Painted on location at Canyon de Chelly on
Wednesday, Sept 23, 2009 between 5:30pm and 7:30pm

Spider Rock is probably the most famous and therefore easily recognizable formation in the Canyon. My friend and wonderfully talented painter, Rusty Jones, sat down to paint this on a rather windy evening. I truly believe that in the two hours we took to paint this site, the temps dropped twenty degrees. I've painted in a lot of cold weather since I lived in Minnesota for many years, but I have to say that I have never been colder than I was when I painted this one. I wasn't dressed for it in just a t-shirt. Luckily I had a wind breaker in my back pack, or I would not have been able to finish. I'm glad I was able to stick it out.

This painting was awarded the Judson's Thumbox Award at the Outdoor Painters Society's Plein Air Southwest Show in Dallas Texas.