Angels Landing – Zion
Oil on linen, 24″ x 48″, 2017
This painting is inspired by Zion National Park, Utah. The setting is along the West Rim Trail, following the Virgin River, with Angels Landing in the background and silverleaf nightshade in the foreground.
Compositionally, the flowers in the lower left tie in the sky. The sweeping shapes of the clouds reflect the sweeping green shapes below. The cliffs in the middle anchor the painting. The river leads us into the scene.
I was interested in how the permanence of the rock formations is affected by the moving shadows from the overhead clouds, and also how the direction of the sun keeps half in light and half in shadow.