Mountain Sketches
Documenting more than just the physical environment, each painting or drawing I create is an invitation to explore how simple line, shape, and color combinations can contain the multitude of feelings evoked by our environment, honoring the intersections of our inner and outer landscapes.
Benson Pass
In 2017 I hiked 100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail north from Tuolumne Meadows, with one of my best friends in the world. I brought a tiny field notebook you’ll see in these pictures (and 12 colors).
During long expeditions like this, we don’t stop often enough to take in the accomplishments of each pass or mile, but on this day, the light made us pause and take deeper breaths. It was also a perfect spot for lunch! I pulled out my notebook and started the sketch. I snapped a photo with my phone and was able to go back and add some color once we landed for the night.
Final Work
Benson Pass, on location
Initial Sketch
Look Up
A single page in my sketchbook couldn’t capture the full movement of the sky that day in Alaska. After 10 days in a remote part of the Brooks Range, I was able to see more clearly how to bring together the colors and line work that defined the mountain ranges with the directions the clouds and light were pulling my attention upwards. Look Up was all I wanted to do all day long, so I felt like the sign had to be drawn there in this painting.
Treasure Lakes
Often it’s easy to draw or paint a clearly defined horizon in the distance, but at this spot, I was caught by the dramatic line of rocks dividing the series of lakes and my attention.
I found it a fun challenge to expand how I usually compose a painting. This sketch was done in black and white at the lakes within 15 minutes. The color was added later over a series of 3 sittings to get the translucent depth in the blues.
Summit Lake
This was the summer I pushed myself to experiment in black and white more. I also noticed that if I just carried a pen or pencil, I might sketch more during the day and I was able to back and add more detail and color after a trip, using reference photos. Practicing in this way allows me to move past trying to represent the mountain or the place perfectly, but instead capture what made me pause. What I perhaps saw as the essence of that particular peak, tree, or series of lines in the land.