Utah Suite

(Wilson wrote in a letter to Donna Poulson, Salt Lake City, January
21, 2008)
....my fourth corner was the Utah Suite, which I painted
of the rocks in Utah from the northern extension of Monument Valley.
My wife and I drove to Bluff, UT and drove down from there through
Mexican Hat toward the Arizona line and saw Stagecoach, the Rabbit,
Brigham's Tomb, etc. from the northeast. As we neared the formation,
we took a dirt road off the highway and went west about three miles
and then turned due north and stopped in an area situated about 10
miles north of the large mesa referred to as Brigham's Tomb. We were
near a Navajo Hogan and the family came to see if we were all right.
Everybody was cheerful and kind, so I set up my tripod at sundown and
painted a field study of the area south of me. We went back to Bluff,
spent the night, and the next afternoon went back to the same place
and painted another field study. The field studies were painted in oil
on panels that measured 12 x 18 inches. While I was painting my wife
was drawing sketches of the immediate desert bushes and rock details.
We came back to Albuquerque and I painted a triptych with a
centerpiece of 18" square and two wing pieces. When I had perfected my
composition, I painted the model with a 4 x 4-foot centerpiece and two
wing pieces 4 feet high and 2 l/2 feet wide. Once these models were
completed, we got approval from the museum and the donor, as we had on
the other models, and proceeded to do the large works by scaling from
the models and matching the colors to the actual field studies that I
had painted on the site.

Have Questions or Comments ? Contact Us.