C1503
“Study … Rock
Formation”
(Grand
Canyon, Arizona)
Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel
4” x 6”
Next I turned to matters
close at hand, after little stroll and a
bit of a stretch, and tackled the rocks just a few feet away from where I’d
done the two earlier Oil Sketches. Now I
chose a 4" x 6" panel (being contrary), and used the same palette I’d
been working with all day (why change now?), with a brush drawing in Cobalt
Blue, and again no imprimatura; Cobalt
Blue, Venetian Red, Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow (hue), Cadmium Red, and
Titanium White, all Winsor & Newton.
I spent whatever time I
had here in the Grand Canyon area painting and taking photographs, and have had
no time since then to really study the geology, so I can’t tell you at present
what these rocks might be, so we’ll just call them “the creamy coloured rocks
at the top of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, roughly 12 miles east of the
Visitor’s Center,” shall we? OK, well
that’s settled. But I did have an occasional
companion all day, in the form of a blondish squirrel with a spotty or mottled
colouration on its back; this was a Rock Squirrel (Otospermophilus variegates), and I saw several during my time at the
Canyon, and so far none before or since.
The handling of this Study was looser than the two sketched earlier in
the day, as you can see, for example, with the broader brush strokes in the sky
and the bit of landscape showing on the left.
The rocks themselves I built up with discreet strokes of colour next to
each other, and then pecked in smaller strokes later to build up a bit of the
texture of the rock surface, lichens and the sparse branches of the , I
believe, Rabbit-brush … maybe a little sagebrush as well, and to give shape to
the formation. I could have gone
further, but it stands as it is; the day was waning, and I did cook supper in
the deepening dusk. A good day with
three Oil Sketches completed, and my first confrontation in paint with this Great
Natural Wonder!
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