In July, 1989, my friend Gerald and I climbed Mount Shasta. In this scene we were using rented crampons and ice axes to climb a huge snowfield, from Helen Lake at 10400 ft. to Red Banks at 12800 ft. The whole climb, with about 7000 ft. of elevation gain, was one of the hardest and most exciting things I had ever done. It was a good memory and I wanted to save it with a painting.
Then I wanted to revisit another memory, my hike of the John Muir Trail in 2001, also with Gerald. Near the midpoint of that three-week trip, we were at 12000 ft. Muir Pass, on the divide between the San Joaquin and Kings Rivers, a very remote and desolate spot. At the top there is a small stone hut built by the Sierra Club in 1930 for emergency shelter. There was also a resident marmot who I included in the painting.
Next to the barn where our horses live there is a little maple tree. It's not much of a tree, but it has some pretty leaves, which caught my eye recently. I didn't want to do a lot of masking, just a few thin lines, so it was a challenge to paint a loose-looking background without painting over any of the leaves or branches. I think it worked out quite well.
I started looking for painting subjects among my old photos from our trip to England and Ireland in the summer of 2000. We started that trip by spending several days staying with my distant cousin, Margaret, and her husband, Bernard, in the quiet little village of Betley, near Crewe, England. This was the view down the main street on one of our walks around town.
