Stormy Night Sunrise

This painting has an interesting tale of open-mindedness and seizing the moment.

Carolyn and I carefully planned a trip to the Grand Canyon in hopes of capturing scenes in the light of the full moon. The trip itself turned out to be quite exciting. As we approached the Grand Canyon, the Spring  weather changed. The skies darkened and about sixty miles out, the rain changed into sleet and snow. After a number of interesting incidents, we arrived at our lodge just outside the Grand Canyon. Disappointed about our full moon pictures, we went to sleep. At 3:30 a.m., Carolyn woke me up excitedly telling me the moon was out. There were clouds around it, but there it was. I quickly got dressed; we made some coffee and off I headed to the Grand Canyon. As I drove up the road, the moon began to disappear again. It got very dark. All I could see was the white, snow-covered road. As I drove through the unattended booths. there were no tire tracks on the road in front of me. It now was pitch black except for the white road and a few white lines leading into the woods. I made a right hand turn when the road came to a tee in front of me. I remembered there were parking viewing areas along the road. I found a parking area after several miles of driving along the Canyon. I pulled in and parked. I got out and tried to shine a light to look for paths down the Canyon, but could see nothing. A foggy haze just bounced the light back on me. Hearing voices, I opened my eyes to see it had rained while I slept and the snow was gone. Happy to see a bathroom facility in my rearview mirror, I followed the tourists and had a morning of photographing rainbows and many amazing scenes including this one. 

I painted this scene in several stages. First, without the eagles, rocks, logs and trees in the foreground. Then I added the trees and logs. Then more recently I added the five eagles. 

The lesson is be flexible, not disappointed.

Bob Engel Fine Artist

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