I’ve been delayed in rounding out my Glacier National Park residency reporting. For the OCD record:
- 25 paintings completed while resident (as well as 10 more after I got home, and more to come)
- 21 hikes of ~215 trail miles and ~40,000 feet of elevation gain (lots but half as much as a good through-hiker!)
As I compile a portfolio of images in fulfillment of my residency requirement, I’m struck by several subjects that influenced what I decided to paint – mostly unconsciously:
- iconic postcard vistas, and how many of them have burned trees in the foreground (31%)
Curly Bear Mountain, watercolor on paper, 11″x15″
Robert Fire Dog Hair across Lake McDonald, watercolor on paper, 11″x15″
- Vanishing ice (8% but 43% if you add the next category… and in some sense every mountain view shows the retreat of the glaciers)
Iceberg Lake, watercolor on paper, 30″x11″
Grinnell Glacier Moraines, watercolor on paper, 11″x 30″
- Mountain views (35%), my abiding love of alpine scenery
The Garden Wall, watercolor on paper, 11″x15″
Lake McDonald from Apgar Lookout, watercolor on paper, 15″x22″ (sold)
- Running water (11%), always a challenge for the plein air and studio painter
Baring Creek, watercolor on paper, 11″x15″
McDonald Creek from the west bank, watercolor on paper, 11″x15″
- Tourism nostalgia (14%), the vintage infrastructure of past ways of experiencing the park – the tour buses, boats and lodges
DeSmet Tour Boat, watercolor on paper, 11″x15″
Red Bus #3, watercolor on paper, 15″x11″
I learned so much about the place and its natural history. The trouble with all my residencies is that once I have learned to love a new place, then it becomes a part of me that I have to re-visit.
(I did get more of the work posted on my website, finally!)
suzeart 