In just a week my son, Owen, and I will have an opening of our art show at the Contreras Gallery. The opening is Saturday, February 1st from 6 to 9 pm, 110 E. 6th St., Tucson. This will be my fifth show at this gallery. Each year I have had a theme. Last year it was “Rocks and Water”. This year it is that great inspiration, the Grand Canyon. Here are two of the paintings.

 

The unfinished painting – “Canyon Highlights”

(The darkness on the right side of the painting is due to the way it was illuminated when I took the picture)

 

 

 

 

 

“Canyon Highlights”

 

 

“Canyon Highlights” felt right almost the moment I put paint to paper. When I had finished blocking in the main forms I liked it a lot and was almost afraid to touch it again for fear of spoiling the effect. It wasn’t until I had finished all but three of the 24 paintings for the show that I returned to this one, and decided to take the risk of working on it more. In the end I was very happy with the result. Incidentally, during our Christmas vacation, I had used the drawing for this painting as an exercise in teaching some of my family members watercolor. There are now a half a dozen versions of this painting in various homes in our family. All the young artists did wonderful work.

The other painting is a full sheet (22″x30″), called “The Drama of Evening”. I love the contrasts of sunshine and shadow in these sunset views. A scene like this can be very fleeting, lasting only a few minutes. The people in the painting help to convey something of the scale of the canyon. If you are in Tucson on the first Saturday of February I would love to show these two paintings and the other attempts to capture aspects of this natural wonder. The show will include two of my oil paintings, and 22 watercolors, plus works by Owen Rose.