Foot Bridge over a River in Zion National Park

Here is my representation of a bridge over a river in Zion National Park.  I've been to Zion many times, and it is truly one of natures most stunning places.  At least if you like that desert, canyon kind of thing.  The red rocks of the cliff faces tower over the valley floors.  I don't think there is one place you can go in the park that doesn't have stunning views.
I believe this bridge is at the beginning of the path to Angels Landing.  You cross this bridge, then into refrigerator canyon, up Walter's Wiggles, and out across a some very thin rock faces, to the precipice. The last half mile of the trip is not for the faint of heart.  There will be thousand foot drop offs, and path's with seemingly no handholds and almost no footholds.  But if you make it out to the end, the views are terrific.   The last time I went, it was in the mid 70's on the canyon floor, and by the time I got about 1/2 way out to the end, it started snowing, and got quite windy.  I didn't know if I should hurry to fight the cold, slow down to combat the wind, or  just turn back.  In the end, I just soldiered on and made it to the end.  Some German hikers were nice enough to let me warm my finger by the camp stove they had carried with them.

As for this paintings, I think I got a few things right.  the distant mountain really distant, the close mountain is close.  The trees are definitely closer than the mountain and they have a little depth to them.  True there could be a little more, but there is some.  Even the water looks like it gets closer as it reaches the bottom of the page.

I might try this one again.  Or at least I'll do some other paintings from Zion.  As with many of my recent paintings, i did a video to go with this.  If you are interested in seeing how I did it, you can see the video below.  Thanks for taking the time to view and read.

Bridge Over Troubled (well, ok calm) Water

A quick one I did last night. Love the shadowing on the bridge, but I think its too black with the rigging on the bridge. Also, I like the reflections. Maybe I'll go back and put people walking on the bridge or somethig.

House on a River

Well, I think I'm getting the hang of some things. The trees in the background do give a nice fall theme. I could have mixed the colors a bit more, maybe thrown in a few reds, but in general I like how they turned out. The trees behind the house I obviously rushed a bit. I really think I got carried away with the reflection of the distant trees. I think it overpowers the water. And I wasn't exactly sure what to do with the reflection of the house. But all-in-all, a good step forward.

One BAD, One Good.

The first one is obviosly the bad one. It turned out carrots again. I loosened up a lot on the second one. It turned out much better. It did mean changing the picture a bit, but I think I kept true to what the inspiration picture is.

This is another picture where I feel like I've learned a lot by painting it. It was hard for me not to try to recreate the painting as I saw it, but once I changed the look of what I was doing, it made loosening up a lot easier.