Snow … Grand Canyon, Part 1.

Saturday, March 17^th, 2018 to Monday, 19^th March; Grand Canyon Snow.

C1666

“Complimentary Canyon Colours”

(Grand Canyon National Park)

Oil Study on Pannelli Telati fine cotton Panel

5” x 7”

SOLD

This painting is a tough one to reproduce on screen.  I suggest that perhaps you look at it with slightly squinted eyes.  The amazing blue shadows of evening and the complementary oranges of the light on the buttes and mesas within the Canyon are the subject of this almost abstract study.

(Take Note: for those of you who have signed up to be notified by email of new postings to this blog, you have been receiving not just a notification, but an actual copy of the new blog posting as the email.  As this does not show the images of the paintings in the best possible light, you should click on the title of the latest blog posting at the top of the post, and not the title of the painting itself; this will open up the actual blog itself, and you may then enjoy the paintings at their best.)

Next morning … on to the Grand Canyon on a perfectly cloudless morning.  However, by the time I was able to get a campsite in the Mather Campground there, and got up to the visitors center, and watched the short introductory film, there was a lot of cumulus cloud, casting wonderful shadows across the Canyon.  I took a shuttle bus out west to the Hermit’s Rest and strolled back towards the east to Pima Point.  I found a rough footpath below the paved one and took that.  It was rugged and out of the wind, and even though only several yards from the paved path, had better views … makes you feel you have the Canyon to yourself.  By 16:30 you could see a front to the north, behind the cumulus, that portends the snow to come.  That snow came after 23:00 and only about three inches by Sunday morning, the 18^th of March.

Distant snow shower.

Snow on the Canyon rim at 7000’  ...

… nothing at the Colorado River,
a mile below!

Pinyon Pine.

Yuccas in the snow on the Canyon rim.

I let the falling snow lighten and when intermittent Sun began to show, I took the shuttle back towards Hermit’s Rest, but this time got off at Mojave Point and slowly worked my way back to the transfer point at Bright Angel Trailhead.  It was a day of increasing Sun with the odd snow shower sweeping past, and cloud shadows turning the Canyon into a light show.  I will let the photos speak for the day.  Towards the end of the hike, I was looking down on Bright Angel Trail, when I spotted a doe and a fawn on the trail across this side canyon.  A pair of hikers were slogging up the trail, and I paused to see what would occur.  The deer stayed on the edge of the trail, but kept their eyes warily on the hikers as they gingerly slipped past.  Then they went off trail on one of the slopes to graze … they must be used to the hikers if they graze that area.  I happened to meet the hikers at the shuttle stop; I had a feeling that they might be the two I had seen, and so they were … a couple from Belgium.

Approaching snow shower…

… that got bigger …

… especially a bit in from the rim …

… and then passed on to the east …

… leaving a day of Sun …

… and Shadows.

The Temple of Zoroaster,
seen in the last photo, here top left.

The clocks went forward to Daylight Savings Time, recently, but not in Arizona, which does not do DST, although the Navajo Nation, which straddles the Arizona/New Mexico border, does.  None of this really affects me, as I did not change my watch to Winter Time last Autumn.  I decided that by not doing so I would have lighter evenings during the Winter, and also be early for things.  Psychologically it worked for me, and I am toying with the idea of putting my watch ahead an hour to have a “double Daylight Savings Time!” I might just not change it when I transition back to the Pacific Time Zone from the Mountain Daylight Savings Time I’m on now, once I get back to Oregon.

The Bright Angel Trail follows the Bright Angel Fault, which you can see here running diagonally from the lower right to the upper left.

You can see the trail below, lower right, but it splits neat Indian Garden, the green oasis in the center, and that trail on the left goes out to Prospect Point, while the other descends to the right and the Colorado River.  It crosses the River and continues to the North Rim, still following the Bright Angel Fault.

No snow 3000’ below at Indian Garden.

Doe & fawn on the Bright Angel Trail …

… confronting an upward trending hiker;
the snow will last awhile down there
in the shadowed canyon.

Pigments used in the painting:

Imprimatura: Rublev Ercolano Red;

Drawing & Block-in: W&N Cobalt & Ultramarine Deep Blue;

Pigments: W&N Cobalt and Ultramarine Deep Blues, Permanent Rose, Cadmiums Orange & Yellow Pale;

Rublev: Orange Molybdate, Italian Burnt Sienna, & Lead White #2.