One day last week the light was just right so I took my portable French Easle and my 30 x 40 canvas out to the canal at Prayer Rock and Painted in the colors, lights and shadows of that awesome formation. These cliffs at this place in the canal have always appealed to me and I have painted Prayer Rock and the adjacent cliffs many times. I'll share some of those paintings and sketchs soon.
If you look close, up near the top you can see Lincoln's face.
Another great project has come my way. About 5 miles west of Byron is a place called Prayer Rock. Some refer to it as Lincoln Head Rock because of a small formation near the peak resembles Lincoln's head on the penny. Anyway, Prayer Rock got it's name from the Mormon Pioneers who settled Byron in 1900 and began digging the Sidon Canal which to this day waters the farms of the North Big Horn Basin. It was and is quite a tremendous engineering project as they used teams pulling scrapers and diggers and wagons loaded with desert sand and rocks. They came to this great rock formation that was in the way and in order to maintain the necessary downward grade they needed to dig under this great overhang...a very dangerous proposition for those workers.
A lot of prayer went into the project asking for protection and safety. On a particular day, Byron Sessions, the ecclesiastical and project leader called all the workers who were working under the overhang to quickly gather up their tools and come up out from under the rock. Within minutes the great formation broke apart and down came hundreds of tons of sandstone and yet everyone was safe. Everyone there felt they had witnessed a miracle and gave thanks to God for His protection. There is also an eyewitness account that said that a day earlier Byron Sessions prophesied that within 24 hours the rock would come down. I think his skeptical son Bynie Sessions, pulled out his watch to see if "the old man" was a true prophet. And he was.
So what I have chosen to depict is not the crashing of the massive rock but the completion of this section of the canal and the first flowing of the water. A few weeks ago I sketched this charcoal drawing on a large canvas. Since Prayer Rock is so close to my studio I go out there frequently and stand on the canal bank making sketches of the lighting on the rocks at different times of day and of different angles.
River of Gold is a 30 x 36 painting that sold at an art show put on by Southern Virginia University. The show is put on every year to raise funds for scholarships.
The art will continue being displayed at the University for Visitors as well as Faculty, Staff to view and purchase. You can also see the show on-line at svu.edu/artshow.
The online show will continue through November 30.
It is always gratifying to find books and publications that use my work to illustrate their pages. A new book is out published by Deseret Books titled "ELIZA-The Life and Faith of Eliza R. Snow". Eliza was a poetess and was the writer of many Church hymns and she was able to express her feelings and beliefs with the written word.
My painting (above) was one of four paintings that were reproduced in the book. Eliza Snow was among the people who left Nauvoo, Illinois to begin the long trek west. As expressive as she usually was of the experience of leaving Nauvoo she simply wrote in her journal on February 13, 1846: "Cross'd the Mississippi and join'd the Camp."
My painting is titled "Frozen Crossing" and sometimes is listed as "Final Farewell" and is being produced as a beautiful limited edition print on canvas, called a giclee and is signed and numbered. Frozen Crossing can be purchased framed for $795 plus shipping.
A new publication produced by Covenant Communications has used my painting, "The Dream, The Struggle, The Victory". The title of the book is "History of the Saints" and is a well written depiction of the settlers who came out west. The book also has several other of my paintings along with other artist's works.
Sycamore Creek-A major painting 38x60 (with some additions)
In February of 2013 I bring this painting back onto my easle. I have decided that the large rock that juts into the stream (see picture below) caused too harsh a seperation between the foreground and the upper part of the painting. In other words it didn't give our eyes and smooth enough flow as we gaze at the painting. There is always a risk of decreasing the visual effects of a painting when you start monkeying around, but I am almost finished and this will be the final phase (maybe). It seems to be coming along.
Sycamore Creek-A major painting 48x60
Some twenty years after the sketch (below) painted during the Boy Scout Camping trip I decided to tackle this large painting using the 24x30 sketch and a few snapshots. I started this in September 2012. I finished it and showed it in my studio and a few other places. It turned out really nice...BUT...if a painting is in my studio for too much time I might see some things I want to do to it! So, a few months later I take this painting and see some areas where I might make improvements. See the additions to this painting above.
Sycamore Creek location painting
A few years ago I accompanied my son Todd, and some Boy Scouts on an overnight camping trip at Sycamore Creek in Central Arizona. The weather was warm and while the boys got up and ate breakfast and then took a swim in the creek, I got out a 24x30 canvas and did this sketch. I liked how it turned out.
HONEYMOON TRAIL 15x30 oil painting
Honeymoon Trail is being shown along with OVER THE MOUNTAIN (below) at the Sears Invitational Art Show at the Dixie State University in St. George, Utah. The show starts at the Sears Gallery on Dixie State Campus on February 15 and runs through March 1.
As the Mormons settled in Utah in the middle of the 19th Century under the direction of Brigham Young they began to disperse north, south, east and west to build colonies of small communities. St. George was the closest place where L.D.S. couples who lived in Arizona or other southern areas could travel to be married in the temple there. In those days the treck would take several weeks and of course they were chaperoned.
OVER THE MOUNTAIN 24x36 oil painting
This painting along with the one above will be on display at the Dixie State University (formerly College) Sears Invitational Art show. The show kicks off with an art preview at 4:00 P.M. February 15 (Friday) and continues on through March 31.
St. George, Utah where Dixie College (University I mean) has a pretty nice climate and to the north are the magnificent Pine Valley Mountain that are snow covered throughout the winter. As I brought my rider and his pack string over the mountain in this painting Pine Valley Mountain was in my mind. I've painted the mountain several times and can't get enough of it. Before I have painted it from a distance and this time I'm representing it up close and personal.
While at my daughter Heather's in Tucson I painted this sketch. My friend Craig Reay was the cinematographer (that's high falutin' movie lingo for camera man) and if you google his name he actually has a filmography. Check it out. He also has a rock band and plays venues down here in southern Arizona. He refuses to get me in the movies and he won't let me be the keyboard guy in his band! Some friend!
On a recent trip to Tucson, Arizona, I took a break to paint a sketch. I also rushed to Farson 40 miles away to get that big waffle cone (I try to never miss it!).
Friday night, August 24th Marathon Oil Company celebrated their 100th year in Wyoming and it was kind a big deal for Pamela and myself. The painting you see in this picture I painted for the Marathon Oil Company and has been featured in the Buffalo Bill Museum all summer along with three other paintings. That in itself is a high honor. The banquet Friday night featured speakers Governor Matt Mead, Senator Al Simpson, Senator Mike Enzi along with the CEO of Marathon, Clarence P. Cazalot. I was asked to share a few words when a full size giclee reproduction was given to Governor Mead.
My daughters Heather Hopkinson Nielsen and Summer Hopkinson Lofgran accompanied Pamela and me. It was a fun night.
ELDER THOMAS S. MONSON GIVES AN APOSTOLIC BLESSING IN EAST GERMANY
This painting is the cover for The Church News published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (that's the Mormon Church for those who like shorter titles). I was pretty thrilled to see this and the other two paintings I painted for President Bjorn Bauerfeind who lives in Lipzieg, Germany. The article gives the account of meeting Bjorn (early morning by e-mail and then in person) and doing three interesting paintings that represent three moments of LDS history in Germany from 1976 (the Blessing by Elder Monson) and the missionary grafitti on the west side of the Berlin Wall prior to 1989 and then Bjorn being able to leave East Germany in 1990 and serve an LDS Mission in Oregon, USA.
For those who don't know, Thomas S. Monson is now the President of the LDS Church.
Make sure you go to lds.org and link onto The Church News to see the full article. "direct link: http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/print/62467/Painting-history.html"
Years ago my cousin B.Todd Hopkinson was a wrangler with horses and pack strings at Jenny Lake in the Teton National Park. He commissioned this piece to hang over his fireplace in his home. He even posed for it. The painting shows Mount Moran in the background.
Several Years back while living in Mesa Arizona I watched as the clouds started piling up during the Monsoon season. I grabbed my portable easle and drove over to the Rio Salido (Salt River) to the approximate location that the settlers from Utah crossed. I painted the clouds and light on Red mountain at that spot. While the river was dry I was already planning the crossing scene that I would paint in my studio at a later time.
Early one morning I grabbed my paint bucket and French Easle, got in my pickup and drove up the Catalina Highway in Tucson to find something exciting to paint. I hadn't gone more than five miles up the mountain road and came around the second switchback and found my spot. The 24 x 18 inch canvas on the left is the sketch I did that morning. That was a year or two ago. Three or four months ago I began the painting on the right. A 30 x 40 composition of harmony; color, light and shadow, representing a beautiful Arizona morning in the Santa Catalina Mountains.
In my (oh so humble) opinion, any artist worth his salt will want to paint on location or from live models as often as possible. The paintings above are paintings I did on location near my Arizona home.
Several months ago I received an email from Bjorn Bauerfeind, a young business man who grew up in East Germany. He was aware that I have painted many Historical Paintings, representing the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He explained that he would like me to paint some scenes of the history of the Church in East Germany.
As Communism disintigrated in the Soviet Block nations, the wall came down and East Germany and West Germany began the efforts of reuniting. Bjorn Bauerfeind's parents drove him through an opening in the wall, (the guards no longer armed with machine guns) to the airport to fly to the United States to begin serving the mission for the L.D.S. Church in Oregon.