By Justin Gerard
AWOL 2014 : The Canyon Cat
12″ x 16″
Oil on panel and Digital

Detail Close-up

Ye Oldte Colour Comp
Earlier this summer Annie and I did a whirlwind tour of southern Utah, which I think has some of the absolute best national parks in America. (They’re worth it! Go!)
Often after trips like this I come back and want to do something to try and capture the wonder I felt while I was there.  It rarely ever works out, and often, like the photos you took out there, rarely captures how compelling the whole experience was. 

This is one of those paintings that doesn’t operate on a narrative like much of my other work; instead it is a collection of the leftover feelings and impressions of the place.

These images are often really hard for me to explain.
Then again, maybe they don’t need much explanation because they are images, and after all they deal in matters that words can’t adequately describe, and that’s why we tried to communicate them in a picture.

We saw jackrabbits one night. They fled into the brush upon seeing our bright yellow headlights. From the canyon’s edge we watched a lightning storm gather in the moonlight. We drove through the desert all night in the starlight.  And somehow I ended up here.

Bryce Canyon 2014
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Bonus Post: Annie was also inspired by the adventure. Check out her post here! Â