The Arches National Park, UTAH - Part 1

In 2008 we (I, my husband, my parents, and our 11-year old Shih Tzu Cuddles) embarked upon a 30-day 25 state/5 provinces driving tour. I think I can say with certainty that Utah, especially the Arches National Park, was the #1 memory of our entire trip for all of us, perhaps even Cuddles as a very nice vet saved her life in Utah.

The Arches has over 2000 arches and other spectacular rock formations within its boundaries. We enjoyed Utah and its numerous national parks, that we have all returned to Utah at different times since 2008 to explore more of its treasures. We are even planning to return again, hopefully sometime this year.

For those movie buffs, you may know that the Arches was the opening scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as well as Austin Powers 3. Other locations in Utah have also been the backdrop for numerous Hollywood movies, especially the old westerns.

One of my fav pix is found early in the 76,518 acres of the park...See the pix below....

The Three Gossips are to your left, followed by Sheep Rock and on the right are Tower of Babel and the Organ. All of which make up the Courthouse.

I decided in 2009 to paint the above pix. I've had the custom-made gallery canvas (30 inches x 70 inches) for many months in my living room....blank. Late last year, I put some colour on it. There is a fair amount of detail needed in the rock formations....the canvas is too large to stand on my easels so I have to paint it when it is flat on the kitchen table. This creates a challenge as you can't lean on the canvas, so it has been a challenge to paint comfortably. So progress stopped before the holidays and it is a challenge to get it back out as then we have no kitchen table to use!

I've decided I have to finish the Middle Cove painting before I get back to the Utah one....but I wanted to show you my progress to date....I've only gotten some of the shadows in on the right side of the canvas painted although I have drawn all the formations in with chaulk. Getting the scale right in order to get the formations drawn in was its own challenge as well!

Let me know what you think of it so far....I will be posting updates on this painting as I get to work on it some more. Stay tuned.....