Winter Storm off Mather Point, Grand Canyon. 53 x 84.5.

1. We have all heard how cold it was when some really macho painter
painted a winter scene. If he used oils, folks, delete any claim
lower than the 17 degrees in which I painted the study for this
canvas. Roz took the car floor mats to put under my feet; we had to
warm the tubes of paint to get paint on the palette, and once there it
acted like a cross between honey and that stringy cheese you get on a
hot pizza. This painting was done in my studio from that study.A cold
air mass was moving from the left of the painting with snow flurries
falling from low clouds. The wind breaks downward over the north rim
of the canyon causing rifts to appear overhead and sunlight to strike
the canyon in patches.We are looking from Mather Point on the south
rim northeastward toward the tower of rock called Zoroaster Temple.As
the canyon descends, the air becomes warmer and you can see but little
snow appears at the bottom.
2. Another time Wilson wrote: When I
painted the study for this Roz took the floor mat out of the car for
me to stand on because my feet kept going numb. It was fairly clam and
17 degrees F. The snow flurries were moving from the north across the
canyon leaving clear sky and sunlight between low-lying clouds. The
soft winter colors of the canyon formed their own harmony, and the Red
Wall was dark from the soft rain where far below us the air was
warm.The antique frame on this painting was given to me by the
National Cowboy Hall of Fame. It was acquired years ago to frame a
large Moran, and it was the wrong size so they had been moving it
around in their storeroom since then. Robert LaPlante of Albuquerque,
who has been designing and building beautiful frames for my paintings
for nearly 20 years, restored it.

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