Ptarmigan Lake Hike

Made my first hike up the Ptarmigan Lake Trail by Cottonwood Pass, outside the town of Buena Vista. The trail was about 3.5 miles if I remember right. Took about an hour to get there. I was thrilled when I arrived at the the first lake on the trail. I took almost 200 photos!

I had trouble deciding what I wanted to paint because there was so many great options. I decided on doing a simple composition shown in the photo below.




One of the great views above the lake.




Here's me trying to cram all that scenery into a small 8x10



...and here's the painting. I'll be returning to this spot soon to paint some more views of this spot

Alpine Patterns
Oil 8x10

Majestic Alpine Glow

The paintings below are of a view of Mt Princeton early in the morning above the valley I live in. The smaller one is the one I did outdoors on location. I camped out at this spot in order to get up at 5am to capture this light on the mountains. It doesn't last for long, the plein air painting took about 20-25 min to complete.

I then used a combination of photos and the plein air piece to complete the larger painting. I decided to paint it when the light is just beginning to hit the top of the mountain when the colors are the most saturated.



Oil - 18x24



Oil 6x8

Shining Through

Shining Through
Oil 16" x 20"

Experimenting with color some more....

Alpine Sundown

Alpine Sundown
Oil 8x10