Waterton National Park
Watercolour and pencil on Arches hot pressed, 140lb 7″x 10″
June 13, 2007

Back in June, after completing the MS Bike Tour, we headed over to Waterton National Park for a few days of camping, hiking, sketching and cooking in the open air.

Both of us had managed to catch colds so our days tended toward the more relaxed of the activities. Our hikes were easy and took us along a winding river cut into bright red and orange rocks, painted with the most violently green lichens I’ve ever seen and up gentle mountainsides to alpine lakes, past nodding wildflowers.

Everywhere we looked it was beautiful – not pretty – breathtakingly beautiful.

Waterton is windy, making for exciting skies – huge bruised clouds sweep over the peaks and sunlight constantly changes on the slopes (reminiscent of our trip to Scotland). And then there’s the tent-wrenching gusts, tossing tent-pegs asunder and slashing through windbreak tarps.

I intended to sketch and paint a lot on this trip, but the wind just wouldn’t cooperate and neither would my cold.

Photo by Darren

I found one calm morning to do a small watercolour sketch in the meadow behind our campsite, close to where a cinnamon coloured black bear sow and her two blonde cubs had been the morning before. They appeared shortly after breakfast in a small hollow between two stands of trees. They stood up, looked around, saw us and disappeared down the bank again. We saw them a couple of days later, eating grass on the slope on the other side of the road from the turn-off to the campsite. My photos are quite crummy – it was a bit too dark out and they were a little too far in the distance for my lens (though still close for being bears and all).

Black Bear Sow
Pentax k1000 | Kodak Max 800
larger

Black Bear Sow and Cub (those brown spots between the trees, above the bbq)
Pentax k1000 | Kodak Max 800
larger

While on a trip down in Mexico at the end of April, I had a chance to do some colour studies on location as well as shoot a bunch of reference photos for larger paintings in the future.

Part of the time was spent babysitting time-lapse cameras and it gave me a chance to sit down and do some studies of the view.

I really loved the desert and wished I’d had more time to spend out there painting. Maybe next time.

Playa Palmilla from the Mirador, Los Cabos, BCS, Mexico
Watercolour and pencil on Arches cold pressed, 140lb 7″x 10″
April 13, 2007

This is the view from the Mirador down over Playa Palmilla. We had to sit out of the sight range of the cameras and so this was the view we got.

I’m horribly rusty, but improved slightly as the week went on.

View from the Mirador, Los Cabos, BCS, Mexico
Watercolour and pencil on Arches cold pressed, 140lb 7″x 10″
April 13, 2007

This is the view from the other side of the Mirador. After we sat for a while [me painting and my friend reading] the lizards started to come out from under the cactus – large dark striped grey ones, paler grey ones and small ones with bright blue tails.

Rocks at Playa Palmilla, Los Cabos, BCS, Mexico
Watercolour and pencil on Arches cold pressed, 140lb 7″x 10″
April 13, 2007

Erin on Playa Palmilla Beach, Los Cabos, BCS, Mexico
Watercolour and pencil on Arches cold pressed, 140lb 7″x 10″
April 13, 2007

We had an hour or so to sit at the beach.

I usually work from photo reference when I’m working on assignments due to time/size/space and logistical reasons but nothing can replace working from life. I’m inspired to do more on location sketches this summer, if only to get me out of the studio once and a while.

….