High Summer Art Escape

August 2024

I’m just back from a near-week in a far place, I am ready to go again. A stack of paintings, a sense of freedom, practice, stability, direction . . . well-fed, and wonderful friends I may never see again.

On the first, very hot day we did a nature walk-and-talk through the red fir/mixed conifer forest, stopping to check out the name tags on many alpine plants. I was mildly alarmed by a huge pyrocumulus cloud off to the north, which turned out to be above the nearby Gold Complex fire, ignited by lightening. On day two we woke up to dense smoke, and N95 masks were handed out at breakfast. Several people left camp; it was pretty unnerving. News was hard to come by, not only because we were off grid, but the enormous Park Fire, still raging as I write, was just taking off. No problem for us, though, because we headed out to hike to a nearby lake, Sand Pond, to paint, swim, eat lunch, and paint again. On our return the smoke was much abated, and the wind had shifted, though the fire appeared to be 0% contained for the first two days. It was Taco Tuesday, and after I snarfed my meal I went back to the classroom to fill several sheets of paper with washes of ink and color, and then to bed. The moon was orange that night.

The next day we hiked from Gold Lake to Big Bear Lake, to paint, swim, eat lunch, and paint some more. I did a picky version, then after lunch I did some quick studies of the same scene that I like better. A lesson! Study first, then paint. I was worn out from the excitement and tucked in early.

Some evenings we would paint with acrylics, inks, on canvas, with stencils and materials we gathered. Fire was a constant theme, some people did deep, moving studies of the devastation.

Up at Yuba Pass we hiked through a forest decimated by drought and pine bark beetles, so extreme that the campground had been closed due to falling trees. We hiked to the ridge, where high winds and falling limbs had us turn and leave before we had a chance to get settled. The sad sight was cheered by the crops of young and baby trees, hopefully adapting to the severe conditions.

The last day we took a hike to Grassy Lake, and I painted the view from where I sat near a dry creek bed. A side trip took us to beautiful Red Fir Trail, where we saw a pair of Goshawks overhead.

I stayed an extra day, one more night with Westy in the quiet forest. Heading home Saturday morning after some goodbyes, and back into the traffic, with a pile of paintings and some new ideas, I was happy to see my plum tree still full of fruit.

This week I have been back at my sketchbooks, filling pages with owls and birds and copying ideas from screenshots of painters on Youtube. More about that in coming episodes. Also this week I pulled out my flat files and reorganize them: ancient archives, a portfolio of 14×17 photos and large prints, calligraphy, watercolors. It makes sense, for now.

Meanwhile, I’m heading up to the River tomorrow for a couple of days, hope to continue painting there.