Saturday, June 23, 2012

It's Too Big

Hat-munching in front of the temple of Isis



The current visual Grand Canyon Association Artist in Residence, Melinda Esparza (who has just been outdoing herself in all manner of things lately), let me tag along for the ride for a couple of days, and I cracked open the old guerrilla painter's pochade full of wonders and soaked an otherwise unassuming page of my watercolor journal.

The Canyon is just too damn big to paint small, and of course someone who rarely touches bristles to paper isn't going to 'capture' it. But drawing and painting makes you look carefully, in a way that staring and shading your eyes for five minutes isn't going to do.

Here's another joy: in school we were restricted in our palette to primaries and neutrals by our instructors and our budgets. But now I have more latitude. I snagged a grab-bag full of winsor and newtons from Ebay, and discovered the joys of saturated tertiaries.

8 comments:

Barbara Muir said...

Wahoo, Good to see you painting at the canyon. You two have been on my mind all day.

Lovely painting -- using the colours that please you.

Take care,

Barbara

Anonymous said...

This is a beautiful little study, Edgar. It's nice to see something new from you.

Edgar said...

Hi Barbara!
Thanks for the good thoughts. Just getting used to the altitude right now.

Edgar said...

Bill,
Thanks for looking me up. It has been too long. :-)

Melinda said...

Excellent work, Edgar! I'm so glad you painted.

Paint more!!

Custom Lapel Pins said...

i agree with this The Canyon is just too damn big to paint small, and of course someone who rarely touches bristles to paper isn't going to 'capture' it

TSL said...

Are you okay? You haven't posted in so long!

Unknown said...

Those photos are too terribly cute.