Friday, July 15, 2011

Blog 13 Painting rocks of Arizona's Tuzigoot NM

 Every gallery I make ( 16 large wall prints for business walls) tries to include the essence of the space...a smattering of everything found in the region.  "Painting Arizona" would not be complete without paying respect to Indian heritage.   Tuzigoot National Monument, a well preserved 3000 year old Pueblo, presented a difficult task...making rocks come alive!















The distant brown Verde river should be honored too, for without it, no culture could survive.
    The colors have been reduced in number and saturated to start me thinking about the possibilities.   I painted the background trees rather quickly.  The rocks took a looooooong time.
Here's a closeup of the original rockwork.

As you see, the colors have been saturated and reduced in number.  But what would make them really stand out??? 
I decided the MORTAR was the key.  With a Blenders\Pointed Stump brush in Corel Painter 11, I made even FEWER colors in the rocks...and mimiced what it might look like to swish them with a brush. But even more energy went into the "negative space"...the mortar.
I exaggerated the size of the Verde River and the closeness of the autumn trees.   After painting that many rocks, I not only SAW Tuzigoot...I FELT LIKE the persons who placed each boulder into that wall! A big shout out to  http://www.nazstuff.com who is now following my social media attempts. 
Here is my gallery of New Mexico...
http://www.strengthinperspective.com/Pictures-USA/NewMexico-51/NewMexico.html and soon I will post my Arizona work.

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