This page is under reconstruction. The old contents below are being replaced by the artist's comments about how he is inspired by scences from movies like John Ford's 1939 Stagecoach to create his own versions of scenes. He sketches and paints scenes that tell part of the story from a movie. He prepares by visiting sites where movie scenes were filmed, such as Moument Valley.

In today's world of DVDs, its possible for an older artist who can't get around as much as use to to freeze-frame a movie to study and sketch scenes frame-by-frame. That what this section of the artist's website will be about when its reconstructed.

I learned the names of the monuments and other features during my first visit in the 1970s. I did the pen and ink sketch shown below in 1990 at Goulding, Utah. For your information the monuments from left to right are: (1) Brigham's Tomb, (2) Natani Tso (Big Leader, also referred to often as King on his Throne), (3) The Castle, (4) Big Indian, and (4) part of Sentinel Mesa. From the sketch view, The Castle Butte separates into Stagecoach, Rabbit and Bear.

Notes and links of interest:

Most paintings that I do from sketches and photographs are not intended to show how things actually exist in Monument Valley. I use the same artistic license that John Ford did as a filmmaker. Monument Valley was a backdrop for his westerns. His films told stories. I like to create paintings and drawings that do the same. For example, my watercolor sketch Tyree's Ridean interpretation of a action sequence in Ford's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

Sergeant Tyree is a character from a John Ford film played by Ben Johnson, a skilled horseman and the only experienced wrangler to ever win an Academy Award. During She Wore a Yellow Ribbon Tyree is sent out as a scout. At one point he is attacked by Comanche and makes a run for it. The freeze-framed sequence is an invitation to sketch and study horse and rider in action.

Bob Glover, the artist

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The following links give you access to Monument Valley vistas and features. Also, in case you haven't noticed many of the links in the paragraphs above and for some of the images are searches of the Web using keywords I selected as being appropriate for this webpage. The search engine used is available at the top of this page and throughout Bob Glover.com.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_Valley

http://utahpictures.com/MonumentValley.html

http://www.quarterly-report.com/monument_valley_index.html

http://www.monumentvalley.com/Pages/english_gallery.htm

http://www.desertusa.com/mag05/dec/m_valley.html

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Western star Harry Carey died in 1947. Director John Ford cast Carey's wife (Olive Carey) as Mrs. Jorgensen (the mother) and Carey's son (Harry Carey Jr.) as one of the sons (Brad) as a tribute to Carey. In the closing scene with John Wayne framed in the doorway, Wayne holds his right elbow with his left hand in a pose that Carey fans would recognize as one that he often used. Wayne later stated he did it as a tribute to Carey. Off-camera, Olive watchedquoted from IMDB.com/Trivia for
The Searchers (1956) ~ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049730/trivia

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shows horse and rider sketched from photographs taken at Lost Valley Ranch, Colorado, the scene of this sketch (click on it for a view of the finished artwork).