Yesterday I finished a watercolor painting from Buckskin Gulch in southern Utah. It’s close to the Utah/Arizona border and is one of the longest slot canyons in the world. It’s definitely a place I’d love to visit someday. I would LOVE to paint there in person rather than rely on photo reference. Heck, I’d even be happy with photo reference I took myself!
Isn’t it cool how the canyon seems to be glowing?? I will be ordering this one as a small sticker and I’ll make my whole Public Lands Sticker series available at an 8-sticker set for a discounted price. My stickers are available here.
I plan to keep painting, but I won’t restrict myself with public lands only. I recently made a painting of Sundial Peak which is part of National Forest land up here in the northern part of Utah and I have a painting of Delicate Arch from Arches National Park that I’ll make available eventually too. And I do want to paint spots that are outside of Utah too. I’ll get there!
I use so many different products with my work, I decided to start featuring a product each month and see how long I can keep it up. This post contains affiliate links. Shopping through them earns me a few cents and it is very much appreciated.
Last March, when my kids convinced me to start making time lapse videos of my watercolor paintings, I ordered this ring light and phone clip thingie from Amazon. I’m fairly certain my iPhone was listening in on my conversation with my kids because one popped up as a sponsored ad on Instagram later that day…. because that’s not at all creepy.
This thing has turned out to be really, really useful. The clip is decently strong to grip the edge of a table or a shelf and hold my iPhone 11 with very little sagging.
The ring light can be adjusted to be super bright or a couple of steps dimmer and I can even adjust the color of the light if I need a warmer or cooler light. I often use just the light when joining conference calls or job interviews via Zoom. The ring itself isn’t large enough to get that neat reflection in people’s eyes, but it does a great job lighting my desk for when I’m painting.
This device came with a little remote control that can link to an iPhone or Android phone. I’m sure it would come in handy if I ever plan to use my clip to make videos where I’m physically in the shots.
For a tool that was only $20, this has been perfect for my current needs. But I know that someday, if I want to continue making videos of my paintings, I will want something sturdier that can get a true, overhead view. For now though, this clip works great for what I need.
A few months back I finished these two paintings of Babylon Arch and Lower Calf Creek Falls. Both of these beautiful spots are in southern Utah and they are seriously two my all-time favorite hikes in Utah.
Babylon Arch is near Hurricane, UT and is part of the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. It’s a beautiful hike through some little canyons and you get a beautiful view of the Virgin River before descending a sandy slope to the arch. Late afternoon is a wonderful time to go for some really amazing light.
If you’d like to purchase a sticker of this artwork, click here!
Lower Calf Creek Falls is in southern Utah too, but closer to Boulder and Bryce Canyon National Park. As the crow flies, it’s about halfway between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks. It’s a really wonderful hike through a small canyon and along a creek. There are sections that are loose sand, and the hike is a bit long for kids at about 6.5 miles roundtrip. But the waterfall at the end is so worth it! You can even find thousand-year-old pictographs on a canyon wall. In the summer I bet it’s very hot, but you can swim in the icy water. We hiked in early April, so it was warm enough to enjoy the water on our tired feet, but still cool enough to not be miserable.
If you’d like to purchase a sticker of this artwork, click here!
My kids informed me that my time lapse videos are too short to gain many viewers or subscribers on YouTube, so I combined both of these paintings into one. They can stop giving me crap now.
Materials (many of these are affiliate links):
Daniel Smith Watercolor
Trekell Watercolor Brushes
daVinci Travel Watercolor Brushes
Pocket Palette (x2)
Grumbacher Miskit Masking Fluid
Fluid Cold Press Watercolor Paper
Phone Holder/Ring Light Thingie (quite handy!)
Have any of you been to one or both of these beautiful spots??
I have been struggling to have the motivation to paint the last month or two. I really want to make more paintings that I can turn into stickers and maybe even sell as prints, but motivation just hasn’t been there. My kids are back to attending school in-person too, so it’s not like I don’t have the time. Sometimes it’s kind of like exercise: when I don’t feel like doing it, if I force myself, I feel so much better afterward and feel glad that I pushed myself.
This was my mood the other night, so I made myself a mug of hot tea, put some Star Trek: Discovery on my iPad and set to work on a new painting. I wanted to do another starry night sky, so I chose a mountain that is relatively close to home rather than a spot in southern Utah: Sundial Peak and Lake Blanche. Lake Blanche is in Big Cottonwood Canyon and it’s a hike I really want to do this year. It’s more challenging than ones we’ve done before, so I haven’t been able to go with my kids. I have heard that we can backpack up there too, so I’m going to try and convince my oldest to go backpacking with me up there. The promise of a lake with fish should be enough.
By the way, I bought myself a second Pocket Palette so I can keep my warm and cool colors separate and I am loving it!
I chose not to go over this one with black ink. I felt it really didn’t need it. I also need to stop using blue painter’s tape and get some proper masking tape. I keep having issues with the tape tearing the paper. I’m betting thicker paper may help too.
I don’t know if I will turn this one into a sticker. I like how it turned out, but there are a few tweaks I’d like to make to the colors before I will be happy with making it a sticker. Plus, it’s part of National Forest land, not sure my “I heart public lands” verbiage really works. Should I do something else? Maybe a short quote about wilderness or exploration? I will have to think on it for a bit.
In the meantime, here’s a time lapse of how I made this painting:
By the way, are you following my YouTube channel? If not, here’s the link. My kids keep telling me I need to post more, so I’m working on that. The fact that I have no formal video-editing skills is quite apparent.
Here are the materials I used for this painting (many of these are affiliate links):
Daniel Smith Watercolor
Trekell Watercolor Brushes
daVinci Travel Watercolor Brushes
Pocket Palette (x2)
Grumbacher Miskit Masking Fluid
Fluid Cold Press Watercolor Paper
Phone Holder/Ring Light Thingie (quite handy!)
I never regret forcing myself to paint… but occasionally, I start a painting and never finish. I have a painting started on my desk right now, and I’m not sure if I will finish it. I want to do two more paintings on Utah’s public lands and then I will offer a deal on buying the whole set of stickers. I need to get that finished.
Any suggestions on beautiful spots you’d like to see painted?? I have some ideas saved, but I would love to hear more; even from spots that are not in Utah!
We’re spending a LOT of time at home these days, so of course my desire to be out hiking in our canyons and in the desert is strong! We are on Spring Break this week and our schools have been closed for three weeks already. With our Spring Break travel plans to California canceled because of the Covid-19 virus, I had this inkling of hope that maybe we could escape to the desert instead. Nope! I read a plea from the director of the hospital in Moab and his explanation of how small his hospital is and how it’s not prepared to handle a pandemic AND the number of annual tourists who flock to the area every spring. I understood completely and was not willing to put the small communities in southern Utah at risk of the virus coming with me. Our annual trip to Arches was canceled and spending Spring Break on BLM land outside of Hurricane was done.
Instead, I’m living vicariously through painting. A few months ago I created a painting of Babylon Arch for Shanti and her Hiking My Way Retreats. I loved how it turned out so I decided to think about all of the beautiful landmarks that reside on BLM/public lands and do a series of paintings of them. Maybe I’ll turn them all into stickers one day, I haven’t gone that far yet. Maybe I can donate proceeds to a nonprofit that fights to protect our glorious public lands?
I will eventually do another painting of Babylon Arch (because it’s awesome and so is the surrounding area), but for now I have Fisher Towers, which is outside of Moab, UT:
A little waterfall on the Red Reef Trail in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area in southwestern Utah:
Both areas are absolutely beautiful to explore. I plan to do another painting from the Red Reef Trail too.
One of my impulse purchases amid this Covid-19 business was a phone holder and light that lets me record time lapse videos of my painting. I learned the very basics of iMovie and, after some coaxing from my 10yo, I started a YouTube channel. Give my channel a visit and maybe a Like here and there.
So far I only have a few videos up there, including a video on how I make Bolognese Lasagne, but I plan to add more in the following weeks.
I’m hoping to get more paintings going, especially since Utah is acting like its normal self in the spring and going back and forth between glorious sunshine and gusting wind and rain; maybe even a little snow.
What are some landmarks on public lands that you think I should do next??
