Sunday, May 4, 2008

Stone Chicken Coup



24 x 30 oil on alkyd primed canvas.

A little find from my trip to the Grand Canyon this last weekend. We came back through Sedona and hiked the west fork of Oak Creek on the way back to Phoenix. At the trail head, I came across this little building that was in an advanced state of decay. I was pretty amazed when I started to explore it to find that it had roosts for chickens inside. I am not sure if is started out being a chicken coup or not. If it did, that is alot of effort to construct the building out of stone.

I was pretty much instantly mesmerised by the cast shodow on the ground. This had a real similar feel to me to the painting "Under the Pier." Needless to say, this was a setting that got my juices flowing. I couldn't wait to get started on this. I was going to do a study of this one, but only got as far as the thumnail before I wanted to get started. One thing that I have learned is that with a scene like this, I better have an accurate drawing, or I will be asking for trouble later on. I have been really conscious of the basics recently. Shape, Value, Color.

5 comments:

Ed Terpening said...

Well, I wouldn't worry about the drawing in this one, it look flawless to me. This is art, finding beauty is an old, decaying building!

Anonymous said...

This one is WOW! If only the buildings could talk and tell you their story... Sis

Robin Weiss said...

What ever you did worked on this one Les!

I like "Evening Juniper" too. the knife work is great

Dianne Mize said...

What rich light!

Anonymous said...

SuuuWEET painting Les. Don't you find those stinkin shadows with such defined lines so close to you change exponentially faster than say the shadow a tree is casting further away? I hate when that happens, but you managed to get it. Did you have any help from your friend (camera)???

Lisa