Palette Knife Painting st Silver Lake

Bathed in sunshine and mosquito repellent, we took our easels and palette knives and set up en plein air to paint at Silver Lake. Located at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains north of Salt Lake City, Utah, Silver Lake is nestled at the base of several mountain peaks surrounded by a grassy meadow.

Here's a shot of Linda and me. We arrived in the morning just in time to see three adult moose (one male and two females). The meadow was full of small birds, Uintah ground squirrels and other critters.

We roughed in our compositions and rendered 4-color value studies first before moving 

on to paint the same view in full-color. This forced us to simplify our paintings and leave out the detail.  Just because you can see every leaf and blade of grass,

 doesn't mean you should paint them on your canvas. It proved to be a challenge!

Here's a morning's worth of work:

Our adventure was a lot of fun and certainly worth the effort!

Downtown - Where The Action Is!

Saturday, July 19, Judi Alder and I held an illustrated Journal Workshop in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. The weather couldn't have been any better and the students were excited to begin their work!

Planting ourselves on the corner of Main Street and Market, we began our sketches. We learned about perspective, angles, light and shadow and a host of other art principles, but mainly we just had fun!

 

 

 

The rhythmic clanging of the TRAX train and the hum of car engines 

reminded us of our urban environment. The scent of garlic bread 

wafted from Maxwell's (the restaurant across the street).

 

 

 

Halfway through the workshop, we broke for lunch at Maxwell's East Coast Eatery.  As we entered the building, we noticed water dripping from several stories above us. There were three window washers suspended from ropes cleaning the windows of the Boston Building.

 

 

 

Staying focused outside in weather that was 100 degrees Fahrenheit made us thirsty and hungry. We LOVED taking a break in the air conditioned restaurant!

 

 

More work after lunch...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed our day in downtown Salt Lake City.

Seeking Angels

It was glorious to sketch and paint in the Salt Lake City cemetery today! The morning greeted us with a blue sky and drifting clouds - and of course we got busy and 

captured the moment in our illustrated journals!

The Christmas Box Angel was first on our workshop agenda. She represented the angel in the book "The Christmas Box Angel" by Richard Paul Evans. Notice the small trinkets and gifts that people left at her feet and in her arms. 

 We gathered around to learn some new techniques 

and then began sketching and painting her.

 

We learned to use watercolor pencils, sketch with ink and graphite and dab color on our papers with sponges.  We washed our drawings with soft watercolor and then wrote about what we saw, heard, smelled and how we felt about our surroundings. 

 

Here is a glimpse of our journal entries before we wrote on our pages.  These were quick gestures studies with watercolor washes over the top. It was challenging to stay loose!

Next, we visited the statue of Michael the Archangel. His a powerful strength and vitality 

was a strong contrast to the innocence of the Christmas Box Angel. This memorial was created by the Starks family in remembrance of their son, Michael. Resting on top of the pedestal where the angel was standing, were many special tokens of love that people had left in behalf of Michael Starks.  Among them was a laminated photo of Michel and his dog, candles, messages, colored ribbons (hanging from the angel's arms) and stones representing sentiments and prayers.

 

You can see Michael, the archangel, in the upper left corner of the image above.

The last place we visited was the graceful statue of the female angel located in the 

Catholic part of the cemetery. Although we didn't sit and sketch her, we 

admired her elegance and snapped pictures for future reference.

 

We decided that there is a lot of life contained within the boundaries of this cemetery! There were squirrels running around, birds chirping and cawing and many types of green trees. It was a peaceful and rewarding event...and SO FUN to take time on a Saturday morning to write and paint in our journals! 

Why not come and join us in July and August as we journal on Main Street in 

downtown Salt Lake City and up at Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon?