Beautiful day

Hey everyone! Yesterday started off horrible, I tried to visit the Hopi reservation to do some research for a painting. The GPS took me on quite a tour down an unpaved highway, then completely out of the way of where the reservation actually was. There was snow where I ended up, somewhere south of Keams Canyon, so I decided just to head back home. Once home, I took some supplies over to the Painted Desert Inn to paint. Things got much better from there off. I set myself up at the entrance, got to paint and chat it up with a few people.

(Watercolor of petrified wood and the blue mesas)

(Watercolor of a raven overlooking the Puerco Pueblo)

Today, I had an idea. I have these solar print papers I bought up in Boston and they're FINALLY becoming relevant. The flowers and plants here are very interesting, their shadows even more so. I put this paper behind the plant and leave it exposed to the sun for a few minutes. When I pull it away, the shadow of the plant is left behind. After doing this with a few plants, I headed home and ran them under water to make the image permanent. I don't know too much about traditional photography, but I think it's sort of the same as making a photo from a negative in a dark room.

(This process takes time and practice, some images are blurrier than I hoped they'd be)

When the prints dried, I glued them to some small canvases (Which just happen to be the same size!) and painted over them. It's really interesting looking! I'm not sure if I'm going to paint in where the plant is, I haven't decided if I like the way they look now or not. What do you guys think?

Tommorow, I'm headed off to Gallup (Great western town name by the way) with some new friends. We're going to go to a Native American flea market. There's going to be lots of traditional foods, jewelry, rugs, etc etc. Apparently the town is one big trading post, so I'm really excited to take pictures and see what they have to offer. Also, Sunday I may be going over to Flagstaff to get a specific paint color that will help me achieve the true color of the plants here! And, there's an actual mountain there. I don't think I've ever seen a REAL mountain, with sharp snow peaks and all.

In conclusion, I may not update until Monday. I promise it will be a very interesting, photo filled post. Thanks for reading and leave comments! :)