DON'T EVER PLAY IN THE DEVIL'S KITCHEN!

Next week, I'll be attending a Plein Air Workshop. This means I won't be working on the mural during that period. When you paint landscapes, plein air painting is the best method to capture natural looking color and an atmospheric quality. Honestly, I hadn't gone plein air for a while and decided it was time. Along with this last mural for the client, I have 11 paintings to produce for offices and conference rooms. Getting outside and "painting in the open air (what plein air means)", would be the best thing I could do for this project and my future landscape works.

Last Sunday afternoon, I went for a drive up Payson Canyon while my wife spent some one-on-one time with her youngest son whom we had over for dinner. I had never driven the entire Nebo Scenic Route through the canyon, but this time decided to do just that.  Unfortunately, I only got as far as a closed gate at the Devil's Kitchen turnout. I assume the gate was closed to repair a damaged road due to winter errosion a few miles up ahead, yet I was able to squeeze through the gate and found the trail to the Kitchen. It was incredible --- like a mini Bryce Canon! I didn't bring my camera with me, as it was the Sabbath (A long time ago, I made a personal commitment not to take pictures to use for future paintings on the Sabbath). Still I had determined to return to this beautiful spot the following Saturday to do some plein air. It has now been one week since I went on the drive. My plein air Saturday was yesterday and I'm about to report how it went.

Here's what happened....

Well I got to Devil's Kitchen Saturday morning at about 10 a.m. I set up my three-legged french easel and my paint, brushes and palette were made ready. I also attached my plein air umbrella to the french easel for shading the canvas and palette and securely tied it's guy ropes to the overlook fence.

Not long after I started painting, sight-seekers started showing up. Besides my own presence, the overlook deck left little room for no more than two to three on-lookers at a time. I apologized for taking up so much space on the platform, asking the visitors to step tenderly around my equipment, which they did. Suddenly a micro-burst of wind came through and one of the legs of my easel gave way, just like when a person's knees buckle and their legs suddenly go limp. In spite of the security of guy ropes, the easel came crashing down upon the head of a boy not older than ten years old, who stood at the left corner of the deck. The boy was okay and narrowly escaped getting oil paint on him. The guy rope possibly saved my easel from taking flight over the overlook guard rail and down the canyon wall, but some of my art supplies. including; brushes, paint and painting medium flew over the edge below the deck.

Someone then said, "I hope you didn't loose much over the edge!" That's when a young man in his twenties swung himself up on the guardrail and said "I'll get it." I grabbed him, firmly pulling him back, before he managed to leap over the edge and sternly said, "Oh no you won't! Not on account of me!" I then carefully climbed over and gathered up all the equipment I could find, allowing this strong young man to hang onto my hand from the other side of the guardrail in case I slipped. After I made my way back onto the platform deck, I inventoried my supplies. It appeared that I had collected all and luckily, nothing now was missing.

After that micro-burst and a permanently weakened back leg of my french easel, I said, "Okay, I'm done! I've had enough!" and started gathering up all my stuff, which were brought to the sight in several trips. I then folded up my easel and managed to put everything back in, except my glass bottle of painting medium. The medium kept the easel box from closing securely shut, so I removed it, setting it on the deck floor, then I turned back to finish the business of closing the easel box. Suddenly I heard this crashing sound behind me. I turned toward the sound, noticing that the $60 bottle of painting medium was missing. It was then that I realized my painting medium had gone over the edge. I stood up to look over the platform and that's when I saw the broken pieces of a glass bottle of amber colored painting medium tumbling down the canyon and permanently smearing streaks of glaze on the reddish walls of the Devil's kitchen. To sum it all up, It was a "hell of an experience". Perhaps you'll think I'm crazy, but after the plein air workshop is over, I going back to the same spot with a brand new outdoor easel the following Saturday!