We spent a few days in a cabin at Tamarack Lodge in Mammoth Lakes. It was the first trip that we were able to do since June when Maureen came off her horse and broke seven ribs. We borrowed a portable oxygen machine that made it possible for her to handle the high elevation. We had some very cold weather but enjoyed the beautiful location. One evening I saw a pink sky out of the window and hurried out to get a photo by the lake in front of our cabin, and it inspired this painting.
For the last couple of months I haven't had the time or energy to do much painting. Just a few days after our trip to Big Sur, Maureen got bucked off of Zim and broke seven ribs. She spent a few days in the hospital and then had to go back for a few more days weeks later. She was in a great deal of pain and was not able to do very much for a long time. She has very slowly recovered and now is doing all right but still taking pain meds and using oxygen most of the time. So I recently got back to my painting, and did this scene from Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. On our October, 2023 trip, we stopped there on our way from Capitol Reef to Moab and found it to be a very interesting place with lots of colorful rocks. There was a little valley filled with hundreds of hoodoos that we could wander among. There were some kids climbing on the rocks, and one of them is in this painting.
I've been thinking about some of the special places that I have known in the High Sierra. One of them near the top of my list is Pioneer Basin. One thing that all of those places have in common is that they are not easy to get to. This one is no exception, being a couple-days hike in from Rock Creek over 12,000 ft. Mono Pass. I first visited it with my dad in 1967. I was young and full of energy, but dad was in his 50's and found it hard but he really enjoyed the spectacular location. I visited it once again in 2008 with my friend, Gerald, and this time it was I who was finding it hard going.
After finishing one painting of Pioneer Basin, I wanted to try another. I chose to do a repeat of a scene that I painted several years ago. I thought that maybe I would be able to improve on my earlier painting, but it turned out to be very similar and in some ways not as good. Anyway, I enjoyed doing it and that's what really matters.
Our plan was to spend four nights at the cabin near Big Sur where we have been going for many years. We arrived Monday afternoon and spent Tuesday driving down to Nepenthe for lunch and then a hike at Andrew Molera. That night around 10 o'clock we were both reading and enjoying the total quiet when we heard a big crash outside. We went out and found our car half covered in branches and badly dented and the rear window shattered. It was still driveable, so in the morning we packed up and left. On the way, we stopped for a short walk on the headlands of Soberanes Point. It was a beautiful scene and a line of pelicans flew past which inspired this painting.
One beautiful spring day I decided to go hiking at Las Trampas. It was my first hike in a long time in a place other than the trails at the barn where we keep our horse. I took a few photos and many of them were of wildflowers. Later, I looked through them for something to paint, and this shot of a fiddleneck flower stood out. I liked juxtaposition of the hills in the background and the close-up flowers.
Here is another scene from our little hike in Valles Caldera, NM, last October. The trail wandered through open forest near the edge of a big area of grassland. One bright aspen stood out against the dark pines. It was a great place to be on a beautiful fall day.
I went ahead and did a second painting of this scene from our 1973 backpacking trip in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, this time in landscape orientation. It helped a bit that I had already painted it but I still had some of the same problems as the first time. Still, I think it gives a pretty good impression of our incredible campsite view.
We spent another week in the Placerville area again to help Chris and Claire by feeding their horses. When we were there in February, the weather was awful, but this time it was nice and we had a good time there. We made a couple of walks down to the Cosumnes River and sat in the little park just watching the river flow. It reminded me of the Bob Dylan song. Back at the house, I painted the scene.
On Facebook the only group that I belong to is "Eastern Sierra & Scenic Hwy 395". I like it because I love the area and people post a lot of photos. Some of them are really good photographers. One day I came across a photo of a little stone cabin and some great mountains. I usually prefer to use my own photos for paintings, but once in a while I find one from someone else that just cries out to be painted.
I walk the mile-long trail to the water tower from the barn a couple of days a week and I've been doing it for months. I am almost always accompanied by Maureen riding Zim and Judy riding Mumu. When I reach this spot on the trail I often think it would make a nice painting. Now I've finally done it. I walk pretty slow, so by this point the riders are usually far ahead, but I don't mind. I sit on a bench by the water tower and wait while they ride a little farther.
In September, 1973, we did a backpacking trip into the Glacier Peak Wilderness in the North Cascades of Washington. It was some hard hiking, especially for Maureen, who was three months pregnant with our future son Aaron, and our dog, Matt, who had to carry all of his food in a doggy backpack. We drove to the town of Darrington northeast of Seattle, and hiked up the White Chuck River to Kennedy Hot Spring, then thousands of feet up to Lake Byrne. We found a campsite near the lake shore with an incredible view of 10,541 ft. Glacier Peak across a huge canyon. I used my camera's self timer to get a shot of us in camp. In painting it I expected the top half to be difficult, but it turned out to be quite easy, but the bottom half was hard because it was very dark and murky in the photo and I'm not so good at doing people, especially ourselves. I'm thinking of trying it again in landscape orientation so I can use it in my next calendar. I recently looked it up and found that this hike is not possible anymore because several years ago floods wiped out everything — road, trail and hot spring.
