The Netflix video we ordered was disappointing, so the options seemed to be a) read something, b) eat something, or c) paint something.
I flipped around the photo albums on my iPad and happened upon some old photos from our Escape camper van trip to Moab, Utah, last fall. I made some amazing sketches on that trip! And all those desert colors brought me back to that bare red rock landscape that seems like it’s on another planet.
I had some small rectangles of 140 lb. watercolor paper already deckle-edged and ready to go. So I started.
First with that magical sunset while backpacking at Chesler Park, Canyonlands National Park. Like puzzle pieces against an endless sky, the needles were black against the pink, purple, orange, and there was not a sound.
Excited, I went on to paint another made-up desert landscape from that trip.
Posted those first two right away to Instagram*. (*I’ve been hanging out a lot there lately. It’s super quick photoblogging with the instant gratification of “Likes” at its finest.) I was pleased with myself, and I went to sleep much more satisfied than if I had just watched a movie or read something.
This morning, I playfully decided to try Delicate Arch, and that groovy vortex that spins below it like a sink or toilet bowl.
Finally, just now, from memory another made-up scene from a hike among the Needles. I remember how the arches seemed to frame a whole world in their eye, stretching so far out you could only imagine you were looking through a telescope.
Fun with watercolor. Tee hee!
5050 Art 