Canyon de Chelly, Part 2 … Spider Rock.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018_Saturday, 17^th February; Canyon de Chelly, Arizona.

C1664

“A Shaft of Light”

(Spider Rock, Canyon de Chelly, Arizona)

Oil Sketch on Pannelli Telati fine Cotton Panel

6” x 8”

SOLD

The Drawing and Block-in of the Painting.

(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.)

This is one of those paintings that took over and dictated what needed to be done.  For example, I needed to give a real sense of scale to this 800 foot high monolith of stone, and so a certain amount of detail was needed.  The miniscule trees on the canyon floor and lower slopes were essential in doing this.  I couldn’t have done this in a looser painting, thus it took considerably longer than planned and this is reflected in the price.  Still, I would point out that this is not a detailed painting when set against my Watercolours; you will need to go to my Website to see examples of those (www.StevenThorJohanneson.com).

The approach to Spider Rock …

… and first glimpse.

Takes your breath away, doesn't it.

Pondie in the Canyon.

I think Spider Rock is the signature piece de resistance of Canyon de Chelly.  It is at the far end of the south rim drive, and when doing that rim, I had driven the north rim first, I went straight there and then worked my way back along the viewpoints, so that I was heading for the campground all afternoon.  When I arrived at Spider Rock trailhead, I did not know what I was to be looking for, but when it comes into view, you know what you have come to see … a free-standing twin spire of rock, 800 feet high, at the junction of a couple of branches of the canyon.  I arrived just as a shaft of sunlight was hitting the upper reaches of it and casting its shadow on the canyon floor, while the surrounding landscape was still in cloud-shadow!  “Oh,” I said, “that’s what I’ve come to see!”

Low Winter light in the Canyon.

The White House
from the Canyon Rim.

The only trail down into the canyon the public is allowed to take, without the necessity of a Navajo guide, is that to the White House, so named for its almost complete white plaster still in existence.  I took this trail on Friday, my second day at the Canyon.  It was supposed to be a clear day, but there was high hazy cloud, which made for low contrast lighting, but it was still worth the hike down and back in spite of the eight switchbacks on the trail.  There were two Navajo boys who, climbed up the sharp sandstone inclines, thus cutting off the switchbacks.  From below it looked almost impossible, but when I later made my ascent I could see that the angles of ascent were not as imposing as they had appeared from below.  Still, it would be an ascent for a much younger self, and with ‘grippy’ footwear.  I had lunch halfway back up, and watched a couple of crazy chipmunks running up and down the canyon walls.  Here I met a Navajo Park Ranger, who, like me, had been a cross country runner in his youth, but he had trained by running up and down this very trail!  I would have feared running against him back in the day.

The top of the cliffs
above the trail to the White House.

On the trail …

… down to …

… the White House.

The Pigments used in the painting:

Imprimatura: W&N Rublev Ercolano Red;

Drawing & Block-in: W&N Ultramarine Deep & Rublev Ercolano Red & Purple Ocher;

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

Rublev: Ercolano Red, Purple Ochre, Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Orange Molybdate & Lead White #2.

South through the Petrified Forest to Show Low & Beyond.

Saturday, February 17, 2018_Monday, 19^th February; Show Low, Arizona.

C1663

“New Moon amongst the Ponderosas”

Oil Sketch on Pannelli Telati fine Cotton Panel

5” x 7”

Click here to make this Your Own

I wanted to call this painting “New Moon amongst the Pondies,” but I figured only people in the west might realize I was referring to Ponderosa Pines, and even many of them might not get it, so … Ponderosas.

(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.)

From Canyon de Chelly my road led south.  I first stopped at the Hubbell Trading Post outside Ganado, Arizona.  This has been in continuous operation since 1878, and is now part of the National Park system.  It was established to aid in the recovery of the Navajo from the effects of ‘the Long March.’  In 1864 the Navajo were forced off their land to walk 300 miles in midwinter to a reservation near Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico.  Four years later they were allowed to return to their former homeland straddling the Arizona/New Mexico border, where they found that their dwellings had in the meantime been burned, their peach orchards cut down and their sheep gone.  This trading post established in 1878 was crucial in their recovery from this catastrophe.  The sheep raised by the Navajo are a variety called Churro; originally from Spain, where they are now extinct.

Layout of the Hubbell Trading Post.

The Trading Post is still in operation.

The old bunkhouse … seen better days.

Churro Sheep.

Wee ones.

Thanksgiving anyone?

The Post interior.

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest were passed through next, about 50 miles from the trading post.  I had heard of these natural wonders, as a lad, but was not aware of the details.  This landscape dates from Triassic times of the early dinosaurs, and although many important fossil finds have been made here, for the average visitor it is the colorful strata of the Painted Desert, and the many fossilized remains of ancient Triassic trees, that are the draw, myself included.  It being a hazy to overcast day, the colours of the landscape were not at their best, by any means, but it was still a very worthwhile 3-1/2 hour dalliance, stopping off at overlooks, and walking trails amongst the fallen petrified remains of the large Triassic trees.  Many looked as though they were modern Redwoods that had fallen but yesterday.

Painted Desert.

The Desert Inn …
once a featured stop on Route 66.

You can just make out San Francisco Peaks
near Flagstaff, Arizona from 108 miles away.

Teepee Hills … I wonder why?

My first glimpse of petrified wood.

Looks like it fell just a little while ago.

I spent too long here, even though it was too brief to take it all in, and I was hard pressed to find a campsite before nightfall.  I had thought I might find a place to tuck in for the night just a few miles down the road, but it was all mostly private land, and the square miles of State land, dotted here and there, were mostly inaccessible.  So I had to push the fifty or so miles to the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in the Show Low area.  I found a campsite in amongst the Ponderosas, just before it was too dark to make it impossible.  The wind rose and I worried about falling trees, but none fell in my area.

In the Jasper Forest.

Hard to believe it wasn’t sawn.

Close-up of exterior bark …
hard to believe this is now stone.

In the Crystal Forest.

The next day I scouted out Show Low, and surprisingly found it to be quite a comprehensive town for its size … population about eleven and a half thousand.  It lies within the National Forest, and so it is a Ponderosa Pine, intermixed with Junipers and Pinions, landscape; not what I imagined in Arizona.  And then there is the snow that was coming along with high winds, so I decided to drop off the Mogollon Rim to lower altitude and about 70 miles south into the Tonto National Forest; there the winds were still strong, but it was rain and not snow, and the road, even though gravel, would not prevent me from getting out of the forest when I wished.

My pocket knife is roughly 6”.

The Big Log of the Monument …
about 10 feet across at the base.

The Pigments used in the painting:

Imprimatura: Rublev Ercolano Red;

Drawing: W&N Cobalt & Ultramarine Deep Blues;

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

Rublev: Ercolano Red, Purple Ochre, Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Orange Molybdate & Lead White #2.

Canyon de Chelly, Part 1.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018_Saturday, 17^th February; Canyon de Chelly, Arizona

C1662

“Winter Canyonlight”

(Canyon de Chelly, Arizona)

Oil Sketch on Pannelli Telati fine Cotton Panel

5” x 7”

Click here to make this Your Own

Note that I have added a paragraph about seeing the Zodiacal Light for the first time towards the bottom of my last post about Chaco Canyon.

(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.)

Whereas Chaco Canyon, Hovenweep and even Mesa Verde are all about the architectural ruins, Canyon de Chelly is all about the landscape.  Oh there are Ancestral Puebloan ruins such as the White House, alright, but they are almost incidental to the grandeur of the landscape.  I was not prepared for this, even though I had seen photographs, and even paintings of these canyons, the reality was much more astonishing!  I came expecting more ruins, but what I got was magnificent canyonscapes!!  And the low slanting light of Winter brings out the colours of these thousand foot canyon walls to the fore.  Even though you are seeing these canyons from the many viewpoints along the rim, these views are stupendous.

Canyon del Muerto … the north rim of
Canyon de Chelly, National Monument.

Close up of Antelope House.

I believe that is Black Mesa on the horizon.

Mummy House Ruin, Canyon del Muerto.

A closer view.

I arrived at the campground late in the day, with rain in the offing, and just managed to settle in for the night before the wind and rain really came on.  The next day the rain was off to the east, but it looked like the overcast was going to make for a bland light in which to take in the Canyon; I was still thinking in terms of light and shadows on ruins.  As it turned out, with the cloud came the sunlight trying to break through, and this made for wonderful lighting effects all day long.  The Canyon is so large that there was always something to view and/or photograph without having to wait for clouds to move … I only had one twenty minute waiting period, for the Sun to appear, all day.

Living on the Edge.

Sadly, a guided jeep, or horseback tour along the Canyon floor, was beyond my budget ... perhaps some future visit.  It would be nice to see these canyon walls from below, like I got a taste of when hiking to the White House.  I would also have to choose a sunny day, for the right lighting … Autumn would be ideal, when the Cottonwoods were glowing golden.  Part 2 of Canyon de Chelly will continue after an interlude in the Ponderosas, in the next posting of the blog.

Near Spider Rock.

Spider Rock ... the farthest point
on the south rim of Canyon de Chelly.

The White House is in the alcove
in the center of the photo.

A closer view of the White House
from the same vantage point.

The Pigments used in the painting:

Imprimatura: W&N Venetian Red & Rublev Ercolano Red;

Drawing: W&N Ultramarine Deep Blue & Rublev Purple Ochre;

Pigments: W&N: Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cadmium Orange;

Blockx: Ivory Black;

Rublev: Ercolano Red, Purple Ochre, Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Orange Molybdate & Lead White #2.