ARIZONA SUNSET

A Castle in the Sky…

While visiting Phoenix, Arizona, I was driven up a large hill called South Mountain to Dobbins Lookout. I have to say the drive up made my stomach somersault into tight nauseating knots, but once we got up there… man, that view!

We arrived at twilight (the best time in my opinion), and I took a few photos of Cacti (they’re so neat) in the distance from the parking lot. Then I noticed a huge castle like rock structure that you could actually go into! The “Castle” as I call it was set against an incredible vibrant sunset and I took lots pictures. If you’ve read my last post, Yellow Sunrise in the Hills, you will know all about my obsession with the sky. I had an amazing time enjoying the sunset that night.

Back home, going through my photos I decided I had to paint this amazing sunset, but I wanted it in bold bright colours to do the sunset justice. Now, I primarily paint using only CMYK colours (plus white) because I’m cheap and don’t like paying for colours I can make myself. This was a great project to use these base colours with minimal mixing other than what happens naturally on the canvas. Well that was the original idea. You can probably tell I ended up mixing the colours on my palette way more than letting them blend on the canvas naturally. Oops.

I am aware that the perspective on the Castle is a bit wonky (perspective is my nemesis), however, this is still one of my favourite pieces I have done to date and proudly sits on my shelf at eye level.