DESERT SOUTHWEST PAINTING LESSONS
The southwest is unlike any other landscape, and it is incredibly fun to paint. These Adventure Painting lessons were filmed in Utah and Arizona while exploring canyons and rambling on redrock mesas. Each year my Dad and I go on a road trip to the desert, and these classes share some of my most favorite places with you.
To learn more about each class (colors used, location details, lesson length, primary techniques) and to navigate to the lesson, click the images below or scroll down.
Kodachrome Basin (Jan 2025)
Location: Kodachrome Basin State Park, Utah
Video Time: 1 hr 40 min - Go to this lesson -
Paint the red and orange sandstone towers and fins of Kodachrome Basin State Park with ink and watercolor.
Colors Used: Cobalt Blue, Phthalo Blue Green Shade & Neutral Tint for the sky only, Indanthrone blue, Quinacridone burnt orange, Quinacridone gold, and a rose or red pigment
Primary Techniques:
- Water control/ balance to create different effects Subtle clouds in the distance
- Using orange vs. blue color contrast to bring focus and emphasis to a desert landscape
- Painting a loose foreground with wet-next-to-wet blending
- Simplifying rock patterns into shapes/ areas of light and dark
Capitol Reef Domes (Oct 2024)
Location: Capitol Reef National Park, Fruita Overlook
Video Time: 2 hr 30 min - Go to this lesson -
Hike my favorite trail in Capitol Reef and explore the stunning patterns and colors of slickrock domes and layers of sandstone below a cloudy sky.
Colors Used: Cobalt Blue, Phthalo Blue Green Shade, Ultramarine Blue, Sodalite, Quinacridone Rose, Indian Red, Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, and Buff Titanium
Primary Techniques:
- Exploring the joy of bright colors to help tell a story of place and landscape
- Simplifying very complex rocks into paintable shapes and patterns
- How to paint a puff-ball cloud sky
- Going outside our comfort zones by focusing on painting how a place feels instead of trying to replicate the exact view
Escalante River Canyon (May 2024)
Location: Escalante River, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Video Time: 2 hr 20 min - Go to this lesson -
Paint the glowing light of a desert canyon and stunning backlit cottonwood trees in the spring beside the Escalante River
Colors Used: Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Hansa Yellow Medium, Indanthrone Blue, Phthalo Blue Green Shade,
White Gouache and cobalt blue (optional)
Primary Techniques:
- Dramatically simplifying canyon walls into two layers of paint- one to hint at texture and color, and one to add the shadows
- "Negative" painting around glowing tree foliage
- Easy brush strokes for grassy foliage and deciduous leaves
- How to create the glowing effect of reflected light in a sandstone canyon
La Sal Mountains & Desert Towers (Mar. 2024)
Location: Arches National Park, Utah
Video Time: 2 hr 30 min - Go to this lesson -
Hike the Devil's Garden loop at Arches National park and paint a stunning scene of snow-capped desert mountains framed by vibrant red and orange towers. This is one of the more complex lessons in the classes library.
Colors Used: Phthalo Blue Green Shade, Cobalt Blue, Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Orange, and Violet, Indanthrone Blue, Perylene Red
Primary Techniques:
- Using color contrast (instead of shadows and highlights) as a key design element and as a compositional tool to convey a sense of place
- How to paint and simplify distant snow-capped mountains
- Distilling a complicated meadow into color blocks and blooms
- How to sketch and pain complicated desert towers and fins
Pleasant Creek Golden Cottonwoods (Oct. 2023)
Location: Capitol Reef National Park
Video Time: 2.5 hours - Go to this lesson -
Return to the magic of fall in the southwest and paint glowing yellow trees, huge sandstone domes, and a peaceful babbling creek.
Colors Used: Hansa Yellow Medium, New Gamboge, Phthalo Blue Green Shade, Phthalo Blue Red Shade, Burnt Sienna, Neutral Tint, White Gouache
Primary Techniques:
- Painting backlit rocks and simplifying slickrock patterns
- How to create a glowing effect for cottonwood/ deciduous trees
- Strategies for simplifying running water
- Painting rocks, and what to do when they aren't turning out well!
Golden Throne (July 2023)
Location: Capitol Reef National Park
Video Time: 2 hr 10 min - Go to this lesson -
Back to the desert we go! Hike up a canyon to paint an incredible sandstone formation called the Golden Throne below a wide blue sky filled with wispy clouds.
Colors Used: Indanthrone Blue, Phthalo Blue Green Shade, New Gamboge, Perylene Red
Primary Techniques:
- Wet-on-wet techniques for creating a dynamic sky and clouds
- Layering colors to mimic the textures and patterns of sandstone
- Utilizing wet-on-dry brush strokes and fading edges to more easily paint rock
- Glazing layers of transparent color
- Simplification of a complex landscape
Slickrock & Shadows in the Desert (Oct. 2021)
Location: Escalante, Utah
Video Time: 2 hr 30 min - Go to this lesson -
Sandstone slickrock, shadows, and a beautiful pine tree! This place was so stunning that I hiked here many times to watch sunrise and the glowing morning light on the yellow and red stone.
Colors Used: WHITE GOUACHE, New Gamboge, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Phthalo Blue Red Shade, Quinacridone Violet, and a tiny bit of Perylene red and Neutral Tint
Primary Techniques:
- White Gouache- our first lesson utilizing this unique opaque pigment that allows us to layer paint differently and create stunning desert patterns
- Creating the patterns in slickrock using transparent and opaque lines
- Using controlled blooms of color to mimic complicated rock textures
- Simplifying complex patterns into basic lines
- Painting dark shadows and foliage using a round brush
Delicate Arch (Feb. 2023)
Location: Arches National Park, Utah
Video Time: 1 hr 20 min - Go to this lesson -
Back to the desert we go! This time, to paint an icon of the southwest - Delicate Arch - on an overcast day with subtle colors and surprising snowcapped peaks.
Colors Used: Cobalt Blue, Indanthrone Blue, New Gamboge Yellow, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Perylene Red
Primary Techniques:
- Tips for working quickly and simplifying a complex scene
- Breaking a landscape into layers and pattern
- Painting distant snow-capped mountains
- Creating a feeling of overcast sky and backlighting using subtle color shifts
- Making patterns for slickrock!
- Strategies for sketching and proportions
Painted Desert (July 2022)
Location: Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
Video Time: 1 hr 50 min - Go to this lesson -
The Painted Desert is a spectacular area of Petrified Forest National Park. And at sunset, it is a landscape defined by sinuous purple shadows and glowing hills.
Colors Used: Cobalt Blue, Phthalo Blue Green Shade, Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Rose, Perylene Red, Sodalite (I show you options for mixing this in the colors section), Buff Titanium (not necessary to paint the scene)
Primary Techniques:
- Using gradients to create unique textures
- Layering transparent colors to make vibrant & lively shadows
- Strategies for painting the glowing desert in evening light
- Using blooms and direct-on-paper blending to make the patterns of the badlands and grassland
Petrified Forest (June 2022)
Location: Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona.
Video Time: 2 hours - Go to this lesson -
Learn to paint the incredible shapes, colors, and patterns of the rainbow petrified wood. Plus a bonus mini lesson on my shadow painting technique.
Colors Used: Quinacridone Gold, Perylene Red, Quinacridone Violet, Ultramarine Blue, Indanthrone Blue
Primary Techniques:
- Form vs. cast shadows
- Sketching a smaller and closer in object
- Controlling the wetness of our page to create stunning patterns
- Using shadows to ground a shape and add dimensionality
The Castle (April 2022)
Location: Capitol Reef National Park, Utah.
Video Time: 2 hr 18 min - Go to this lesson -
The Castle is an iconic rock formation in the park, and was an absolutely subject to paint. I was drawn to the contrast of the brilliant yellow cottonwood trees with the hues of red and orange in the sandstone.
Colors Used: New Gamboge Yellow, Indian Red, Quinacridone Rose, Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Ochre, Viridian, Phthalo Blue Green Shade, Buff Titanium
Primary Techniques:
- How to use negative painting to create the brilliant trees
- Using hard and soft edges to create a dynamic scene
- Exploring the unique magic of granulating pigments
- Employing white line borders to imply light and paint quickly
- Simplifying grasses with a simple brush technique!
Glowing Desert Cottonwoods (Jan. 2022)
Location: Spring Canyon, Capitol Reef. Utah.
Video Time: 2 hr 10 min - Go to this lesson -
Explore the glowing yellows of a cottonwood grove illuminated by the fall sunlight. This was a magical scene of yellow and gold leaves that looked like distilled sunshine and contrasted with afternoon’s blue shadows and the patterns of red sandstone
Colors Used: Hansa Yellow Medium, New Gamboge, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Ultramarine Blue, Pyrrol Scarlet
Primary Techniques:
- Negative painting (painting around the subject to define its shape)
- Sandstone textures, including desert varnish and tafoni (holes in the rock)
- Deciduous tree foliage
- Painting tree trunks & low-ground foliage
Desert Bridge at Sunrise (Nov. 2021)
Location: Hickman Bridge, Capitol Reef. Utah.
Video Time: 1 hr 43 min - Go to this lesson -
It's time to paint big! Wake up before dawn and hike to a huge natural sandstone bridge and explore the colors of desert glow on a big half sheet of watercolor paper. With a short hike in, this is a relatively easy location to get to, and the light is perfect just after sunrise! This is the largest painting in our classes library.
Colors Used: Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Rose, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Phthalo (Blue Red Shade), Neutral tint
Primary Techniques:
- Sandstone textures and patterns
- Simplification of a background to speed up a painting
- Creating a sense of glowing rock at sunrise using layers of color
- Dry brushing and using the whole surface of our paintbrush to create texture
- Silhouetted desert trees
