Moab, Arches, and Canyonlands Plein Air Paintings

Ahhhh... Moab! 

I do love my solo trips to the desert. Seriously. If you've been following me and my work for a while, you already know that the desert is my happy place. In the past few years, I've visited several national parks such as Death Valley, Zion, and Joshua Tree, and each one has provided healing and solace for me in exactly the way I needed at the time.

Earlier this month, I took a four day trip to Moab. No, I don't camp. I love a hot shower at the end of the day, and I like to cook my food over a real stove. So I always rent a small Airbnb with a full kitchen and wifi, and I make that my home base for a few days. Because my desert trips take place most often in the winter or colder months, the sun goes down by 5:00 or so. In the morning, I get up extra early, hike and paint during the times when the light is the best, and then I use the evening hours to paint a still life or a self portrait. And then... I sleep! It's a very special time when I don't need to take care of anyone else--just me. Instead of nurturing the husband, kids, dog, and home, I can use this time to nurture my soul and my art. I'm very fortunate to be able to do this (thanks, Hubs!), and I don't take a single moment for granted.

This trip was much needed. I had some things to sort out. And, I had been itching to come back to Moab ever since we stopped by VERY briefly back in March with the whole family. My goal was to paint six paintings--I ended up coming back with 8!

Please enjoy these new pieces, some of which are available through my website or through Saks Galleries in Denver.

Oh, and a quick side note about my palette: in spite of Utah being a very red/orange/earth tones kind of place, I didn't have red on my palette at all on this trip. I got those beautiful rich warm colors by combining Sennelier's Chinese Orange with Michael Harding's Amethyst. It was a match made in heaven. :-)

Above: "Delicate Arch," 9x12", oil on linen mounted aluminum.

I had never done this hike before but I can see why it's the most popular hike in Arches National Park. It was a steep climb with beautiful views and the most amazing reward at the top!

Above: "Kane Creek Cliffs" 8x10", oil on linen panel. I had the pleasure of painting alongside the amazing Joshua Been one morning, and this was where we set up. It was freezing cold on that shadow side of the cliffs, but so worth it for that view! Josh painted an 18x36" in the time it took me to do this little 8x10". :-) By the way, Josh is the inventor of the Fly on the Wall and Daytripper easels, which I use regularly for plein air. Check out his website here.

Say hi, Josh!

Above: "Shafer Canyon Overlook," 8x12", oil on linen panel. I spent a full day in Canyonlands National Park (Island in the Sky district), and ended up doing three paintings that day. Here's one where I got a real strong block-in but the clouds moved in quickly and the light changed completely. Thankfully I took some photo references and was able to finish it in the studio.

Above: "Buck Canyon Atmosphere" - 10x10 inches, oil on oil primed textured canvas. One of my favorites from the trip. Loved every minute painting this one--and that view!

You can see more pictures and paintings from my trip on my Instagram (@annarose_artist). Here is a small 6x8" self portrait I did in my weird apartment lighting. :-) I kind of enjoy painting in unusual lighting situations because they present fun new challenges.

Anyway... it was a great trip. Where should I go next??

New Painting: "A Child Will Lead Them"

I've already posted this new painting on social media but in today's post, I'd like to share a bit more the story behind it and also some of my painting progress shots. 

While my son finally got into a full-time daycare this past April, I had my 7-year-old daughter home with me all summer. My ongoing struggle always seems to be how to balance motherhood with doing what I’m most passionate about: painting. If you’re the type who believes art isn’t necessary, then it’s easy to write off my struggle as ridiculous: of course family and home should come first. Why are you still painting at all?? But if you’re like me and art is as necessary as oxygen… then you know the struggle is real. 

This summer, I started taking Cecelia along for more and more of my painting excursions. I thought it would be hard to let go of what I always considered to be "me" time, but it turns out, she's an excellent companion, she's always up for anything, and most importantly--she still thinks I'm cool! She is also quite the budding artist and I'm proud to say that the passion I've always had for painting, combined with a strong work ethic, is starting to manifest itself in my daughter. This makes it all SO worth it!

Aside from the struggle of balance, there have also been many times where I’ve experienced self doubt, frustration, and a sense of not knowing where I’m supposed to be going with my art. I’ve found over the years that I’m not alone in this; as I’ve shared conversations with other artists, it turns out, it’s pretty common amongst us all. And it turns out: this is actually a good thing. These feelings of being stuck, lacking identity, and being frustrated with where we are, almost always lead to a breakthrough of some kind. I talk about that more in this post from January of this year.

This spring I spent three solid months painting florals. I've never been satisfied with my skill level in that department and felt determined to improve. I did get better in those three months--enough to where I even made a new instructional video about it on MFA.studio .

But that still wasn't enough. They were "just" flower paintings. Time to dig deeper.

So I took an idea that's been sitting on the back burner of my mind for many years now, and decided it was time to make it come to life, using my little girl who has kept me company all summer long, as the muse. 

"A Child Will Lead Them" - 20x40" - oil on linen

When I began this painting my objective was to create a “lion and lamb” themed artwork that had never been done in quite this way before. Originally it was just the little girl and the lion, but it evolved into so much more as I added in stuffed animals along with the wild, jungle-like surroundings (the tiger has showed up in some of my portraits of Cecelia -- it is her favorite "stuffy"). One could interpret this piece in many different ways. On the surface it appears to be a contemporary interpretation of the passage from Isaiah 11, or it could be Lucy and Aslan from C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia", but on another level, it becomes more about the challenges that a young child faces as she transitions into adulthood. My daughter's intensity has always struck me and I know she will be a world-changer. Here, she faces the viewer undaunted, almost daring us to bring it on, and while the remnants of childhood lay cast aside, she embraces the strength of the lion and looks ahead with courage rather than fear. 

I'm hoping to venture more in this direction. 

Meanwhile, here are some of my process shots:

Above: I began with a general block-in, exaggerating some of the colors to create some nice base tones for subsequent layers. I wanted the foliage and background to be at a strong diagional relative to the straightness of the resting lion. This would also add a feeling of motion and energy, to uphold the motion of my daughter's pose, where she looks like she could pounce right at the viewer.

I wasn't crazy about the blue sky, so I covered it over with a coat of yellow, and some pink towards the bottom. I used a palette knife to load on the paint in these passages. I then started refining the lion and the girl with more realistic colors and lots of texture in the lion's mane.

I arranged the stuffed animals in the painting by taking pictures of them at various angles and moving them around the composition in Photoshop. This was also helpful in allowing me to lighten or darken values so that each stuffed animal didn't stand out too much. I wanted them to blend in a bit with their surroundings so as not to distract from the focal point (my daughter's face and the lion behind her). At one point I had a little blue rabbit in there (above), but that ended up on the chopping block (sorry not sorry).

Here's the final painting. I still wasn't convinced I liked the background so I spent a whole day completely repainting it, putting in simplified atmospheric mountain shapes instead. I liked that SO much better!

Here are some detail shots below. I hope you enjoy this painting. It is my daughter's (and my) new favorite!

New Places = New Inspiration. Oh, and traveling with kids...

Last week our family of four took a 2400-mile round trip spring break vacay to San Diego! This was our first big trip since Everett was a baby, and we had some idea of how it might go but knew that it would be a gamble. How does one survive those long hours in the car with a 2 1/2 year old? (Aside from figuring out how to purchase six different Disney movies on Amazon Prime, our 6-year-old, by the way, was an angel!) We packed ALL the snacks, ALL the puzzles, ALL the activities, and of course, the iPads loaded with ALL the ABC's and Sesame Street games I could find. In spite of a couple incidents of Everett getting sick in the car (both times it was in Utah on those curvy mountain roads), Cecelia asking to ride every roller coaster we passed by, a few bouts of toddler tantrums, and Steve and I both starting to feel our age with sore backs from all the driving... the trip went surprisingly well.  

I love to travel. I love seeing new places, experiencing new things, trying new foods, and of course, painting whenever I get the chance. On this trip I had to manage my expectations and simply take note of many of the beautiful places I went. They are places I'd like to revisit, probably either alone on a painting trip, or when my kids are older. Traveling with kids is the opposite of relaxing. And, as my husband and I pointed out to our daughter all the wonderful things to see and observe along the way, we realized that she was quite unimpressed. "It's not that beautiful," she would say. She was way more impressed with the games on her iPad (damn this digital world we have become slaves to!). Her apathy made me sad, but also made me determined that she just needs more experiences like this. I want to inundate her with the wonders of nature, sunshine, wildlife, mountains, the ocean, and the national parks. Seriously, if there is anything our government has gotten right, it's the National Park system. We were able to see four out of Utah's five national parks on our way to and from California. It was phenomenal! 

I managed to sneak in a few very quick plein air sketches on this trip. It was just enough to fill my oxygen tank and keep me in my happy place in spite of the challenges of dealing with kids the whole time. I could happily hose off the sand covering every inch of Everett's body, or give the kids their second (or third) snack before lunch time, or deal with the absolute chaos of bedtime and nap strikes. It was all good.

Here are a few pictures and highlights from the trip. I took over a thousand photos and came back with lots of great reference images, so I'm excited for the inspiration and the resulting studio works you'll see soon. 

We stayed in Moab on the first night and visited Arches National Park. I HAVE to come back and paint this place!

The kids handled the long hours in the car pretty well. I'd give them a B+.

So happy to play on the beach! We rented a perfect Airbnb right on the boardwalk at Mission Beach.

It's a good thing we drove. Cecelia's souvenir of choice would not have fit on a plane!

Traveling is exhausting...

Bryce Canyon National Park (above) and Capital Reef National Park (below). The kids had no clue how special these places are but don't worry... we'll be back again. :-)

Below are some shots of me getting in some painting. My 2 1/2 year old "posed" on the beach for me long enough to do a 20-minute color study.

I also managed to get a quick painting of the sunset one evening.

And some people on the beach...

Hanging out with our friend Ricardo. Funny story about Ricardo... he was my husband's college roommate, and one of the groomsmen at our wedding. Life got busy and we fell out of touch for a while. A year ago, when Steve and I took a weekend trip to San Diego for his job, I was driving along Highway 1 looking for a good painting spot, when I saw Ricardo jogging along the highway. He was wearing a hat, shades, and had grown a beard but I could have sworn it was him. I texted my husband to say I thought I had just seen his old college roommate, so he texted Ricardo and sure enough... it was him! Ha! I had painted his portrait from life many years ago, so I guess once I paint someone I really know their face. We've kept in better touch since then...

And on our drive back we stayed in Virgin, UT, just outside of Zion National Park. Before we made the last leg home, I got an early morning 4x8" painting in (about 30 minutes) of the views above the Virgin River.

 I'm so grateful to have gotten away for a time. Views like this are always good for the soul. :-)

What Happens When You Get "Unstuck"

I thought I’d follow up my last post by sharing some of the positive results of having spent some time in the desert.

Recently I listened to the “Three Day Effect” on Audible. I highly recommend. It’s a 6-episode documentary that talks about the benefits of spending at least three full days immersed in nature. I have already known this about myself, that I need regular escapes to the outdoors. But what’s really cool is that there is now tangible evidence proving that extended time outside—that magical number of 3 days or more—can offer so much more than vitamin D! It can open new pathways for creativity. It can help you get “unstuck.”

Case in point: I started this 36x24” oil painting of my son Everett, at the beginning of August… so, about six months ago. I really hoped to get it done in time for his 2nd birthday on August 20. But I quickly discovered as I dug deeper into the painting, that there was no way on earth that was going to happen. The painting began to represent many of the emotional struggles I’d had that year (hello, 2020), as well as bringing to light some debilitating mental blocks that had been plaguing me without me even realizing it. I was able to paint Everett very quickly as I often do with the figurative element of a painting… but as soon as I began to tackle the surrounding space and design, I knew I was in for a long and bumpy ride. I thought I had a plan, but it turns out I was just stumbling around blindly trying to control the chaos and turn it into something that made sense. Oh, how appropriate for 2020, haha!

I’m sharing some cell phone shots of my progress here.

Progress 1 (above): This was the start of my block-in. The painting is on double oil-primed aluminum. I primed it myself to intentionally gave the surface some texture and irregularity. I didn't want it to look like a commercially primed surface because the premise behind this painting is disorder and chaos, a "beautiful mess".  Because it is a large painting, I used a grid with vine charcoal to draw the main elements of the design.  

Progress 2 (above): This was a couple of weeks later. As you can see, I had Everett pretty much locked in. But I was already starting to feel overwhelmed by the crayons, markers, papers, and plastic bins... as I often am when I see a mess like this in real life. Which is like... every day.

Progress 3 (above): I used a spatula to lay a bunch of paint down in the background but clearly didn't know what to do with that left side of the painting behind Everett. I liked the balloons that I added, but the blue ball didn't really work where it was. Meanwhile, I began to painstakingly paint the various papers and pencils and markers, trying to keep them loose and not too detailed. My hope was that Everett would be the "tightest" part of the painting without being the focal point. Unfortunately, I didn't have my focal point figured out yet (and that's something you should know before you put down the first brush stroke! Rookie mistake, ARB).

Progress 4 (above): this was around the end of September. I spent most of my time painting the foreground elements and decided I would figure out the background later. 

Progress 5 (above): I thought, "Maybe I'll try simplifying the background while making it more colorful." It was worth a shot. At this point I was feeling kind of over it, and not sure if the painting was worth continuing.

Progress 6 (above): Early November. It was at this point that I sent a photo of the painting to a couple of trusted artist friends for a critique. They both agreed that it felt like the painting didn't have a focal point, or a plan. It was hard to hear this but I knew I needed to seriously reconsider my goals for the painting if I planned to finish it.

I set it aside for about two months to work on other things, in the hopes that I would have some kind of revelation once I had given it the time and space it needed.  

When I got back from my trip to Joshua Tree, I realized that I was ready to tackle it once more. Not only did my trip help me get "unstuck," but it loosened me up enough to where I didn't feel like I needed to take myself or my art quite so seriously. I just needed to have fun and experience joy from it again.

The painting came together when I used the papers--the white ones in particular--to give it a stronger value structure. I darkened the background behind Everett's head, made the background elements a bit "messier" and not as tight, and did some glazing in various places to give the design a better visual pathway. 

I adore my children and I love painting them, but I realize that this painting is, in many ways, another self portrait. There is so much that it represents about this stage of my life, not just as a mother who is constantly cleaning up messes, but as someone who is seeking to return to a place where wonder and joy are constant. My children are setting a great example for me.  I want to be more like them, to see the world the way they do. 2020 was messy and chaotic, unpredictable, and full of bad and good moments that challenged us all. And yet there was certainly beauty to be found. Everett is perfection and his curiosity outweighs the mess and the hard. He is learning, growing, exploring, and the innocence and purity of that makes the mess all worth it. This painting represents my mess... but I learned and grew from it, and I am so thankful for that experience. 

"Curiosity and Chaos" - 36" x 24" (2020-2021) - oil on aluminum