January 2023

 

Last September, on our Mammoth trip, we drove out to the east of Mono Lake looking for wild horses. After seeing a herd of them in the far distance, but failing to get close to them, we continued driving east to Benton Hot Springs. It was an interesting historic spot but disappointing because everything was closed to the public. There's not really much there but this old building and a hot spring resort. I guess you have to stay at the resort to get the full experience.

This is a scene from a backpacking trip that Gerald and I did in 2008. We spent four days going from Rock Creek over Mono Pass and into Pioneer Basin. This was at Ruby Lake early in the morning of our second day. I painted the same scene nine years ago (see May 2014, "spring 2014"), but although I liked it, I was unsatisfied with the muddy colors in the reflection. This time the painting is lighter and less colorful, but I think I did a much better job and it comes a lot closer to the original photo.

I looked through some photos from our first big trip to the Southwest in 1992 and picked out a few as possible subjects for paintings. The first one that I tried was one of Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly. It's a very interesting place — as much for the canyon views as for its location in the middle of the Navajo reservation. You don't get much sense of size from this view, but the rock is more than 800 ft. tall, a pretty spectacular place.

On that same 1992 trip, we camped for a couple of days at Capitol Reef National Park. We loved the place, especially the area of Fruita, the remains of an old farming settlement of Mormon pioneers. The campground is there next to an apple orchard where the deer came to eat every evening. This old barn is there too, which made a nice scene against the colorful cliffs.

This was another scene from our 1992 trip. We were in New Mexico and visited one of the small Native American reservations or pueblos between Santa Fe and Taos. There wasn't much to see at this village, but we enjoyed walking around a bit and this stone gate to a cemetery caught our eyes. We stayed several days camped on the shores of the Rio Grande and we loved the interesting history and culture of the area.

On our 1992 trip we made a stop at Monument Valley. It is an amazing place, but I was a bit disappointed because of the way the tribal park is set up. I expected something like one of the national parks, but found just a big visitor center that seemed to be only there to sell guided tours. We saw a few cars heading out from the big parking lot on a dirt road, so we followed them. It felt like we probably weren't supposed to go there except with a tour, so I kind of expected to be stopped by tribal police and told to leave. That didn't happen so we drove around a loop road with lots of great views. At one point off to the side of the road was a navajo woman and a kid sitting in the sand all dressed in beautiful traditional clothing. Apparently we were supposed to pay them to take their photo, but I didn't stop. I was hoping to be able to hike around, but didn't find any trails and getting out of your car was not encouraged. I did get a few good photos and used one of them to paint this.

December 2022

 I decided to try another scene from Marie Lake, on my 2001 hike of the John Muir Trail. I liked this view of the mountain, Seven Gables, lit by alpenglow, but was at first reluctant to try it because I often don't do well with dark tones. I went ahead and did most of the dark areas with a purple gray wash and then added some detail later. I think it worked out pretty well.

I picked another scene from the John Muir Trail. This one was at Little Pete Meadow in LeConte Canyon. Gerald and I were met here by Aaron and Alicia, who had hiked in over Bishop Pass to resupply us. We spent a full day together in this beautiful spot. I remember thinking that it was kind of like being in Yosemite Valley with no one else around.

Then I decided to do another scene from our trip to Big Sur. At Point Lobos we parked on the highway, walked into the park, and soon came to the shore at Whaler's Cove. There was a little sea otter out among the kelp, but he was far out and we couldn't get a good photo of him. I couldn't resist putting him into my painting anyway.

Our cat, Sunny spends a good part of her day sleeping on the back of the love seat in the living room. One day the way the light fell on her caught my eye and I took a photo, intending to paint it. Months later, I finally got around to doing it.

November 2022

 

After a month in the hospital and in recovery from heart surgery, I finally got started painting again. I chose to do another scene from our trip to the V6 Ranch. This is from one of Maureen's photos as she and Zim were moving the herd of steers back to the camp. In her photo, Zim was wearing a fly mask that covered his ears, so I substituted his uncovered ears from another photo. We both feel that our days at V6 made a big impression on us and gave us some really good memories.

 Here's another one from my hike of the John Muir Trail in 2001. On our eighth day we reached Marie Lake and I found it to be one of the most beautiful lakes of the trail. I loved all of the little islands and peninsulas around the lake. I took several photos, but in those days my photography was limited by my film supply. I would have taken many more today.

October 2022

Our last horsemanship clinic of the year was about working with cattle at the V6 Ranch in the mountains east of Paso Robles. It was different from the other cow clinics that we have been to in that it was out on the range of a huge ranch instead of an arena. Every day the riders would go out in the morning and gather a herd of about 40 yearling steers and bring them back to camp where they would be worked in the afternoon. One day I followed them out for about a mile until they were out of sight. As they returned, I took a few photos of the gathering, and I used one of them for this painting. I think it gives one a good idea of the cowboy experience of this place.

September 2022

 We spent the week after Labor Day at Mammoth Lakes. We used to go nearly every year, but it had been four years since our last trip. One of the hikes that we did was to Heart Lake, about a mile of climbing up the east side of the lakes basin. Everything was beautiful, just as we remembered it — pine forest, aspens, sagebrush and great views. I was going to paint the scene of one of my recent shots, but then I happened to look through some older photos, and found one of the same hike that included our dog, Darby.

One day while we were staying in Mammoth, we drove way out east of Mono Lake to look for wild horses. We found an article online which mentioned several likely side roads off highway 120, and we tried the first one listed. A few miles out on a dirt road we saw some tiny spots on the horizon. We stopped and started walking toward them. We realized that the distances were deceptive and it would be a very long walk, so we went back to the car and tried to get closer on dirt tracks through the desert. The roads were bad and we were risking getting stuck out in the middle of nowhere, so we gave up. We did actually see horses, though they were far away, and we were impressed by what a huge, beautiful area they had to roam in.

Another day of our stay in Mammoth, we went to Rock Creek for a hike. The end of the road at Mosquito Flat is just about the highest trailhead in the Sierra, at 10,300 ft. Climbing higher on rocky trails into Little Lakes Valley is not easy, but we made it as far as the first lake. The scenery is wonderful with high peaks all around and reflected in the lake.

August 2022

In 1999 we made a trip to the Southwest, a big loop around the four corners. We had done a similar trip seven years earlier and wanted to revisit some of our favorite places and add a few new ones. One of those favorite places was Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. Like all of that part of the country, it is full of red-rock mesas and canyons. Ever since that trip I have wanted to go back to the area, but never got around to it. I guess that influenced my choice of a scene to paint.

Here's another scene from that same Southwest trip. On our way from southern Colorado and into Utah on our way to Capitol Reef, we stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument. The canyons and bridges were quite impressive and we hiked around a bit to see them. This was the last bridge that we came to, the Owachomo Bridge. I had forgotten the name, but found it by looking up the park map online. I wanted my painting to have sky with some softer-edged clouds. As is often the case with watercolor, that area took only a minute or two to paint but it was the most challenging part.

July 2022

 

To celebrate our 50th anniversary, we spent four days at a friend's cabin in Big Sur. The weather was perfect and everything was beautiful. One day we drove south and stopped at a couple of spots to take in the views. This painting shows what we saw at one of them.

On our last evening in Big Sur, we went out to dinner in Carmel Valley at a Japanese restaurant. On the drive back to the cabin, we stopped at Monastery Beach to see the sun just going down in a beautiful sunset. I tried to capture it in this painting.

On our first full day in Big Sur we went for a hike in Point Lobos State Park. We had avoided the place for years because it was always crowded and they don't allow dogs, but we thought we should give it another try. We parked on highway 1 and headed north to Whaler's Cove, then followed the North Shore Trail. The trail is pretty rough, but it was so beautiful with the rugged granite headlands, deep blue ocean, pine and cypress forest and lots of wildflowers. I used one of my photos with a bit of artistic license and it turned out pretty good.

From the Point Lobos park entrance, we walked through forest which opened to this view of Whaler's Cove just ahead. It was such a nice scene that I snapped a photo before we arrived at the beach. I chose it for this painting because I liked the trees and the expectation of a nice view just ahead.

 One day in Big Sur we hiked the short trail out onto Soberanes Point in Garrapata State Park. Just as at Point Lobos, the weather was nice and the seashore was beautiful. I liked a photo that I took of a wave hitting a big rock and used it for this painting. The red coloring above the rocky shore is from ice plant which seasonally turns red. It is an invasive alien plant that is found just about everywhere on the California coast.

Near the end of June, we went to a three-day clinic in Novato for Maureen and Zim to work with cattle. I took many photos and I wanted to paint something from them. I chose one of Chris riding Shiner and separating a steer from the herd in a rodear. Riders make a wide circle around the herd to keep them bunched together while one rider cuts one out and tries to keep it out of the herd. To start it off, Chris demonstrated how to do it with Shiner, who is an excellent cutting horse.