Wednesday Wanderings: Purple Canyon

Well it was a wild wonderful week. I got to explore the desert and do what I love. I was able to paint and talk shop with a lot of my fellow artists. I painted in the sun and the rain and the wind and I came home with some big ribbons, which is always fun.

Along with the First Place in the Quick Draw Competition that we posted about last week, I also won an award in the Saturday evening competition. One of the judges, Vern G. Swanson, paid me a great compliment during the awards ceremony by comparing my work to that of Sorolla, who is one of my favorite painters. Vern is well qualified to make that comparison, having authored or co-authored 15 books on art/art history as well as serving as the director of the Springville Museum of Art, Utah’s oldest art museum, for 32 years before retiring in August 2012. So his kind compliments on my work were well appreciated.

One of the hardest parts of this week-long Plein Air competition is the fact that you can only enter one piece for the final judging. I selected "Purple Canyon" to be my entry. It wasn't the more standard epic landscape that most artists enter for jurying. However, something just pleased me about the color and fresh view this painting offered.  It was fun because the placement of the tree allowed me to do the kind of intimate desert portrait that I love to do while also allowing me to capture some of the grand vista in the background. Those sandstone buttes, with all their planes and shadows, are fun to paint. And as is often true here in the Four Corners there was such wonderful morning color.

Purple Canyon
Oil on board 14" x 11"

Sometimes I ask myself if another painting would have pleased the judges more. Could I have tailored my painting more toward the judges' tastes? In the end, I have to enter the painting I most love. If I don't, why am I painting? I could try to paint how I think others would like. But then how would my artwork ever be my own unique vision and passion? You must be true to yourself to truly love what you do.