Lake Powell in Wax

"Lake Powell in Wax"

Image size 9.5" x 6.5"

Encaustic

I've painted Lake Powell many times using many different mediums.  It is such a beautiful place and the blue and orange complementary color scheme has always been a favorite for me and Lake Powell is an amazing example of that color combo.  

I love the way the wax moved in the water in this painting.  At first, I fought against it but each time I hit a new layer of wax with the heat gun, this is the direction it moved and now I really like it and think it is interesting looking.

I did a little shellac burning in the cliffs but because the color was the same, there was little change in the effect.  It does have a shine that it wouldn't have otherwise though.  I also added oil pastel but that didn't add much detail either - just a little extra texture in the cliffs.

Lake Powell Encaustic

Lake Powell Encaustic

Image size 6" x 4"

Encaustic

I painted a small encaustic this week.  Lake Powell is a favorite subject of mine to paint.  I love the rusty colors of the canyons against the blues of the sky and water.  This beautiful lake has my favorite complementary color combination - blue/orange - occurring naturally  in the dramatic canyons.

Abstracted Lake Powell

Abstracted Lake Powell

Image Size 29" x 21"

Acrylic

I started painting this with watercolor but it was looking pretty wimpy so I switched to acrylics.  The paper was super wet for the majority of the painting and then I did some final details on dry paper.

Lake Powell is so beautiful with the clear blue skies and rusty colored cliffs and canyons that I just have to paint it every now and then.  I wanted this to have the feeling of Lake Powell without being specific.  

Lake Powell Canyon II - Acrylic on TerraSkin

This is painted from the same photo as last week's painting.  The colors and lighting are pretty different though.   This painting is much larger than last week's and the majority of the painting was poured using liquid acrylics.  I went pretty bold with the color.  It's much brighter in real life.  There are things that I like best about each painting but I can't decide which one I like better overall.  I would love to have your comments.

Lake Powell Canyon II
Image Size 25" x 17.5"
Acrylic on TerraSkin

Lake Powell Canyon - Watercolor on TerraSkin

Here is a small painting on TerraSkin.  This time, I used watercolor instead of acrylics.  It was a bit harder to build layers since the watercolors are very liftable on the TerraSkin.  The one exception was the color that I used in the sky.  For some reason, these blues didn't want to lift and, of course, I started with the sky and wasn't very careful because I expected to be able to lift off my messy areas.  The blues I used were ultramarine and cerulean which aren't staining colors so I'm not sure why that happened.  I think I'll try this scene on a larger scale with the acrylics and do some pouring.

We used to go to Lake Powell every year on a houseboat so I have lots of pictures from there.  Lake Powell is so beautiful with the sculptural rocks and the natural blue/orange complementary color scheme.  Nature's so amazing!  The sky there really is ultramarine blue at the top blending into cerulean blue at the horizon.  No wonder I like using those colors in my skies.  Of course, we don't see those kind of skies here in So. Cal. but I do know they exist.

Lake Powell Canyon
Image Size 12.5" x 9"
Watercolor on TerraSkin