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.

6 AM Return

Here is the final painting from the Homer trip. Looking over these last 4 paintings, you can see that the landscape involved a fair amount of wet ground. I really loved those patterns in the mud flats! When the fishing boat came by, heading back to harbor in the early morning light, it inspired one short and one long stroke of the brush, and the painting was done. That was a fun moment!

10" x 8" oil on linen panel

SOLD

Homer Wetlands

The is the 3rd Homer landscape from my trip there in June.

Since the last time I posted I have been up to the Arctic Ocean and into the backwoods of Talkeetna. More paintings from those places to be posted later!

This view looks out at Kachemak Bay from the Alaska Islands and Oceans Visitor Center in Homer. There are paths through the trees that go down into the lowland area. It is all part of a larger wildlife refuge, where one finds lots of birds, plants, and ecosystems to explore. I was there in the very early morning, enjoying the peaceful and soft light on the marsh.

9" x 12" oil on linen panel

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