Johnson Arch is a relatively little known, but easily accessible arch located in Snow Canyon State Park in southern Utah. Because of its positioning it is difficult to see until you are directly beneath it. In my painting I chose to dramatize the lighting to better delineate the massive stone shapes. I am always impressed by the warm reflected light in the shadows of the red rock country and tried to portray this characteristic in the painting. See the step-by-step process below to understand a little more about my technique of transparent watercolor painting.

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1. I began this painting as a class demonstration for a two-day workshop and completed it in my studio.

2.Typically in a two-day workshop I will demonstrate only part of the time, and spend most of the time mentoring the students while they work on their own projects.

3. All my paintings begin with a quick thumbnail sketch. This helps me plan my values and identify positive and negative shapes. This sketch is about 4 inches wide and takes a couple of minutes.

4. After soaking the 140 lb. Arches paper and stapling it to a board I wait for it to dry before re-wetting and starting my first glazes.  I blocked in the large areas first using wet-in-wet washes, working light to dark, and paying careful attention to edges where dark meets light values.

5. As the painting progressed I used more drybrush to create texture in the rocks, and finished up with details using my darkest darks.

6. Here I am posing with the finished framed painting at the 2005 Sears Invitational Art Show.