Above and Beyond-Colorado National Monument

After nervously scrambling to the top of this unusual sandstone formation, I climbed it several more times from our campsite each evening. On the third night, the full moon was rising and I continued to make sketches and photograph the views around me. I made this painting in my studio from those sketches and from the sensations that had imprinted so strongly on me. Being there as the golden light dropped across the upper rock formations and junipers was something I wished that I could hold onto. As an artist I can at least try to capture and convey some of that experience in my painting. Twilight swallowed that golden light but the moon appeared and brought it's own magic. Evenings like that are why painters paint outside or are so inspired by the natural world to put it on canvas.