¡Vivan Las Celebraciones! A Grand Legacy from Spain and Mexico

Carl Carpenter A Zealot in a Sacred Land

"Earl Carpenter is a true fanatic. Every serious painter needs a fanatical streak to weather the rigors of the artist's life. Earl will shock you with his zeal for art. He seldom speaks of anything else. "We painters live in a sort of self-imposed isolation, but it is a strange and wonderful calling. People like Earl Carpenter reflect all the joys, the struggles, and the well-earned wisdom which this way of life rewards."

The Grand Canyon is a two-hour drive from my studio in Pinewood, and it is already 6:00 A.M. as I head out toward it, past the San Francisco Peaks where clouds even now are beginning to form. Anticipating the Canyon is like sensing the ocean: I can smell it, feel it, before I see it. Twenty years ago, when I saw it for the first time, I was overwhelmed by its immensity. It took years before I could grasp even a portion and put it on canvas. For me, even now, the Grand Canyon remains an ethereal, mystical experience.

By 8:00 A.M., I'm setting up my easel near Grand View Point on the South Rim. Before touching brush to canvas, I concentrate on visualizing the scene before me. Then I begin with broad strokes to brush in cobalt violet, while the sun steadily travels westward, giving me a different canyon "mood" every quarter-hour or so. I let Nature and my inner responses have their way.

Around noon I take a break. I've kept the large masses free of detail so I can "dream" into the painting. I could never hope to duplicate a photographic likeness of this chasm; perhaps I don't really care to. Instead, I think inwatercolor because it's fresh and spontaneous, and then I do the actual painting in oil. Lately I've been exploring the use of a palette knife.

I try to keep my paintings in the "sketch" stage as long as I possibly can, before pinning down detail. I'm fond of vistas, and highlighting just a tip of a rock outcrop as the sun breaks over it. And if there is a storm somewhere in the Canyon, so much the better for creating mood. Often I've been bombarded with such natural mood setters, getting in one day rainstorms, lightning, rainbows, sun, and shadows.

By 3:00 P.M., I'm starting to paint in the contrasts, and smearing areas of the painting to change the shapes of things. To see if my design design holds together, I turn the painting sideways, then upside down to check the interplay of light and dark patterns.

The last thing I do is carefully photograph the scene in 35mm. I'll use the exposure in slide form later, back at the studio, as a reference for touching up the painting.

Recently, I also started carrying a tape recorder with me on these painting treks. It's a form of verbal shorthand which helps me recall a particular moment with regard to color and composition. None of this technique is secret. Nor is it sacred.

I've been to the Grand Canyon in all seasons, camped out on the rims, hiked the trails. As fate would have it, numerous times I've met up with other artists who feel as I do. We give each other friendly advice. Art is just such a give-and-take experience. There are no secrets-just hard work and lots of brush mileage.