Painting Near Grafton

I went to Southern Utah on a plein air painting trip last weekend with friend and fellow painter Richard Hull. Our first stop was Grafton, Utah, a ghost town best known as a location in the Robert Redford/Paul Newman film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. On the road near what is left of the town, I found a subject I liked overlooking a gnarly old tree in it's full golden fall splendor. The hazy blue outcroppings of Zion National Park are in the distance.

Here is a progression of the image and where I stopped painting after the light changed too much. One of these days I will learn to capture a finished statement in the time I have before the light is gone, but until then, I will be content to finish them up in studio.