C1497
“Dawn at
Battleship Butte”
(Valley
of the Gods, Utah)
Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel
5” x 7”
On 14th
October, I heard that Utah had provided funds to open some of its National
Parks, even though the majority in the country were still shut; it was time to
head for the Red Rocks Country. I passed by a tightly closed Mesa Verde
(still in Colorado), but decided that I would return if I hadn’t travelled too
far west by the time the Government shut-down ended. And so on to Utah and spent the first night
in Recapture Pocket. There were a few
distant lights, but only a few several miles away; there had been none from my
first forest road campsite, nor in American Basin; I will return to Recapture
Pocket in another post.
Passing through Bluff, UT
I proceeded down to Mexican Hat, topped up with petrol, and backtracked seven
miles to the start of the Valley of the Gods loop. Desert showers came past with the lowering
Sun casting an eerie light, and about 10 miles into the Valley I chose my campsite. A waxing gibbous Moon rose above the red
cliffs, so different from the High Rockies only a couple days before; and no
artificial lights to be seen!
There were rabbits here (surprising
how they seem to be everywhere you go), and I saw tracks of smaller creatures
in the sand, and a coyote scat near the rim of the small arroyo nearby. The odd vulture wheeled overhead during the
day, and Mr. Raven & his wife occasionally made a visit. I was not sure what wildlife I might or might
not see in this desert landscape.
Before dawn I arose and
readied myself for the painting above; no sign of the showers that had greeted
me the night before. The faintest butte
& chimney are in Monument Valley, in Arizona, scene of many a western film. I wanted to capture the foreground still in
the cool shadow with the butte bathed in the early morning light. Ochres were the base, but this subject
allowed Cadmium Red and Vermilion to make an entrance as well. The greens or the most part were mixed
greens, but I added a bit of Chromium Oxide Green to the palette as well.
The
imprimatura was Venetian Red, and the
pigments used in the main painting were: Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red, Vermilion,
Cadmium Red Pale, Naples Yellow (hue), Chromium Oxide Green, Cobalt &
Cerulean Blues, Cremnitz & Titanium Whites.
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