69 MESA VERDE WEDNESDAY, MAY 5 Park Point again, this time to do a larger work. The drawing OK—only the lower third of the paper—and started painting the distant pastel hues. This went extremely well and looked very pretty by lunchtime. After lunch it went through a difficult time and was still rather questionable by 6.00, when I packed up. I drew in the sky but didn’t paint it because a strong wind was battering my site. I have to radio in my position every morning: “Foster A.I.R. car parked in pullout below Park Point. I’m working 300 yards SE”—“Copy. 9.10.” Sitting in the dirt at tea break, I was forcefully struck by the thought that I can’t continue to work like this. Not particularly the hardship—more the loneliness. I got quite depressed. Walked to the phone and phoned Annie Vanderbilt for a good moan. At the end we were both howling with laughter. FRIDAY, MAY 7 Started work on yesterday’s painting to see if I could get it to work. Still not sure, but it is improved. After lunch quickly finished the little picture of Shiprock and am very pleased with it. Then some displacement activities before tackling the sky of the big Shiprock picture. The sky takes up two thirds of the painting, so is very important. Did a sweeping sky that I saw on Wednesday. Put in some colour, rather tentatively, but though it needs additional strength, it is not bad. MONUMENT VALLEY SATURDAY, MAY 16 I fear I shall not want to paint M.V. The features are much more spread out than in the films and either seem too far away, with no foreground, or too close. They’re only really interesting from a distance. Another thought I had was that some of these features (Rainbow Bridge might be an example) are rather limited—there probably is only one vantage point that works, and it has already been painted dozens of times from that spot. MONDAY, MAY 17 Up at 5.30 because I wanted to see the early light on Monument Valley. I realise the problem with MV— it’s basically two-dimensional. It could be cut out of cardboard—that’s why most paintings of it rely on snazzy sunsets, etc. It has no dimensions and no foreground. Drive into the park and onto the dirt trail that is the only permitted access to the buttes, stopped at the first pullout, collected my breakfast stuff, and walked over to a small drop-off into a little canyon system leading to the Mittens—the iconic MV buttes (what a stupid name). As I was breakfasting, I realised that this would, in fact, make a painting—one butte was offset and at a different angle to the other, so they have a 3-D quality. Asked the information dept. the name of the Mittens in Navajo— she didn’t know so took me through to see her boss and his visitor, who both looked nonplussed but then came up with something that (apparently) when translated means “the rock that sticks up”—rather generic, I Limo and Coca-Cola sign, Arizona. thought. The boss said, “Knowledge like that will cost you—you should give me the painting.” He wasn’t really joking, I think. He kept asking what the painting was worth and what I would get for it rather pointedly. I was evasive, but it was awkward, and I left feeling no better about this project. Packed and drove out but then turned back and went to see him again. I said he was quite right—this park was their asset, and I was exploiting it, so I would give them 10% of whatever the painting fetched if I ever finished it. He was delighted and said it could go to a scholarship fund for Navajo students. We exchanged addresses and handshakes, and I took off again into the sandstorm. WEDNESDAY, MAY 19 Drew the extraordinary view of the left canyon (Canyon del Muerto?). These rock formations are incredibly complex—the rock runs in every direction at once and is the very devil to draw and even more difficult to paint.
