experience from the trip was the absolutely sublime feeling I had when I first saw the east beaches of Cozumel. I was nearly breathless. I have stood on the edge of thousand foot cliffs where I could see more than a hundred miles. I have seen hundreds of spectacular and sublime views of the Colorado Plateau. Maybe it is the fact that I have only had brief encounters with the ocean, but I fell in love with the color, the smell and power or the Caribbean surf on the east side of the island. I have completed a dozen small paintings and a couple of large ones based on the little research I did last year. The little 11 x 14 studio work which I included in this post, I just completed. I can hardly wait to stand on that shore and soak it all up again with the eye of an artist. Watch ebay this little painting will be offered up for sale or auction soon. ( I need to Pay for the trip)
Well I rang in the new year with a couple of hours painting on my Corona Arch painting and then Rhonda and I took our dog Supai on a short and sweet little cross country ski tour. The snow was ok… a little bit sticky but any time spent skiing is time well spent.
When we got home our house was filled with our entire family and we had an awesome new years dinner together. I’ll paint tomorrow.
Wow, I can’t get enough of the Moab area Rhonda, Dan and I spent the thanksgiving weekend there. I was happy to be able to do some pen and ink sketching in Arches National Park and some over at Dead Horse Point State park. The State park has built a wonderful Mt. Bike trail which treats the rider to some awe inspiring views. Many are the same views I painted back in the 1980′s I might need to scan some transparencies of that old work and share some of it or better yet maybe I will revisit those vistas with my brush.
Here are a couple of knife paintings from the Moab trip Rhonda and I took in October. We love the hike up to Delicate Arch and even though we have done it a number of times over the years it is always fun. Here are a couple of paintings I made after the hike I really need to haul my paint box up there and give it a plein air attempt although I am not sure how environmentally friendly oil paint and solvent is on that slick rock. I would need to be extra careful.
I find that there is something quite seductive about how thick oil paint behaves on a palette knife. I love the way it lets me create patches of color. The only problem is it took these two paintings three weeks to dry enough for me to safely photograph them!
Wow it’s been a few months since I have written in this Blog. A lot has happened in my life since June, not as much painting as I would have hoped for but, I have had several fun trips to some beautiful Utah painting locations including; Bryce Canyon, Little Wild Horse Canyon, Fish Lake, Twelve Mile among others. I have been deer hunting, I ran a triathlon along with my wife, daughter-in-law and my brother. I also managed to pack in a little fresh water snorkeling.
In October, Rhonda and I spent some time hiking and biking around Moab and Arches National Park. I came home from Moab and painted a couple of palette knife paintings to commemorate our trip. I liked what I saw so I have decided to produce a series of natural arch paintings and see where they go. I envision a lot of hiking with Rhonda to see and paint some new arches. I have painted natural Arches before and those of you who know my fathers’ art work are aware that he was a serious painter of natural Arches and natural bridges. One of the very first paintings I ever made was of Delicate Arch. I was in fifth grade.
I have had a busy couple of days, not much painting. I jogged the Rat Fink Reunion 5k fun run in Manti Ut. I swam across Palisades lake (about a 1000 meters of open water). I went to a 3-D Archery Shoot fundraiser for Special Olympics. This over the shoulder photo courtesy of my Brother.
I made a couple of larger oil paintings of Cozumel beaches this week, one of them will be up for auction on EBAY starting Sunday June 7th. Rhonda and I went out on Thursday and Friday evenings. Thursday we went up to Big Springs. I looked for painting ideas and found one or two and Rhonda took the dogs and went on a hike. Friday we went up to the Homestead Crater in Midway and did a little snorkeling and skin diving practice.
I snapped this photo of Rhonda And I at southern most tip of the Island.
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