Fat Tire Bikes and the Start of a New Painting!

I love Saturdays! They always mean adventure....or productivity. Sometimes, both, which was the case today!

Whitefish Legacy Partners, a non profit in Whitefish, joined forces with many local businesses to create the Winter Trails Day...a free family fun day to try out snowshoes, cross country skis, or fat tire bikes. They had demos, mini lessons, fire to keep warm, and hot cocoa! I went with a girlfriend to test out some skis and bikes (I already own a couple pairs of snowshoes).

It was SO much fun! I'm really considering getting a pair of skis...partly to make traveling in Glacier quicker. All the places I want to go are quiet a ways a away and snowshoeing does take some time...So I figure if I get some skis, I can get to my destination quicker and then hop on the snowshoes to hike up to the lakes or explore around off the main road (The Going to the Sun road is closed 11 miles in and can only be traveled by foot or ski). What I REALLY want, though, is a Fat Tire Bike. Those things can go anywhere, OMG they are so cool! It was like mountain biking in the snow! Super awesome. I probably wouldn't take it to trails and such very much, if I had one. But I would most definitely use it as my mode of transportation. It'd be nice to bike year round, instead of driving in the winter!

After I got home from my fun adventure, I began to put paint to paper on my newest piece. I have several others in process or drawn and waiting to be started, but I just couldn't contain my desire to start this piece. It will be the largest watercolor I've ever done. It's almost as large as my kitchen table...which is what I'm painting it on!!! My watercolor pallet & water bowl are sitting on my chair so I'm standing/bending while I paint. This is going to be a very physical experience painting this thing.

I transfered my drawing a couple of days ago and have been attempting to make the piece lay flat (as it came off a roll of paper). When finished, the piece will be 30x44. SO exciting. It's of a fisherman holding the fish he just caught. The image is my uncle. I took the reference photo on a backpacking trip in the Beartooth Mountains several years ago. This was at Phantom Lake. While I LOVE the mountains of Glacier and all the adventures you can have, my heart will always belong to the Beartooth Mountains. I have so many fond memories there. There are so many wonderful areas you can explore!

Ahhhh, I'm getting off topic! Back to the painting. So I made some quick progress. Laid in the first washes for the shirt/vest, hat & water. Then I started doing some detail. I was gonna call it quits for the evening (and took the photos to show you) but decided to go paint a little bit longer. So, I should have more photos to post tomorrow or Monday as I KNOW I'm gonna be working on this badboy any chance I get!

You can see how it is practically as large as my kitchen table. This last photo shows the extra details I started putting in

The Edge

Well, I finished it! About two weeks ago (perhaps longer maybe) I did a small 6x6 piece of a mountain goat standing on the edge of a drop off. I finished the full size painting Friday night. The full size painting is a sheet of watercolor paper, 22x30. Looking at them side by side, I see things I like about both pieces. While I love the horizontal format of the full size piece, the square size of the study seems more intimate. Both give a feeling of being on the edge of a cliff with a large mountain behind in their own unique way.

I figured I should share the inspiration for this piece. I went on a hike in Glacier and the end of last summer called Siyeh Pass. It's an 8 1/2 mile hike that loops around from one part of Going to the Sun hwy to another part. You end up gaining 2135 ft in elevation and are at 7911 at the highest point on the hike. There was a lot of smoke in the air from forest fires within several hours of the location (I think there were 4 that smoke was being blown from) but it created a really neat look. Hope you enjoy the picture that inspired this piece as well as some others I took from the hike.

My friends, at the highest point and the picture that inspired the painting.

I'm at the top. Yup, this is me!

Mmmmmmmm, Huckleberries. One of the best things about hiking in the mountains. Such a delicious treat on a hot hike

so that point, straight above my friends head (to the left of the 'peak'), that is pretty where I was in that picture with my arms stretched out, except I was on the east side, not the west side shown in this pic