Red Rocks and Starry Skies.

Monday, 30^th October_Friday, 08^th December, 2017; Arches N.P., Utah.

C1647

“Rocks Red … Foliage Green”

(Arches National Park, Utah)

Oil on Pannelli Telati Panel

5” x 7”

Click here to make this Your Own

(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.)

It’s all over down here in southern Utah … Red Rocks … ancient sedimentary rock.  That doesn’t mean there are not other colours present in this geological landscape, there are; yellow ochres, browns, tans and even greens, but red is the predominate colour one thinks about once darkness falls and the day is considered before sleep.  This makes for a very interesting landscape of contrasting colours, with the greens of the Junipers, Pinyon Pines, Sagebrush and other bushes complementing the earth red rocks; kind of like subdued Christmas colours everywhere.

The Wall of Elephants near Double Arch.

Double Arch.

The cliffs especially glow at sundown, almost on fire, and I have observed most clear evenings, about twenty to thirty minutes after the sun has set, the cliffs radiating a different sort of glow seemingly from within while the rest of the landscape and the sky are darkened with the dusk.  This glow seems to last about ten or so minutes.

The South Window.

Evening Glow at the Wall of Elephants.

And once the darkness descends, the Stars sparkle and the Milky Way shines in the night sky as diamond dust on deep blue velvet.  When We were younger, before the night skies were filled with the smoke and dust of the Industrial Revolution and before Edison’s light bulbs pushed back the glorious dark of the Night, We all had skies like these.  One of the interesting things about camping in the same spot for a period of time as I have been recently is observing the celestial mechanics of the night sky in action.  Even though I have known these things, having always been interested in Astronomy (Astronomy … not Astrology), to watch the same stars rise at the same point on the horizon night after night, but approximately four minutes earlier every night, is a lesson about the annual revolution of the Earth around the Sun.  Four minutes each night means that after fifteen days have passed, the same star is rising one hour earlier than it was, and thus multiply that hour by 24 hours, a year will have passed and the star will be rising at the same time that it did when you began your observations.  Of course you won’t be able to keep up your observations of any particular star when it rises during the day, but watching it rise a whole hour earlier after only fifteen days, and you begin to get the picture.  So there you are, then.

Fins.

Tunnel Arch glowing with the late afternoon Sun.

In the painting (at top) the butte in the distance is known as the Tower of Babel (no I don’t know why), and the pillar of rock in the center has no name that I have discovered.  The Pigments used in the painting are the usual ones I’ve been using recently in this Red Rock Country:

Imprimatura & Drawing: Rublev Ercolano Red;

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

Rublev: Ercolano Red, Purple Ochre, Orange Molybdate, Lead White #1.

Arches National Park.

(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.)

Monday, 30^th October_30^th November, 2017; Arches N.P., Utah.

C1645

“Late Afternoon at Delicate Arch”

(Arches National Park, Utah)

Oil on Pannelli Telati fine Cotton Panel

5” x 7”

Click here to make this your Own

Of course when I trekked in to Moab the day after Thanksgiving to make this posting, I found the library closed for the whole weekend, unlike my local Oregon library which would have been open.  And so almost a week later I finally have a chance to do so.  After barreling past the entrance to Arches National Park over several days, and gazing up in awe at the façade of red rock cliffs up which the entrance road switchbacks high above the Moab Valley, I finally made my entry into the park, past the formation known as the Three Penguins, and up onto the rising plateau beyond.  I am not going to relate a blow by blow or sequential account of my extended time here at Arches, as there is too much to relate in that format.  I will say that I have been here so much longer than I expected, but it has been a most informative time as I have learned about and familiarized myself with this amazing geology hereabouts.  I am hoping that what I have been learning about the geology here will help those endeavors as I proceed through the red rock country of the Four Corners area.

I have walked almost all the major footpaths in the Park, even those that I originally thought I would do only sections of, and have done several more than once.  I haven’t been doing this the entire time I’ve been here, as there have been necessary maintenance and recovery days spent in camp on the Willow Springs Road, and outside the Park boundary near Klondike Bluffs.

Delicate Arch … to get down past the arch, to where the little people are,
is much steeper than it looks from this angle … it put me off.

Yep… steeper than you think, but the rock is grippy,
although I understand not o much in wet weather.

The hike to the viewpoint for my painting of Delicate Arch was a bit strenuous, as it is uphill most of the way.  It was a very windy day, and there were real fears of being blown off a ledge, but there were many others making the trek, so I pressed boldly onwards.  It was the evening of the last full Moon, and on a Friday night, when the Park is open 24/7 … there is road resurfacing going on so Arches as been closed after 7 PM except for Fridays and Saturdays … thus the crowds.  The Sunset was not the most spectacular, but since I was there I remained to see what it would do, but I had neglected to bring my headlamp, so did not await the rising of the Moon; perhaps the one in a couple of days.  There was enough afterglow, as well as moonlight, that I made it down the hill with no problems, but it might have been problematic if I had left it later.  The mountains in the distance in my painting are the La Sal Mountains.

Delicate Arch with the La Sals in the distance.

The Organ from Park Avenue.

Earlier in the day I had hiked up Park Avenue from the bottom end, and that direction is highly recommended as once you turn around to head back to your car, it is downhill all the way.  Park Avenue is the first major point of interest and footpath after you enter the Park, and is a canyon between tall walls of Entrada Sandstone upon a base of Dewey Bridge formation and capped in spots with lighter Moab formation sandstone; the canyon is floored with Navajo sandstone, which was laid down as sand dunes in times past.  Those interested in these rocks will no doubt go on line and find out more … I have a book of Utah geology.  Park Avenue is named for the vague resemblance to the artificial canyon of the same name in New York City.  I prefer this one, with its tall walls of red rock, balanced rocks and interesting side canyons.  There will be more on Arches next time.

The Navajo Sandstone forms the pavement here in Park Avenue, and the Entrada Sandstone form the steep walls on the upper left; below the Entrada, slanting down behind the tree top, is the rounded Dewey Bridge Formation, and the cap-rock on the Tower of Babel (right of center in the distance) is made up of the Moab Formation.

In Park Avenue.

A side canyon of Park Avenue.

A nook in Park Avenue.

The Pigments used in the painting were,

Imprimatura & Drawing: Rublev Ercolano Red;

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

Rublev: Ercolano Red, Purple Ochre, Lead White #1.