Painting Inspiration | Crater Lake | Colorado
There is so much that I love about hiking. I love the physical aspect of it, of using just my feet to travel miles to a destination. I love the chance to have conversations with Vasya without the distraction of phones, television, or whatever work stresses are nagging at either of us. I also love the long stretches of silence where we are both just in our own heads. I spend a lot of time thinking on hikes. Thinking about work. Thinking about my relationships. Thinking about art. Many of my creative ideas come when I am hiking and enjoying the outdoors. I think about what blogs I might write, what my next painting projects will be, and whether anything I am seeing around me would make a good reference photo.
Moose hanging out in a meadow near Monarch Lake, Granby.
Recently, Vasya and I chose a more ambitious hike than our norm this summer: Monarch Lake to Crater Lake in Granby, Colorado. Hiking project has it clocked as a 15 mile out and back hike, though our gps put us closer to 18 miles when all was said and done. A bit long for our typical day hike, but we were both motivated enough to get up at 3:45am to make the 2 hour drive to start hiking a little after sunrise. The trail was relatively quiet first thing in the morning and we mainly encountered trail runners and backpackers on their way out after a night spent by the lake. We were even lucky enough to see a pair of moose first thing in the morning.
Aesthetically it was everything you could want in a hike and I took lots of pictures in hopes of having something inspiring enough to paint. Here are some of my favorites and my thoughts on how I might take them from photo to painting.
One of our hopes for the hike was that we would find things to eat. We are in the midst of chanterelle and bolete mushroom season and we were hoping to have some luck finding at least some mushrooms since we would be at elevations of 9,000 - 10,000 feet. We found lots of things to snack on while we hiked including blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and lucky for us some mushrooms!
Chanterelle mushrooms
Wild strawberries
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Wildflowers
I love to take photographs of these little details. While my primary focus is landscapes and the occasional still life or house portrait, I still have this half formed idea of elements that might be combined into a pattern or composition, elements such as mushrooms and wildflowers or interesting textures. I’m not sure exactly how these reference photos will show up in my work, but they still feel important.
Mushroom, unidentified
Creek crossing, Crater Lake Trail, Indian Peaks Wilderness
I’m always amazed by the engineering of some hiking trails, from the switchback paths seemingly carved out of the side of a hill to bridges to cross small streams or larger waterfalls. These large walking stones at a river crossing captured my attention and I love the angle of this photo that is more eye level with the path.
Alpine meadow along Crater Lake Trail, Indian Peaks Wilderness
You cannot go wrong with an alpine meadow. If I paint this, I think I would emphasize the tree line and add in lots of wild flowers. If you have been following me for a little bit now, you know I paint a lot of landscapes. Picking a reference photo from mountain hikes can be challenging because they are just so vast. Sometimes there is too much captured in a photograph and I struggle with how to simplify the overall composition (I’m remembering my Painting Ugly post). Sometimes something really simple or small from a hike will capture my attention and while the photo might not seem especially interesting, I have ideas for how the painted version could capture the simplicity of being outside.
Crater Lake with view of Lone Eagle Peak in the background, Indian Peaks Wilderness
I love alpine lakes. Seriously though, what is not to love? My favorite part of this photograph is Lone Eagle Peak in the background. I think the challenge would be to make the mountain pop in the background while not losing the beauty of the lake.
Which photo do you like best?