Idle Minutes

This scene is from a trip we took a few years back to Rocky Mountain National Park. I’ve posted a couple of other paintings from there. I’ll probably do more. Practically anywhere you look there you’ll find subject matter.

This particular stream is on a hike up to Emerald Lake and you can go even further if you have the wind. The big boulders in streams like this always amaze me. These aren’t so big but there are some in the Tallulah River up in North Georgia that are bigger than that Cadillac Escalade that was tailing you today. One I’m familiar with would make a nice sized two room cabin if it were hollow.

That’s a good project. Hike to “The Boulder” and place “The Wife” in the stream beside it and sketch it for reference to size. Perhaps I’ll do that later this year.

For now, we’re off to Seattle and Victoria for a four day vacation (flights were on sale and cheap from Atlanta). I’m going to sketch a lot. “Sketch or Bust” is my motto on this trip.

I’ll post the results upon my return.

BTW, posts have been sparse this month and for that I apologize. I’ll make up for it when I return. Sometimes life gets a bit hectic as I’m sure you all know.

This Painting was Sold on ebay

My wife and I have been to RMNP two times. We’ll go again no doubt. It’s that kind of place. It’s not elbow to elbow with crowds like many of the parks.

There are lots of visitors mind you, but they more or less spread out. The City of Estes Park is right on the front door step of RMNP. If you see crowds, it will be in town where all the shopping boutiques are located. Estes Park is charming.

RMNP is about wildlife and beauty. Elk herds congregate in September-October and the bulls can be heard “bugling” their rutting calls from just before dusk to dawn. It’s an eerie sound really. Especially because you can hear them for quite some distance through the mountains. Once you’ve heard the call, in the dark of the night, you never forget it.

The elk, their calls, and their harems are striking. The elk is a handsome and majestic creature. When one witnesses a large bull bugling in the cool morning air, the jet of steamy breath leaving his mouth and nostrils at the end of his outstretched head, a sense of strength and independence comes upon you. You know that he owns that turf at that moment.

And surrounding that strength and independence is wild, yet tranquil, beauty. High mountains, rolling meadows, contrasts of dark forest against golden grass. It’s a painter’s paradise.

This little painting is the first in a series I’m going to do. It’s a lone, windswept, ponderosa pine at the edge of a meadow…just as the earth begins to incline upward to the higher elevations. Smaller specimens dot the hill side and far in the distance a nice stand exists.

I suspect this one survived a fire. The youngsters in its shadow look up to it, as if for inspiration.

Much like the elk, it’s a symbol of strength and independence. When I saw it, I knew it owned that turf for the moment.