First Light at Aspen Corner

This was not the first time I painted this scene but it was the largest painting I was going to attempt. Large format provides so much more ability to be expressive; big strokes, thick paint, and necessity to work fast.

This size canvas was 30" x 60". The landscape orientation allows a painting to feel like you can step into it. This is the largest size canvas that fits in the back of my car with the seats down, anything bigger and I'll have to figure out a different solution.

This scene is only a couple hundred yards from the parking lot and a hundred off the trail. Even though it is so close, it feels like a secret garden. Most mornings the grass is matted down from deer that have bedded. One time I was here, a lone coyote sauntered through the scene in the distance. The only curiosity and onlookers I get are the forest inhabitants. This is exactly what I needed. I am very sheepish when it comes to people stopping and asking me about my art. The night before I went out to paint I would get butterflies thinking about the walk from the car to the spot, hoping I wouldn't run into anyone. When I get to the parking lot, I back in, grab my stuff, and walk head down quickly to my place. Then I can relax. It's just me, my paints, and the forest.  

The first two times I went out for this painting, it was intermittently cloudy. The sun was not coming through like I was hoping. But that was okay, I think it was actually beneficial. It allowed me to focus on the painting structure without getting distracted by the light. When it did poke through, I jumped on it by painting long dramatic shadows and bright swaths of yellow green.

On the third session I was really able to bring out the dramatic nature of the light. I stayed longer than normal and the sun grew high in the sky. The higher it went, the more the ferns started to glow bright white, with their waxy fronds reflecting the sun over them. Even though that light signature and the long shadows of the trees are technically contradictory, I wanted to capture it. I think that brought a surreal nature to the light in the painting. It is a representation of time squashed down into one instance, something that doesn't actually happen in reality. This is a beauty of plein air painting, you are capturing a span of time rather than just one instance which you would get from a picture. 

Over the weeks I did this painting, the light changed, the ferns started to turn, even the aspens started to loose their exuberant green. Rather than fight it, I wanted to embrace that change. My intent is not to mimic nature, or try and copy it, but to communicate the fullness of it. This includes the signature of time. 

As I packed up the last time, a sadness hit me. I felt like I had developed a relationship with the Aspens and was sad to be saying good bye. I thanked the forest for welcoming me and for sharing its beauty.

Throwing on my backpack and walking back to my car, another wave of emotion hit me. A feeling of coming home. I told myself I must keep doing this, no matter what.

Instead of snaking through the forest to get back to my car without being seen, I walked out on the main trail, head held high and proud of what I created. One of my artistic heroes is Georgia O'Keefe. She has a quote that goes, "To create one's own world, in any of the arts, takes courage." This painting has gifted me that courage.