Passages in Red — Acrylic

This may be the most beautiful corner of Arches — the fins of Devil's Garden at sunset, when the low light catches the sandstone and sets it burning. I wanted to make a pure color study: that deep, saturated orange-red climbing the vertical walls, the green junipers clinging to the base for scale and life, and the steel-blue clouds pressing in overhead. A dusting of snow cooled the ground and sharpened the contrast. The fins rise like spires, one behind the next, marching into the distance in a slow procession — and between them, hidden passages twist and narrow into a labyrinth of stone you could wander for hours. The square format held the composition tight — all verticality and weight, the rock asserting itself against the sky.