Road Tripp'n With a Loaded Brush

I spent the last couple weeks of May road-tripping out to Colorado with two intentions, to visit family and friends, and to make as many paintings as possible. After loosing a painting off the roof, getting solar baked out of Hanksville, rained out of the rockies, and hailed on under the Flatirons, I returned home, but not without a final painting enjoyed on the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon. O the sweet beauty of the west, from its purple desert shadows, to alpine quilled mountains, there's no wonder people from all over the world are attracted to the natural landscapes America's West has to offer.

To me, this was an experience that stimulated the senses, set challenge to my brush, and balanced fear with freedom through whispers of fresh air thick enough to cast an endless horizon of dreams.

First stop was the Valley of Fire. This Nevada State Park is home to incredible rock formations displaying awesome colors, ever-changing with the light.

The term pareidolia (the psychological phenomenon that causes people to see patterns in a random stimulus) certainly rings true surrounded by these rock formations. Between gusts of warm desert wind, contorted rock faces glare in stoic empathy that they will one day become the sand the visiting campers rest in.

Young Bighorn Sheep in the Valley of Fire...

An IPO (Instant Pull Over) for this unique chunk of Sed.

The "Narrows" of Zion National Park bore by the Virgin River.

The "Watchmen" keeping a steady eye over southern entrance of Zion. Here I'm patiently waiting for the alpenglow to pierce Watchmen with orange highlights.

Factory Butte, just before the small town of Hanksville in southeastern Utah. The film "Wild Bunch" directed by John Peckinpah was loosely based on a legendary outlaw hideout around this area, a vibe I tried to convey through this lonesome butte.

Fish on! Rainbow Trout caught in the Frying Pan River. With a good coach and homemade flies you can't go wrong. No animals were harmed in this photo.

My buddy Pete "The Lord of the Flies" hard at work tying some fresh insects for the fish session.

Undisclosed alpine lake, when there are no fish you paint.

A mosaic of pine and aspen. Believe it or not this painting was made from a Walmart parking lot, with a 180 turn Colorado's natural beauty dissolves into corporate materialism at its finest.

A wonderful evening spent in Monument Valley.

Just before a 10 hour sprint home, a wonderful view shared with Clarks Nutcrackers and a nice cold one upon completion of this painting from the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon.