Sunday, February 20, 2011

MORAN POINT TIMES TWO

Landscape painter and explorer Thomas Moran made one of his treks into the Grand Canyon in 1871. During that expedition he sat and did a rendering of this point that is now named after him. His rendering was included in a proposal to Congress that eventually led to making the Grand Canyon a national park. Tell me artists don't impact the vision we have of the world...bohonkey is all I have to say.

These two studies were done to prepare myself for a larger version. I painted Moran Point twice when I visited the park for the first time last August. One was done in the morning and the other in the late afternoon.

"Moran Point" was done on location in the morning and "Moran's View" I just completed in the studio as a color study. Neither view show's the entire Moran Point. I am doing another study now and will add these to my "Canyons and Badlands" series.
















"Moran Point" 9" x 12" oil/linen


















"Moran's View" 12" x 16" oil/linen

For a REALLY good time visit http://www.panoramicearth.com/1989/Grand_Canyon/Moran_Point for a full 360 degree panoramic view of Moran Point and other points that give great views of the canyon.
I found it best to go full screen and then use the buttons to rotate the camera around.

2 comments:

Douglas Clark said...

I really enjoyed painting out here this weekend, but these two sure make me wish I was at the Grand Canyon. Your colors are super, and I really admire the feeling of distance that you have in these.

Rusty Jones said...

Thanks Douglas. I'm glad you can see the distance because there's a bunch of it out there.