Monday

Just for fun I decided to paint something completely different. This is a view of the Book Cliffs down along Green River, Utah, actually closer to the ghost town of Thompson Springs. The setting sun was lighting up the sandstone cliff walls with a nice cool foreground. I decided to put an old dirt road in here with a pioneer grave cross.  This should be a nice painting with some drama. The size is 24x38.

The first one I just drew in a few lines to indicate where I want the cliffs and road. Now I've blocked in the approximate color of the sky and back ground rock. I'm at this point just covering the canvas, or in this case masonite board. I wanted to try a little harder surface.

Last I blasted in the foreground of grasses and sage. The dirt road is made up and didn't really exist; but I am finding it will make a nice lead-in to the painting. I just have to make sure its broken up quite a bit so the eye doesn't race down it. I threw the cross in left of the road and would like to have one of those last rays of sun-light hitting the top of it.. Now I'll set it aside and let the paint dry a bit before working on more detail. At least today I have the composition all figured out.

Richard Boyer