I came across a photo on Facebook that I thought would be fun to paint. It is a waterfall in the Lake Tahoe area. I've never seen the falls, but it is typical of lots of places I have been in the Sierra. I am quite happy with the result.
I decided to continue with my idea of painting photos from my 2001 hike of the John Muir Trail. This one was of a group of dead trees that caught my eye on the climb toward Pinchot Pass. There was something about it that captured the feeling of being high in the mountains, near timberline. It was one of my favorite photos, and I'm happy with the painting too.
Then I tried another one from the John Muir Trail. My friend, Gerald, is leading the way as we approached the end of the trail at the summit of Mt. Whitney after dropping our packs at a trail junction. When I showed my painting to Maureen, she said that it looked like a scene from a sci-fi movie. It was a pretty amazing landscape of barren rock at over 14,000 ft. elevation.
I added another one from the John Muir Trail. This scene is from around the halfway point of our hike, day 10 along the South Fork of the San Joaquin River in Goddard Canyon. The trail is not all timberline country — in between the high passes are deep canyons and beautiful rivers. One thing that caught my eye when I took the photo was the morning light putting the river in and out of shadow and I wanted to show that in my painting. I think it worked pretty well.
