Denali Plein Air Trip Part 6, McKinley in Autumn 2

On the last glorious sunny day I hiked back down the McKinley Bar trail, hoping the frost had not entirely wiped out the colors we saw on our rainy day hike. No such luck, the trees were going brown, though there was still color in the low vegetation.


While I was working, two young men from Fairbanks/North Pole, Chad Odom and Diego Servan, hiked down the trail and stopped to talk and take pictures. Many thanks to Chad Odom for these photos of me and my set up.


They were interested in how I set out the paints on the palette. I explained my strings of color, arranged by hue, value, and chroma (for more on strings, see my post of 8/18/10.) . These were colors I premixed and tubed for the trip. You can see some reds and yellows from the Munsell soils book, and some blues and greens from the Munsell student book. It sure is easier to squeeze colors from a tube than trying to mix them on the palette while fighting off bugs!


As I worked on the painting, it occurred to me that I was in danger of falling into heavy cliche territory: big mountain, autumn colors, reflecting pool, perfect, right? Or maybe not, maybe too much like a cheap postcard????

Luckily, there was a broken up tree just to my right, which relieved a bit of the perfection. Those familiar with paintings of McKinley will say, yes, but the mountain with dead tree in foreground is also a cliche. Point taken, but my tree is even more broken up than most, so I think it does the job.


Here is an oil sketch, McKinley Bar Trail Reflection, by Mary Bee Kaufman, painted at a nearby location, but before the colors were completely gone. I like how the trees, with their variety, shadows, and reflections, create visual interest, and how the soft edges portray the indistinct boundaries of the marsh stream. The whole effect is light and delicate.

This is the final chapter of our plein air trip to Denali National Park. Look for a link to Chad Odom's blog here soon. He is about to start some world travel, and will be posting more of his excellent photos on his blog as he goes.

McKinley in Autumn 2 is oil on linen panel, 10" x 12"

To purchase, contact me at info@carollambertarts.com

Denali Plein Air Trip Part 4, McKinley in Autumn 1

When the mountain comes out, it's compelling. I mean, you can't not look at it, and if you are a painter, there is definitely a pull.

I recall reading that McKinley rises 18,000 feet out of the plain, from base to top 8000 feet higher than Everest. (Everest is on a higher base.) On some clear days I can see the mountain from the end of my street in Anchorage, across hundreds of miles. However, many visitors never see the mountain, it is so often shrouded in clouds.

So we felt pretty lucky to have conditions like these.

As soon as I set up my easel and had a preliminary sketch, I pulled out my Munsell books and made color notes. My notes helped me maintain control of my values and chroma, essential for painting atmospheric differences across a view of about 30 miles.

The regularity of nature comes through in the value notes. The mountain in light was obviously the highest value, 10 if not 10+; in shadow it was value 8; the lower mountains, 7-8 in light, 7 in shadow; the middle ground grassland, 6 in light, 5 in shadow. Near ground grasses, which were more chromatic, and had more contrast, were value 7 in light, 3-4 in shadow. By continually returning to my notes, I stayed out of trouble.

Here is a little color study Mary Bee did on the same day, of the mountain, seen from above Wonder Lake. She calls it Wonder Lake View. I like how she created an ethereal feeling of space, distance, light, and the slight chill of autumn, by using various low chroma, high value reds and blues.

McKinley in Autumn 1 is 8" x 16" oil on linen panel

To purchase, contact me at info@carollambertarts.com

Fireweed in Autumn

These fireweed, gone to seed, were just a few feet from our tent. I admired them every time I walked past, so on our fifth day of painting in Denali National Park, I set up the easel and got to work. I thought for once I would not have the big mountain in my painting, but it got in somehow, just faintly in the background.


Here is a photo of the mountain a few hours later, flushed with alpenglow as the setting sun slanted through the atmosphere. This phenomenon comes on quickly, and the peak of color lasts less than 5 minutes, then twilight sets in. Hard to paint that fast.


Here's the rest of our view that night, the Alaska Range stretching out before us.

9" x 12" oil on linen panel

To purchase, contact me at info@carollambertarts.com
$325 plus shipping, unframed

Wonder Lake, September Morning

On our fourth painting day in Denali National Park, we rode the bus to this spot on the north side of Wonder Lake, at the opposite end from the campground. Wonder Lake provides some great reflections of the mountain.


Mary Bee was amused by how carried away I get with the brushes, so she took this photo. Interesting angles! It says everything about how intense this experience was for me.


Mary Bee, looking very focused as well.


Paul hiked along the lakeshore to join us an hour or so into our painting session, and did some sketching, too! This photo by Mary Bee is one of my all time favorite shots of Paul. He really looks like he belongs in that landscape, which he most definitely does!

10" x 8" oil on linen panel

To purchase, contact me at info@carollambertarts.com
$240 plus shipping, unframed

McKinley, Clear Morning

The view from our campsite just got better and better. We spent the entire second day at Wonder Lake, Mary Bee and Paul took a break to hike and had fun watching moose. After so many weeks getting ready for this trip, it was good to relax in the sun.



In addition to doing her own paintings, Mary Bee, as usual, took outstanding photos. There were quite a few yellow things!


After painting, lunch alfresco.

Paul was our food manager, and he did a great job. What a pleasure to have a hot meal when needed, plenty of variety, and good snacks to take along on day excursions. Next time, he says, he wants an assistant!


8" x 16" oil on linen panel

To purchase, contact me at info@carollambertarts.com

McKinley, Afternoon Haze

This third (!) painting from our first painting day shows you our view from the picnic table at our campsite at Wonder Lake. Even though I was kind of bushed after our work at the Eilson Visitor Center, I just had to do this one too. The clouds had dissipated, the whole mountain was out, and I was warm and comfortable, so why not?

The little white dots just above my signature are the footprints of a gray jay that visited when I had several paintings laid out on the table. He hopped from one to the other, left lots of little footprints. I got most of them repaired, but saved a few for souvenirs.

As always, Mary Bee took the best photo!


8" x 16" oil on linen panel

To purchase, contact me at info@carollambertarts.com
$385 plus shipping, unframed

Windswept McKinley

After lunch on our first painting day, the mountain came out intermittently, with blustery wind at our level and sweeping clouds up there at 20,000 feet. I pulled out my biggest panel to capture this biggest mountain. I had to work quickly, while it was still in view, and here is the rather dramatic result.

That's the Thoroughfare River at the foot of the mountain, below the tundra-covered glacier.

Mary Bee Kaufman, my painting partner, took the photo of me, and I used her camera to photograph her. It's great to have a really good photographer along, I would have many fewer photos but for Mary Bee!

Yes, I look like a crazy woman with all those layers, but I was glad to have them!

Mary Bee warming up in that afternoon sun.


16" x 20" oil on linen panel

To purchase, contact me at info@carollambertarts.com
$960 plus shipping, unframed

McKinley From The Ridge

I painted this one on July 3 from a location about 50 miles as the crow flies from the big mountain. We were visiting friends who have a great cabin outside of Talkeetna. When the mountain is "out" (that is, not creating it's own little cloudy weather system) this is their view! It's a challenge to paint the mountain from this location because there are few reference points by which to indicate its impressive size. It towers over the landscape. You see it here with a foreground of about a million trees.

The artist most associated with Mt McKinley is Sidney Laurence, who was actively painting the Alaska landscape in the first decades of the 20th century. His views of McKinley solve in various ways the problem of how to suggest its monumental scale. He is known to have worked near the Tokositna River, about due south of the mountain, and not too far from my location for this painting (I am to the Southeast). Here is a link to one of his paintings of the mountain with the Tokositna River in the foreground. More details on his life and images of his paintings can be found here.

This painting is SOLD.