Rain In The Canyon

 In a way this is the first painting to directly come out of last year's tour of the South West USA National Parks and is a memory of the Grand Canyon which at this time of the year (July) regularly has a rain storm about 4.00 in the afternoon. We had to make a dash for cover with us all trying to get photos as we hurried for shelter. This is really a composite of three different locations along the Rim and I struggled with the foreground quite a lot and in the end I had to get rid of some of the rock and put more vegetation in as the area was originally dominating the picture and I wanted the focus to be on the sun hitting the distant ridges in the canyon.

I have painted this as my submission painting to the International Guild Of Realism exhibition in a gallery in Santa Fe in July and is why I have gone for a slightly more realistic and less imagined painting this time.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Rain In The Canyon - stage 6

 Tweaked the rain and put a bit of warm light on the face of the canyon wall at right before making a start on the foreground.... and then realised that there was too much uninteresting rock in the foreground so I decided to cut into them with some more bushes which has broken them up and made them not so dominant in the composition. Much happier with it now and will finish the foreground tomorrow....

I am painting this as my application piece for an upcoming show by the International Guild Of Realism at a gallery in Santa Fe in July hence it is a bit more photographic than my usual work as the accent on the show is definitely "realism".